Virga Sky Over Sabino on Tuesday's Bird Survey

(Sky Watch Friday)

It is survey time again in Sabino Canyon. On Tuesday, April 29th, I arrive at 6:30 a.m. under blue skies with clouds that look like wispy kites. The weather man tells me these are virga, or rain that doesn’t reach the ground. I just enjoy them for the ephemeral beauty they offer. It’s a kite flying sort of day, with light winds and sunny skies.

White-winged doves are everywhere in the canyon today. As we start up the trail I see one perched atop a blooming saguaro alongside the tram road. Jean, Pam and I hike the mile and a quarter in to our starting point. We pass people already heading out of the canyon from their morning walk. Many people arrive at 5 a.m. to hike before work. Sabino is such a beautiful place to be.

We stop alongside the road when we see a Cooper’s hawk perched in a mesquite tree. As we creep closer we realize it is eating prey. Whatever the hawk clutches in its talons is already too ripped up to identify, but this Coopers is certainly enjoying a hearty breakfast today. This is good as Jean informs me they have 2 nesting pairs of Cooper’s hawks here at this end of the canyon. Well, this bird doesn’t appear to be sharing as it gulps down bit after bit of torn flesh. It is undisturbed by our presence as we stand and watch, and I snap of shot after shot of the feeding bird.
We finally arrive at our starting point for our survey. Here under the tree canopy a few Sacred Daturas are blooming with huge white bell-shaped flowers. I am told these flowers are hallucinogenic if I were to eat one. No chance of that happening with me! I’ll just enjoy looking at them, thank you! Since it is peak migration we hope to see some new birds today. It hasn’t rained in quite awhile and I can tell the creek level has definitely fallen since the last time we were here. It is rattlesnake season, however, and we keep a close lookout for where we place our feet as we head down the transect route along the riparian area. While we don't find any rattlesnakes, we do find this cone shaped depression in the sand which indicates the presence of an antlion larva's den.

We hear and see lesser goldfinches everywhere. Hummingbirds whizz by our heads, sometimes landing in the trees long enough for us to identify them. We count broad-bills, black-chins and one Costa’s. To our surprise we spot a black-headed grosbeak, though it is well hidden in the thick of the trees and I am unable to get a good shot of it. White-winged doves call out from both side of the creek and wing their way over our heads. The Gamble’s quail are calling to us also, first from one side of the canyon, then the other. Jean identifies the tumbling notes of a Canyon Wren. We never get to see it, but we do hear another farther down the survey route.

As we scramble over rocks and boulders Jean points out a beautiful rock that is indicative of the geology of Sabino Canyon. This rock is called gneiss and is composed of feldspar, quartz, garnet, mica, and magnetite.

We round a corner in the creek and discover a male mallard in a quiet pool of the creek. Then we spot the female up on a sand bar blending in perfectly with the sand and rock backdrop. As we look through our binoculars at the ducks a discussion develops about whether these are Mexican mallard hybrids. Here in the southwest the two species interbreed frequently and most mallards are hybridized. The male Mexican mallard looks similar to female mallards but according to Sibley’s Bird Guide they are 10% smaller and darker overall. This male has an olive colored bill as compared to the true yellow bills of pure northern mallards. The female we see has an olive-orange bill and it is decided that these two are Mexican-mallard crosses.

Since the water in the creek is frequently too high for us to follow its course along the bank we walk as far as we can, then backtrack to the road where we hike down to the bluff trail and take up the survey again. At the point where we reconnect with the road is a restroom where we often take a rest stop. It is in this restroom that I have had frogs fall out of the toilet paper roll or leap out of the sink on suction toes that cling to the side of the sink only to crawl back in to the wet center once I am done washing my hands. Today there are no frogs but right outside the rest room Jean and Pam call me over quickly to see a Gila Monster that is slowly lumbering across the ground. Finally I have my camera with me! I hastily start snapping photos as the creature crawls off into the cacti and scrub. I want to get a good picture of him of course, but he is heading away from me and most shots are of its backside!

With such a thick tail, it’s almost hard to tell which end is which, but you can clearly see the eyes in this head shot. I have been told that seeing a Gila monster in the wild is a rare occurrence but though I have only lived here a year, I have seen three of them in the wild!

As we head down the dusty Bluff Trail we pass a graythorn bush ripe with its blue berries. The berries are eaten by white-winged doves, Gamble's quail and other bird species. The bush also provides nesting sites for birds.

Farther down the trail we spot a yellow warbler in the top of an ash tree. It performs feats of high acrobatics in the top of the tree as it gleans insects from the new green leaves. Once down along the creek again we find more hummingbirds and some Wilson’s Warblers. A female black-chinned hummingbird alights briefly on her spider-web woven nest beneath a large tree that holds a Cooper’s Hawk nest. Research by the hummingbird survey group has revealed that Black-chinned hummingbirds are 50% more successful in raising their broods when they nest beneath a Cooper’s hawk nest. The interplay of species never ceases to amaze me.

It was still a bit cool when we first started our survey, but the rising sun has raised the temperature considerably. I shed my light sweater and sip water from my camel pack on a regular basis. Our dew points have been running in the single digits lately with a few dips in the negative category. Yes, I have seen dew points of -9 degrees posted on the local evening news. This means our air is extremely dry which makes the fire danger extreme also. According to the news, we are experiencing the highest fire danger in 26 years!

By the time we finish the survey we have counted 29 species of bird, though my personal count is higher since I count birds all the way into and out of the canyon. I end up with 31 species of birds on this day. As we walk out of the canyon Jean takes us by a thrasher’s nest deep in a cholla cactus. The bird and nest blend in so well that most people would never notice them. We pass a couple of women as we near the parking lot. They excitedly tell us that they have seen a Gila monster today in the canyon. One woman has lived here for 15 years and has never seen one in the wild before. As we stand there talking I notice some movement alongside the path. A little round-tailed ground squirrel gazes cautiously up at us from behind a bush, its dark eyes questioning and liquid soft.