MADERA CANYON, ARIZONA

It is 9:30 am Thursday morning and the bacon is cooking in the kitchen. I just got done entering my trip lists into e-Bird and am ready to lay it on ya'.

47 new species for the year. 44 of them lifers! There is more to this trip than just the list, so let me tell you the story.

Hold on, I think the bacon is ready. Enough for a BLT!

O.K., Liam(6) and I did some research and found that it only cost $10 a night to camp in Madera Canyon, AZ. That seemed quite a bargain compared to the $100 or so to stay in one of the Madera Canyon B&B's. Maybe this picture is one of the reasons why? Signs like these were everywhere we went and Border Patrol was all over the place too.

Liam - Miller Canyon, AZ

These signs are on Madera Canyon Rd. as well. Madera Canyon Road is the only road into and out of Madera Canyon where we were camping.

When we first arrived in Tucson on Sunday the 11th we stopped at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum http://www.desertmuseum.org/ which is like a zoo of sorts, mostly outside, in the Saguaro Natl' park just west of Tucson. This is where we saw our first bird the Cactus Wren. They were all over the place nesting.

Cactus Wren - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

It was 100 degrees and we were pouring water on our heads and down our throats but were having a good time. We saw a tarantula and lizards running wild and cool things including an Elf Owl & Calliope in captivity. The wrens were wild.

Liam above and Calliope Hummingbird - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Now on to the first night in the canyon full of rattlesnakes, drug smugglers and UDA's! When we first got into Madera Canyon we saw some people pulled off on the side of the road birding before you got up all the way, so we stopped to see what they were seeing and talk to them. It had an exciting we are all here birding feel like Pelee. They pointed out some Varied Buntings and told us about the hummingbird feeders at the b&b's up the road. As it turns out the people were part of a weekend birding tour on their way out and the canyon would become quite devoid of nature lovers after dark that Sunday night in Southeast AZ. We traveled up the road until we saw the first stop which was the Santa Rita Lodge http://www.maderakubo.com/ hummingbird & seed feeders. We stopped for about 20 minutes and watched hummingbirds and tons of Lesser Goldfinch. Liam heard and then went and found our first Acorn Woodpecker in a nearby tree! Next we rolled up the road a bit to Madera Kubo B&B http://www.maderakubo.com/ to see more hummingbirds. We did see more hummers and Liam again with the sharp eyes spotted another first in a Hooded Oriole. We ran into a nice woman that we had seen earlier and she told us again where the Elegant Trogon had been up Old Mount Baldy Trail earlier in the day so we decided to head up there before dark and see if we could get lucky. We didn't see the trogon but saw plenty of Painted Redstarts and heard but did not see birds that sounded like squeaky toys. The sun was starting to go down around 7pm so we decided to head to the campsite. On the way out Liam was very excited to see a heard of turkeys cross our paths. We got done setting up camp at dark around 7:45 and we hadn't had dinner yet so I decided to drive into town to get some food. It was 11:00 pm back home and Liam was getting tired. It was about 14 miles down out of the canyon and as we began driving away from the campsite a loud whooshing sound came from outside. I got out to find the right rear tire was leaking. Oh crap! I hoped we could make it down out of the canyon back to civilization before the tire went flat but at mile marker 7 we were flat and stranded in the middle of the road with no pull off. No worry, we were only in the pitch black in the middle of drug smuggling country. Luckily we had phone coverage and called Enterprise for roadside assistance. They sent someone out and tried to call the police for us but couldn't get a local police station and told us to call 911. Liam fell asleep while I freaked out waiting to be drug smuggled in the darkness. While waiting I took a pic of this tarantula crossing the road.Big honkin' Tarantula - Madera Canyon, AZ

Why didn't I change the tire myself? I had no safe place to jack the car up and had Liam with me who I didn't want standing out in the desert with me in the pitch black to be smuggled. I couldn't take it after about 30 min and called 911. A super nice Pima Co. Sheriff came out and waited for the wrecker with us who showed up shortly after and jacked and fixed the wheel while Liam slept through everything in the car. I felt a bit silly for calling the sheriff but he said they had a plane up tracking some UDA's (undocumented aliens) at the moment and that it was best that we did call. We were back under way in about an hour and I was breathing again.

The first night in the tent went pretty good and I felt safe enough due to a group of nice camper neighbours. The stars were amazing at about 3am! At about 7:30 am we were on the road to try for the Elegant Trogon again. I will have to finish this later. e2