On the border – blog 32

Around here they go for short names.  Up the road is Gila Bend where there is a ‘famous’ ‘space hotel’ where I stayed on my last trip.  But this time I took the road south towards Mexico and the Organpipe Cactus National Monument (one down (?) from a National Park?).

You know the organpipe cactus – you see them in lots of westerns and lots of cartoons of deserts.

I am staying in the Marine Motel (eh?) in Ajo, and I drive through Why (yes, Why) to get to the NM.

Driving through California and into Arizona you glimpse the Mexican border quite often and there are loads of Border Patrol vehicles around.

I’ve had two conversations with the immigration staff today – both times they checked the glove compartment for tiny Mexicans and were perplexed that anyone might go birdwatching around these parts.  I would guess that I was put down as eccentric and harmless.

I’ve seen some good birds; Gila woodpecker and ladder-backed woodpecker as well as what I thought was thick-billed kingbird but that species is classed as occasional on the park checklist so now I am slightly unsure (although I can’t see what else it could have been).  Most thick-billed kingbirds live south of the border – but I know the border guards are easily distracted by foreign birders so one or two may have slipped through.

There are lesser nighthawks flying around outside.

The temperature got up to 112F, allegedly, today and that is hot.

So tomorrow I will be up early to see some birds and then be writing during the heat of the day – and thinking about my talk to Tucson Audubon Society which is on Wednesday evening.

 

 

 

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