May 28
Waking to a softly tooting Whiskered Screech-Owl, we broke camp, drove half the distance back to Onion Saddle and were searching for the Slate-throated Redstart by 6:30. In less than 10 minutes, Liz located the bird in thick brush on the uphill slope. Good views were had as it foraged on both sides of the road though it kept moving and would often get out of range. We noticed it was keeping company with a Painted Redstart. Focused on this very rare bird, we were ignoring the nearby Red-faced Warbler, Yellow-eyed Juncos, and others. More than 90 minutes passed before we left but by then, other birders had joined us and all were getting their own lifer looks and probably better pictures.
At Onion Saddle, we turned towards Barfoot and Rustler Parks, gaining a bit more altitude and parked near a fork in the road at 8200 feet (2500M). Following bird sounds, we first walked through a sparse evergreen forest to a knoll about 100 feet higher (30M), seeing good quality high elevation species. First pair of Mexican Chickadees, then the Audubon’s race of a Yellow-rumped Warbler, many Yellow-eyed Juncos, Plumbeous and Warbling Vireos, Northern Flicker’s and several bright Western Tanagers. The elevation was to be our highest and the view was to be the longest. A Red-tailed Hawk rode the strong winds at eye level and Common Ravens called around us. We retraced our steps and walked the level road in the comfortably cool air towards Rustler Park, passing just a few campers. There were Yellow-eyed Juncos, House Wrens, Plumbeous Vireos and Spotted Towhees but also a Hairy Woodpecker, Brown Creepers, Stellar’s Jays and one Pygmy Nuthatch buried in the needles of a slender pine. One particular bird I’d hoped to see eventually called somewhere in the longleaf pine trees and we tracked the sound to a pair of Olive Warblers. This was only our second sighting, the first being brief and ten years ago. Nothing easy about getting any photos of these birds but we spent some time doing our best, ending our three hours of birding with a good list.
After lunch, we made the long and tedious journey down to the Idlewild Campground, picked out an open campsite to spend our next two nights. While walking with birders at the San Pedro House, we were told to seek out Dave Jasper and his new house just outside Portal. Our directions were perfect and his yard was nearly so. We caught Dave just as he was leaving with his mountain bike. He graciously stopped for a short bit of conversation and pointed out an overhead Zone-tailed Hawk before we stepped into his fenced yard. Within an hour we had 26 species, adding, besides the Hawk, Inca Dove, Bullock’s Oriole and Barn Swallow to our trip list. Activity was constant with many types of feeders and seed on the ground.
The day continued with a trip to the Portal store for ice cream, (satisfying my addiction), and a five mile drive to the Southwestern Research Station (
http://www.amnh.org/our-research/southwestern-research-station/about/). The hummingbird feeders here are said to be dependable for the uncommon Blue-throated Hummingbird, which turned out to be no rumor. Rivoli’s, Black-chinned and Broad-tailed came for the sugar water as well.
Back at our campsite, at the foot of a boulder strewn slope, food cooked and bins cleaned, we crashed to the sound of a single Elf Owl.
I want to add here a mildly troublesome cell phone oddity. Being in such close proximity to New Mexico, our phones would sometimes be routed to a tower in that state instead of one in Arizona. The problem was in that fact that Arizona, unlike New Mexico, did not observe daylight savings time, and often my phone would be an hour different than Liz’s. We used the car clock whenever confusion resulted.