From: ttrebisky@as.arizona.edu (Thomas J. Trebisky)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Arizona - Sycamore Canyons - Becards (LONG)
Keywords: Becards, Sycamore Canyon, Arizona
Date: 12 Sep 92 00:54:13 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Sycamore Canyon is an area in Southern Arizona, near the city of Nogales
on the Mexican border.  I had never been there till this year in the month
of June, when I made two visits and was very impressed with the area,
so I thought I would write it up and pass my experiences along to those
who might enjoy them........................

It is Thursday night, June 26 -- about 8PM and I am finally getting on the
road.  I am driving my old faithful 1973 International Scout south on
I-19 doing 50-55 miles an hour.  Everybody is passing me, but I am in no
hurry -- traffic is light.  I am amused how the cars always come in pairs,
there is a paniced frenzy of activity as they struggle to pass me and stay
on each others tail, then the road behind me is black for another five
minutes till another pair shows up.  After about an hour of driving, I am
almost to Nogales, but turn off to the West on the Pena Blanca Lake road.
Ten miles of driving puts me at the lake area and after a bit of a false
start find the Ruby Road -- it turns out you have to drive thru the
campground -- a couple of people playing cards under a Coleman lantern
give me curious looks as I pass by, but soon I am off in the dark rattling
over the now dirt road.  It is a moonless night, pleasant temperature.
Mountainside on my right, and the left drops off into stars and blackness.
As I am driving I get the idea of not camping at Sycamore Canyon itself,
but rather at the trailhead to Atascosa Peak.  This will put me up on
the side of a mountain with a view and a breeze rather than down in the
canyon which will be warm and buggy.  Besides that, Sycamore Canyon has
a reputation for being a drug channel, and I don't want to be caught in
the middle of the war on drugs.  The trailhead is a broad pullout with
a great view to the south, and a big Oak to park the Scout under.
I drop the tailgate, and roll out the sleeping bag.  I try my Pygmy Owl
imitation after things quiet down -- A Cow down below me somewhere
responds, and also a very far away dog.  Not a man-made light in sight.
I admire the brilliant stars, a very clear might -- a few meteors
and soon I am snoozing.

I am up at first light -- A Common Poorwill is calling.  I pack up quickly
and get on the road.  Someday I will have to see if I can get a look at a
Poorwill.  The goal for today is to get a look at a Rose-throated Becard.
They are a five mile walk down the streambed in a Sycamore just 800 feet
this side of the Mexican border.  At least that is what some fellows we met
in the Canyon 6 days ago told us  (Then I was with my 8 year old son and
a friend Ken).  Temperatures have been pushing towards 110 degrees, so I
am packing 2 liters of Gatoraide and 4 liters of water.  I am on the trail
at 5:30 AM.  First bird for the day (seen and identified anyway) is a gray
breasted Jay.  Cassins Kingbirds are making a noisy Kadee Kadee at the top
of an Oak as I drop into the streambed.  A large bird up on the hillside
proves to be a White-winged dove, and I get to listen to their calls all
day.  An area of oaks further on has a nice colony of Acorn Woodpeckers.
I am watching the woodpeckers carefully looking for Strickland Woodpeckers,
I saw this bird for the first time in this spot 6 days earlier.  A giant
brown sparrow up at the top of a bush singing gets my attention and has me
climbing the hillside a bit for a better angle without the sun in my eyes,
this proves to be a Brown Towhee (or should I call this a Canyon Towhee?).

On our hike thru this spot 6 days ago, I was greeted by a Blue Throated
Hummingbird who flew right up to me and looked me over face to face.
Beautiful big hummingbird with a wide fanned tail with white tipped feathers
and of course a blue throat.  Now things have dried up a bit, the penstemons
in this area have begun to wilt, so the hummers must be elsewhere.
I hear a black-headed Grosbeak and get a look at it -- this bird has a nice
distinctive song and is just a nice all-round bird.  And I do get to see
another Stricklands Woodpecker before long.  White throated Swifts are
zooming around the cliffs of red rock.  I hear a new song and try to track
down the singer -- distinctive "dee deedle dee dee dee" -- after all my
trouble trying to stalk up close it clams up and I never get a look.
Ah well,  Hear and see a Canyon Wren, and almost exactly when I get to
the first of the Sycamores I hear an Elegant Trogon -- never get a look at
this one, but I have seen several already this year so I am not going to
chase this one over the countryside.  I hear dusky-capped Flycatchers quite
often -- and see them too, but not when they are singing.  I come around
a corner and am confronted with a Pygmy Owl.  I think we startle each other.
He (she?) is making a very rapid almost motor-like sound.  We saw a pair of
these just at dusk at the end of our last trip here, but much closer to the
parking area.  This one is sitting facing me about 20 feet up on a dead pine
snag in perfect light (coming from behind me).  It is quite content to give
me a really good look.  I am suspicious this may be a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl,
and I know to look for streaking on the head rather than spots, but to me
the head looks even brown if anything, definitely no spots.  The long narrow
tail make no doubt about this being a Pygmy.  It is definitely brown, not
grey.  I move closer and the owl moves, but I get a good look from a
different angle.  I think I will call it a Ferruginous.  Habitat is right,
Color is right, and no spots.  Also the very rapid (2Hz or so) call sounds
right.  But I am just not sure.

