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Tucson Audubon Society Reprinted from the April, 2001 Vermilion Flycatcher, newsletter of the Tucson Audubon Society. Pájaros,
Plants, and the Pitahayal This past January, a few TAS members got together and took a trip south to the Alamos, Sonora area. We included a visit to the Pitahayal cactus forest preserve highlighted in the July-August Vermilion Flycatcher. TAS Education Director Suzanne Dhruv and her husband Eric, Paul Kaestle and his wife Marianne, their friends Fred and Jean Kahan, Pinau Merlin and I made the trip. We knew that things were going our way when we had our car’s tourist sticker a mere six minutes after getting in line! The same task took two hours last June, so we were on our way in record time. I’m not superstitious, but a good omen is always welcome and our first morning in the area started with one, as two bobcats crossed the road in front of us just as we arrived at the Pitahayal. The preserve has been enclosed in a barbed wire fence to keep out cattle. There was no gate where we entered, so negotiating the fence was our first challenge. Judges would have given most of us nines, but Paul would have only gotten a six as a barb caught his pantleg just as he was almost through. More or less safely across, we were immediately awed by just how dense the organ pipe cacti were. At about 300 per acre, there is not much room to spare, and walking between them is hazardous at best and sometimes impossible. Animal sign along the small trail crossing the preserve told us interesting stories, thanks to Pinau’s interpretation. Mountain lion and bobcat scats side by side, roadrunner scat, coyote scat, javelina and other tracks, birds’ nests, ornately patterned orb weaver spiders, and, of course, the parrots kept us so enthralled that in two or three hours, we scarcely got more than a hundred yards into the preserve! Later that morning, we embarked on an estuary boat trip at Agiabampo. It is a large estero, called such because, though quite large in area, no large river flows into it. Since the entrance channel is narrow in comparison and water depth is shallow, salinity is usually higher than in the Sea of Cortez. Although we saw a wide variety of waterbirds, including Yellow-crowned Night Herons, a Yellow-footed Gull, Little Blue Herons, Reddish Egrets and Roseatte Spoonbills. The highlight of the day and of the trip was the bottle-nosed dolphins riding the bow wave of our ten passenger boat! Suzanne and Eric, sitting up in the front, could have reached out and touched them they were so close! Sadly, a large bulldozed area nearby lay smoking in ruin like the setting of an apocalyptic B movie. Local residents have organized to try to halt this destruction, hoping to prevent a planned shrimp farm from invading the estero. This is one of the few pristine esteros left in the region, and the devastation that shrimp effluent would cause would be catastrophic. The importance of protecting the Pitahayal took on new significance when we were faced with this tragic scene. We headed east to the colonial town of Alamos, tucked into the southeast corner of the state of Sonora. It is the closest area to the U.S. where tropical deciduous forest, thorn forest, and desert come together. A large number of the birds seen here never venture north to the U.S. border. We stayed at La Cuida Dela (The Citadel), a B&B operated by David and Jennifer MacKay (check out the trip donated by them for the upcoming Birdathon). David guided us for two of our days, including the Pitahayal. The building is an enclosed small city block, originally 350 years old, with exceptional vegetation, rooms with high ceilings and corner fireplaces, and a covered veranda filled with old Mexican furniture encircling the courtyard. Wonderfully relaxing! What a change from everyday life in Tucson, nice as it is. Close views of a male Green Kingfisher that Jean found at the start, Nutting’s Flycatchers calling away, a group of half a dozen Tufted Flycatchers in a strangler fig tree, Black-throated Magpie-Jays and Streak-backed Orioles greeted us the following morning as we trekked down the Cuchujaqui River a few miles outside Alamos. Octopus agave and Sabino trees were among the plethora of plants reminding us we were in habitat very different from home. Raucous calls jerked my foot to the brake pedal on our return as we encountered a flock of a dozen or so Purplish-backed Jays. The Jay had eluded me on previous trips, so it was nice to get, especially as a juvenile and an adult perched together right over the road in plain view. We even had time to get to the right page in our field guides to key in on the differences. Alamos Mountain canyon hiking was on the agenda for the next day. Uphill effort added Brown-backed Solitaire and Black-capped Gnatcatcher to our lists. One or two of us caught glimpses of a Flame-colored Tanager and a possible Yellow Grosbeak, both off-season birds. Elegant Trogons and Red-billed Pigeons preceded culinary delights on an evening trip to the gourmet French Restaurant in nearby Aduana (recommended by our Flycatcher editor Alan Adler from his trip there). It was worth the trip and not too pricey. On our last morning in Alamos, we tracked a flock of cute little Mexican Parrotlets into a nearby cemetary for some wonderful close-up views. This was a nice way to start our travel day back home. So take the plunge. Bird our neighbor to the south some time for a different flavor of life and some wonderful birds. By all means get to the Pitahayal if you can. Contact Suzanne at the TAS shop or me for more details on how to get there. Adios amigos! Bird questions? Check Birding | General questions? Contact: Tucson Audubon Society | Webmaster: Email This page was updated on 02/28/08 |