Monday, June 11, 2007
Turquoise Valley Golf & RV Resort, Naco, AZ - May 14-20
The actual RV parking area here is basically an asphalt parking lot, and as such leaves something to be desired. But its proximity to some of Arizona's hottest birding spots, the lovely golf course right across the street, and the fact that it is one of the friendliest parks we have ever stayed guarantee our return. This is the only Passport America (half price) park we know of that lets you also take half off of the weekly rate. We stayed a full week for only $50 plus the cost of electricity. There is also a restaurant at the golf course that is quite reasonably priced and quite good.
Our main reason for visiting Naco was birding. The Huachuca Mtns sit at the intersection of the Sierra Madre of Mexico, the Rocky Mtns, and the Sonoran & Chihuahuan deserts. They are a "sky island" harboring rare species & communities of plants & animals. The orientation & high walls of the four major canyons in the Huachucas create a moist, cool environment unusual in the desert southwest. The Nature Conservancy owns a preserve in Ramsey Canyon, the most well-known of the four canyons, and we decided to start our adventures there, in part because of the preserves renown, and also because the $5 admission is good for a week, so if the other areas turned out to be duds, we could freely return to Ramsey. Our day at Ramsey Canyon got off to an "interesting" start -- as we just started walking up the path, we were informed that Homeland Security was coming the other way escorting out a group of illegal entrants, which turned out to be about 2 dozen young, healthy-looking Hispanics. After that, we spent most of the day birding (they had to kick us out at closing), but couldn't help thinking of the contrast in social situations brought on by purely random chance. Lifers seen that day were sulphur-bellied flycatcher & two hummingbirds: magnificent & blue-throated. We also got a strong recommendation to visit the Ash Canyon B&B.
The next day we visited Coronado Natl Monument, which commemorates the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola. These cities were said to be made of gold, so of course they wanted to find them and steal the gold! To make a quite long story short, he never found anything but stone-masonry pueblos and grass-house villages, but after traveling as far as Kansas and back, did manage to kill a large number of Indians outright and quite a few more through disease after forcing them to abandon several pueblos. The main road through the monument was closed due to fire.
The recommendation of Ash Canyon B&B was well-deserved. Run by Mary Jo Ballator, there are two separate areas with bird feeders, one devoted to hummingbirds. This is true "arm-chair" birdwatching -- there's a good number of lawn chairs set around, and Mary Jo readily identifies any questionable species. We saw two lifers: whiskered screech-owl & Lucifer hummingbird. Unfortunately, we only saw female Lucifers, but they were memorable. Her second area is a "back-yard" bird area, with lots of shade, chairs and many different types of feeders. You could really get a bird's eye view of these visitors!
Mary Jo told us about a reliable elf owl (another lifer) at Battiste's B&B in Miller Canyon. Show up at 7pm, pull up a chair, and wait for the owl to pop out of its nest in a hole in a phone pole. The owl made its initial appearance at 7:20, peering around to check out the commotion (there were only 5 or 6 of us), then ducking back in after a couple of minutes. Two minutes later it repeated the whole performance. On its third appearance, it looked like another repeat performance, but suddenly hopped up on the edge of the hole a flew away. I have to tell you, that little owl was ADORABLE.
Another day we went to Beatty's Orchard B&B in Carr Canyon to see the white-eared hummingbird (lifer). For some reason, this is the only area where it hangs out, which is unfortunate, since this place really left a bad taste in my mouth. All of the B&Bs cater to birders, and all have lots of hummingbird feeders, and all have signs requesting a visitor donation, but it's always voluntary, except Beatty's. He has signs saying MUST PAY, PAY HERE, PAY NOW, etc. Added to that, the owner "greets" you and tries to sell his homegrown fruits and vegetables. We did get numerous good looks at the white-eared, which was very cute.
Twice we went to Bisbee, an old mining town now mostly populated with aging beatniks & hippies. Saturday was the Farmers' Market, which was a lot of fun just walking around & chatting with the merchants. There was a guitar duo providing entertainment along with a woman dancing to the music with a big rainbow hula hoop. Doug unfortunately did not have the camera, proving yet again that he should always take it with, no matter how trivial-seeming the trip.
Our last day Doug played golf while Willie rode along, enjoying the fresh air & being off her feet. Because it was a Sunday, we were paired up with three other guys, who turned out to be quite entertaining. One was an excellent golfer but quite friendly about it. The course is beautiful with "The Rattler", a "famous" par-6 hole, & lots of interesting birds to watch.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 6:21 PM 
