BIRDS AND NATURE
IN SOUTHEAST ARIZONA

Southeast Arizona is perhaps the most exciting birdwatching destination in North America. Our southwestern deserts have a distinctive avifauna. Rising above the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts in southeast Arizona are the cool "Mexican Mountains," isolated ranges covered in oaks, pines, and firs. These beautiful ranges (the Santa Ritas, Chiricahuas, and Huachucas) are biologically similar to the Sierra Madre to the south, and many Mexican species reach their northern limit here. Typical western forest birds also occur in these mountains; the result is a remarkably high bird diversity in a small area. By mid-May all the regional specialties have returned and are in full song, yet temperatures are not so high as to make the desert uncomfortable.

As we search for birds we'll also have opportunities to photograph flowers and cacti, and to see mammals and reptiles distinctive to the region. We will visit well known sites such as The Nature Conservancy's Sonoita Creek and Ramsey Canyon (hummingbirds), the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Patagonia, and Cave Creek Canyon. Some of the regional specialties include Zone-tailed, Gray and Common Black Hawks, the Elegant Trogon, Elf, Whiskered and Spotted Owls, over ten possible hummingbirds, Strickland's, Gila and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Sulphur-bellied and Buff-breasted Flycatchers, Mexican Chickadee, Crissal and Curve-billed Thrashers, Red-faced, Grace's, Virginia's, Lucy's and Olive Warblers, Painted Redstart, Abert's and Canyon Towhees, and Yellow-eyed Junco among many others, which are detailed in the itinerary that follows. In addition to seeing birds, there will be time for photography, plant identification, and discussions of the region's ecology.

May 11-19, 2012
May 10-18, 2013

GROUND COST: $2150

LEADER: Mark Smith

LIMIT: 9