We found excellent birding and camping in Arizona
- Bruce Glick: Gone Birding
- February 15, 2019
- 1266
After an excellent nine days at Patagonia Lake State Park, we headed back to Tucson. However, when we arrived, our regular camping destination was full. We were told to come back in the morning and maybe there would be a place. Instead, we headed for Organ Pipe National Monument.
The 150-mile drive was uneventful, and we arrived at the campground late in the afternoon. The park and campground are located just 5 miles from the Mexican border. Many people drive this route in order to cross the border and drive to Puerto Penasco, better known as Rocky Point. Our plans were to stay at Organ Pipe for five days and then go back to Patagonia Lake.
The park is named for the unique organ pipe cactus. It looks superficially like a saguaro cactus, the common tall cactus around Tucson, which also is close to the border. An organ pipe cactus has a clump of arms, and one can imagine that it resembles the pipes of a very large organ. Organ pipe cactus just barely reach the United States, and we didn’t see them anywhere except in the park.
There are many trails and a few roads in the park, and we tried to see as much as possible in our five days. Our favorite trip was a 21-mile drive that led up into the hills and close to the mountains.
The road was gravel but passable for cars and campers up to 25 feet in length. Along the way we stopped at Arch Canyon to hike the trail toward a large natural arch. The birding was good along this trail. We heard canyon wrens and rock wrens as well as lots of phainopeplas and several mockingbirds. At one point a flock of sparrows and juncos got our attention. Along with lots of white-crowned sparrows and juncos, there was at least one white-throated sparrow, a rare bird for the park.
The second stop was at Estes Canyon. Here, a 4-mile circular trail led up over a steep ridge and down into the canyon, eventually getting us back to the parking lot. Birds were scarce, and although I searched the steep canyon walls for peregrine falcons, none were to be found. The echoing song of a canyon wren was reward enough.
Near the campground, we found an ash-throated flycatcher, the only one we have seen in Southern Arizona so far. Ruby-crowned kinglets, verdin and yellow-rumped warblers were common while a Costa’s hummingbird and several Gambel’s quail visited our campsite. Common ravens patrolled the campground, looking for any food left out in the open.
The day that we left Organ Pipe, we decided to make a concerted effort to find a crested caracara on the way back to Tucson. On the way out we hadn’t seen any, even though I remembered seeing several the last time we were here.
Sure enough, as we headed east, a striking caracara flew across the road in front of us. For the next 120 miles there were no more, but we did see 18 red-tailed hawks, four kestrels, 12 ravens and six black vultures.
In Tucson we filled up with gas, ate at Five Guys, bought groceries and stopped at a laundromat before driving back to Patagonia Lake State Park. This park is my favorite place in Arizona this time of year, and we arrived just in time to see another beautiful sunset. I heard that some good birds showed up while we were gone. More about that next time.
Good birding.
Email Bruce Glick at bglick2@gmail.com or call 330-317-7798.