On thru a narrow section of the canyon -- only a few days ago we had to
scramble around a pool here, now I can walk across on moist sand.
Bewicks Wren, Black Phoebe, another Strickland's woodpecker with brown back
and spotted front.  I get a look at an Elegant Trogon ( a different one than
I heard earlier).  This one is wary of me and is disturbed till he gets bold
enought to fly past me.  He wants to move upstream and I am an unexpected
obstacle.  I start paying attention to small birds in the shadows along the
stream and get a look at two new birds for me -- a Blue Grosbeak and a
Varied Bunting -- the Bunting is quite something when it moves into the
sunlight -- Blue with red on the back of its head.

Things are warming up.  It is 11:30 AM and I am not too far from the border.
Two bright red male Summer Tanagers are moving around in a big Sycamore, and
I soon see a yellow female also nearby.
These are worth stopping to look at.  12:15 puts me at the border.
I would never know it without the map.
The border fence is a broken down barbed wire affair like any other ranch
fence in the area.  I take a few steps into Mexico so I can call this an
international trip and then begin pacing the distance back into the United
States to find the tree the Becards are in.  I calculate 800 feet should be
about 266 of my paces and this puts me next to a big Sycamore, but after a
careful search, no nest and no Becards. The only thing moving is a small
wren in the branches above.

Now I am stumped, I have come all this way and don't want to be stumped
now.  I look around for other possible trees, but nothing else fits the
800 foot distance even remotely.  They said 800 feet from the border and
the last part of the stream kindof parallels the border fence, so I walk
to where the bend in the stream veers away from the border and heads back
north.  There is a trail and sign here, hiding in the shadows,
"Summit Motorway and Tonto Trail" -- come to think of it, they mentioned
the Tonto Trail and the fence.  I pace 800 feet north from here and I
am near the tree where I saw the Tanagers before.  A bit further is
a big Sycamore on the west side of the wash.  No water here.  I look up
in the tree and spot a big basketball sized clump of brown grass and stems
hanging below the end of a long slender branch.  This must be it!
It hangs right over the wash.  I pick a spot in the sand and in the shade
of the tree with a good view and relax.  I can see green in the nest,
so I know it is recent work.  I hadn't expected a becard nest to be like
this (a round formless ball), I was expecting something long and sock-like.
Nothing is stirring.  I determine to wait until the sun goes down
and hike out in the dark if need be.  Cicadas and bugs are making a nice
steady noise, the sand under my back is warm.  About half an hour passes
and a sharp "seeoo" explodes out of the tree directly above me.

Aha, so they are there!  My book said it was a mournful sound, but this
was piercing.  The birds are moving around now and there is no doubt about
this identification.  Just like in the book, the male sports his rose
throat and all. The male flies off and the female stays around and
gives me a good look at her.  Soon the male is back and works on the top
of the nest for a bit.  It is at the end of a 20 foot long branch and the
wind moves it around quite a bit.  It seems like a stout affair, but I
wonder how it will fair in a summer thunderstorm (should be starting the
season in a week or two).  The birds are sturdily built with a wrestler
stance, quite different from all the Myiarchus flycatchers I have been
seeing all day.  While I am enjoying the Becards, I get a visit from
a slim yellow Summer Tanager female and a male Broad-billed Hummingbird.

It is on toward 3PM and I better get hiking out.  Pass a small flock of
Bridled Titmouse (mice, mousies?) and about a mile up hear another Becard
but can never get a look at it.  I surprise a hawk (Swainsons?) in a tree
alongside the wash.  He flies off, breaking off a fair sized piece of a
branch in his rush.  And some mammal action on the way out, I surprise
two different Coatimundi's on the way out and get a good look at them.
This is an animal I have wanted to see for several years.  Also on the
way out see House Wrens, Black Headed Grossbeak, House Finch, and the
continual call of the White Winged Doves.  7PM puts me back at my Scout
and the task of driving home.  Haven't seen a human being all day, and
don't until I get to the paved road near Pena Blanca Lake.  Quite a good
trip overall.
--
	Tom Trebisky	ttrebisky@as.arizona.edu
...."There's no sense in being precise when you don't even
.... know what you're talking about." 
                       - John von Neumann  
Newsgroups: rec.birds