It was time to disconnect for a bit.
Actually, it was well past time. I’m sure I’m not the only who’s feeling exhausted by the last six months. (okay, 6 years but who’s counting?) There are few places better to get away from it for a little while than Southeast Arizona, and that’s what I did.
My friend and I signed up for the Earthwatch trip Following Forest Owls for a third time. (We had previously taken part in 2018 and 2019, and signed up for 2020 but...) If you’re not familiar with Earthwatch, they match researchers with volunteers to work on their projects; the organization takes care of logistics for the volunteers, and also gives roughly half of the trip fee to the project. You work on the project each day, but also have downtime to explore your location or just chill out. The owl project takes place in two states, Utah and Arizona; we went to Arizona and gave ourselves a few days around the southeast corner of the state before the group met up.
One great thing about traveling with Earthwatch is that it self-selects for interesting people. If racing from hotspot to hotspot to maximize species count is not your ideal birding, Earthwatch is for you. It’s an opportunity to get to know a handful of animals very well by learning about the places they inhabit and how they adapt to it. The people in our group this time were no exception — it was genuinely enjoyable to get to know them.
We were working in and around the American Museum of Natural History’s Southwest Research Station (SWRS) in the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, AZ. As the name suggests, it’s focused on research not tourism, though they do allow daytime visitors, and if space allow, overnight guests. The focus is primarily on biology — birds, mammals, herps, insects and plants — but it is also used by geologists and others. While we were there, we talked to researchers who were working on frogs, bats and hummingbirds. There was also a group of volunteers from the Arizona Desert Museum in Tucson who were getting an immersive week of classes on the local history; one class was lead by an entomologist who had been working at SWRS annually since the early 60s. There are both seasonal and year round projects at the station. It’s a biologist’s theme park.
Twice a month volunteers come in to band hummingbirds; if you’re lucky enough to be there at the right time, you’re welcome to watch. Hummingbird banding involves hanging some specialized nets around nectar feeders, which observers trigger once a bird starts feeding. We had noticed cages around the feeders and assumed that was part of the trapping gear but found out that it was actually there to keep bats from draining the nectar overnight. The banding is done by local volunteers; they were also training some biologists who work for wildlife agencies how to perform this incredibly delicate work. Like other banding operations, the banders take a series of measurements, but unlike most other banding operations, the bird being examined can be smaller than the fingers holding it. The job calls for real dexterity and sensitivity to the bird’s condition. Hummingbirds’ extremely high metabolism makes for one other difference in procedure — the birds are given a nectar before they are released to give them a boost.
As I mentioned, they needed to keep bats from the feeders. Probably the coolest (non-owl) project was the bat house — a large mesh-sided tent loaded with high-speed camera gear, lights and 3D tracking gear. Local moths were trapped and released into the tent, then local bats were trapped and released to hunt them. At the end of their “work” they were fed some mealworms and released back in the area that they had been captured. Two experiments were running simultaneously — one to track and study differences in foraging strategies and one on body vs. wing temperatures to understand how their muscles and circulatory systems account for large temp differences of their extremities. It was very cool, and we got to observe it a few times because the bat people were the only ones who stayed out later than us.
But enough of all these other flying things… we were there for the owls. Specifically, we were there for the small, cavity nesting forest owls (smallest to largest): Elf, Flammulated, Whiskered Screech-, Saw-whet and Western Screech-Owl, plus the day-active Northern Pygmy Owl. We did not study anything related to the larger owls in the area (Great-horned, Spotted and Barn) but we did note them when we heard them.
After some training, we helped on two elements of their studies. By day, we did plot surveys to gauge quality of habitat and look for potential nest cavities. When we found possible nest sites, We tried to view inside the cavity with a small pole mounted camera about the size of a microphone. Most were empty, but we still rated the quality of the cavity and recorded the location for checking back in future years. There were a few lucky hits where we actually saw owls in the nests.
At night, we went out to listen for owls, and band a few if possible. The listening protocol was pretty straighforward. At each location, we’d listen silently for three minutes, then move through a sequence of five species calls — play for 90 seconds, listen for 90 seconds, play for 90 again, listen for 90 again then move on to the next species. If we got a strong response from a species, we’d set up a net (quickly, in the dark… always fun) and attempt to trap it. We succeeded on 7 of those attempts — five Whiskered Screech-owls, one Western Screech-owl and one Flammulated Owl. Elf Owls were calling at most locations but decided not to visit us this year.
Now that banding has been happening in this area for a while, they’re getting some “returns”, previously banded birds subsequently recaptured. Of the seven birds we trapped, I think four were returns. They were generally captured pretty close to their previous locations.
The drought that has been affecting the southwest has not spared the Chiricahuas. That’s worrisome for smaller, shorter-lived species. They can weather a bad year, but missing two or more breeding seasons can be devastating for species that might only have 3-4 breeding years if they’re lucky. As the climate crisis deepens, long-term studies like this will become ever more significant. For now, the owls seem to be holding on; I hope they are able to adapt in the long run.
The Chiricahuas aren’t just a owl hotspot, of course (as if that’s not enough). In addition to the owls and hummingbirds, there are a wide variety of birds to see; highlights of this visit include Scott’s Oriole (love them!), Zone-tailed Hawk, Greater Pewee (a lifer), Painted Redstart, Mexican Whip-poor-will, Spotted Owl, and Elegant Trogon. We could hear the trogons calling all day on one of our site surveys, but I didn’t actually get a visual until our final afternoon. Well worth the wait!
Southeast Arizona is just plain amazing. I don’t think I could live there because it’s too hot for someone who likes their San Francisco fog, but I could be very happy visiting more often. (And I’m very grateful for the locals who are so welcoming to visitors.) As we’ve done in past years, my friend an I tacked on a few days for our own explorations of the area.
This time we anchored ourselves south of Sierra Vista, staying in at the Ramsey Canyon Inn, just over the fence from the Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Preserve. Like many lodgings in the area, the Inn has an array of feeders on the grounds. Morning coffee was enlivened by several species of hummingbirds, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Lesser Goldfinches and Acorn Woodpeckers. Local color was provided by Arizona and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Yellow-eyed Juncos (aka Zombie Junco), Blue Grosbeak (a Rose-breasted, too!), Bridled Titmouse, Western and Summer Tanagers, Brown-crested and Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers (a lifer for me!) and other stuff that I know I’m forgetting.
During our days there, we also checked out Miller Canyon (lifer White-eared Hummingbird at Beatty’s), Carr Canyon (a memorable lunch with a flock of Mexican Jays, including one very recent fledgling who was quite curious about us, and Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary where literally the first bird we noticed was a Montezuma Quail scurrying up a hill, followed later by my lifer Lucifer Hummingbird.
We also visited nearby Brown Canyon Ranch both day and night. By night, we heard a Great-Horned Owl and saw/heard Lesser Nighthawks. By day, the trail we walked though a chapparal/scrub/grass area with a nice mix of species including Cactus Wren, Hepatic Tanager, Pyrruloxia, Vermillion Flycatcher and Botteri’s Sparrow (another lifer).
On our drive back to Tucson from Sierra Vista, we saw kettle of 19 Black Vultures (hopelessly exotic for bay area folks) and a pair of Grey Hawks came sailing over us as we turned to head onto the freeway. Back at our hotel, the ever-glamorous airport La Quinta, we were treated to a number of roadrunners, including a family of three with a juvenile being fed right in front of us.
I can’t wait to return…