Arizona Birding

I have spent the last 4 days birding HARD. I met Roy Poucher's group on Friday at 4:00 am (that is 4 in the morning) We headed for the Five-stripe Sparrow. The news was that Calif Gulch was not passable so we went down Warsaw Canyon which is the other end of the loop road to Calif Gulch. I am using the term road but trail would fit better. The road is graded about every 10 years. It has rained here and the "road" had water crossings, a surface of rocks of all sizes, deep ruts and was very narrow and steep in places. I have been there 3 times in the past so had an idea of what to expect. We were following someone's directons to the sparrow. We found the spot but even with 10 plus people looking I could not photo or find a bird that looked like a Five-stripe to me. I have seen the bird before so have a picture in my head of their looks. After a few hours of this we decided to go back out and come in to Calif Gulch. The idea was to drive as far as possible and hike in the rest of the way. (You can tell I really wanted that bird.) The hike would have been about four miles in the Arizona heat. The road was not any worse than Warsaw so we drove the whole distance and got to the saddle parking. The spot looks very different because of all the green growth from the rains. It is easy to miss landmarks. We walked down the old Calif Gulch road that is blocked to cars and found two singing males. Yeah! It took us most of the day but we did it. I now have running boards on my car with waves in them. One puddle was too deep to drive through so we had to go around it between a tree and a large rock. I ran up on the side of a bank and against the rock on the left on the way in and on the right on the way out. Now I match. :)
Hannah has become an official bird dog. She made it to the bottom of Calif Gulch and thanks to Linda Gray she made it up. I was carring my big camera and recording gear and Linda had Hannah on the lead. I stumbled up the trail ahead and when I turned around at the top I was amazed. Linda had Hannah over her shoulders and was carring her. Hannah, a 60 pound dog, just lay on her shoulders panting. I owe Linda!!!
They say the romance of the Five-stripe is getting there. I agree. It is very close to the Mexican border. Signs warn of smuggling and illegals. There are no trespassing signs everywhere and Border Patrol is on all the dirt roads. There was even a helicopter over head at one time. Now that I think of it we never saw Border Patrol on Calif Gulch. One officer I talked to said he had never been down there. That might be telling. What an adventure!
The rest was fun. We got every bird we wanted. I picked up lots of sub-species I needed and now I am headed for Calif. I was going to stop at Salton Sea for two more however it was 112 there yesterday so I will leave here at 4:00 am and drive in the cool. Even the airconditioner in the trailer can not keep up and Hannah is having a hard time. I will be in California tomorrow night. I will not be at my home for another week though. I can't believe it. It has been a long time. I have been gone 9 weeks, traveled about 12,000 miles and have been in 21 states.
The sparrow hunt is not over though. I am going with a friend to Salton Sea on Sat and will leave the trailer and Hannah at my brother's.
I have been thinking about the few other sparrows I have left to get and I think I will be booking some airline flights. More to come.
Donelda

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