I was in southern Arizona at the end of May, for a couple of days. Both days were with the excellent bird guide Richard Fray – see two previous blogs from 2013 where I also was shown loads of birds by Richard (here and here). The second day this year was rather similar to my previous journey up Mount Lemmon with Richard – many of the same excellent bird species.
But the other day this year was spent closer to the Mexico border. The birds were good but it hasn’t been the birds that have stuck in the mind most since that day. Although, let’s be clear the birds were brilliant.
We started by seeing both members of a pair of Rose-throated Becards and their amazing nest. I’d like to know more about how such a small bird evolved to build such a relatively enormous nest. But most birders would be more interested that they had seen half of the US breeding population of this species (roughly, in most years). It was fun to see it – and there is no chance at all that we would have seen them without Richard.
And the day ended with brilliant views of Rivoli’s (Magnificent) Hummingbird (which I might have found and identified on my own, on a good day) and then of Elf Owl (smallest owl in the world) and Whiskered Screech Owl (thanks to Richard!).
But it was in the mid- to late- morning that the most memorable event happened. There were birds in this part of the day too – although no Elegant Trogons – including a species which I’d always vaguely wanted to see in the wild because it looks like a smart bird in the field guides, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher (smart bird indeed!).
We walked up a canyon and the day was getting hotter and hotter. The going was a bit uneven and we were clearly coming to the time of day when birds were becoming less active and the balance of pleasure was swinging back towards a cold drink and air conditioning, and probably a nap in the heat of the day.
We walked up the canyon and I’d finished the water in my bottle and I was clearly getting hot and tired as I was stumbling on the rocks now and again – a good sign of tiredness with me.
We came to an area of deeper shade where there were lots of plastic water bottles under a tree. Richard explained that these had been left by volunteers of the Border Angels as this was a route that was used by immigrants illegally entering the USA from Mexico.
Now I am a birder, and I’d been pleased to add several lifers to my list that very day, but I am quite interested in people too. I looked around and tried to imagine what it would be like to arrive here, from over the top of the canyon I guessed, and be desperate for water. I was thirsty but I hadn’t been crossing deserts to get into this woodland and into the Land of the Free. Maybe there were some immigrants hiding away and fearfully watching us at this very moment.
You can’t have failed to notice that the current PotUS wants to build a wall in these parts. And as I had travelled through the US there had been plenty of mentions in the broadcast media of the Trump policy of taking the children away from the families of illegal immigrants. I’d heard about all this in the UK, on my arrival in Chicago, as I drove through the High Plains, and as I drove south to here – but now I was standing in the type of place where all this happened. Where desperate people attempted to sneak into the country and where they faced physical ordeals on the journey and crushing disappointment if caught. It took my mind off trogons.
As we headed back towards the car we glimpsed a bird which might have been a trogon (it’s not on my list) and just after we met a couple of mounted Border Patrol officers.
These two young men looked very cool – both literally and metaphorically – and I envied them on both counts. Quite how they looked so unhot and unbothered in that heat I don’t know but the neat haircuts, tanned faces, smart uniforms, shades and rugged good looks (which were reliably confirmed to me after they had gone by an experienced observer) accounted for the metaphorical coolness. And their horses were cool too – beautiful animals constantly moving their feet because they were standing on the canyon bed of football-sized boulders. The officers were perfectly friendly and asked the obvious question of what we were doing and we gave the obvious answer of birdwatching. We had a quick chat along the lines of ‘anything about’ which I guess was a mixture of vague interest, a bit of friendliness, a bit of checking on whether we looked shifty about anything (if we had claimed the trogon we should have looked ill at ease) and a smidgeon of seeing whether we made any slip-ups.
So these were the people who were looking for illegal immigrants. Of course, they seemed like very nice young men – polite, well-spoken and personable. But then, we weren’t a group of hispanics who had come over the border the night before – we obviously weren’t!
They asked us whether we had seen anything (this wasn’t about birds) and how far we had gone up the canyon and then they wished us good day (I can’t remember whether they said ‘have a good day’ but they might have done). And then the two cool young men, on their beautiful horses, with their sidearms (of course they had guns!) headed up and we headed down.
Richard explained that they probably asked us where we had gone to check our story, as these areas often have hidden motion detectors to alert the authorities to parties moving around. We may have triggered such an alert while watching Montezuma Quails.
That’s what I will remember the longest. Not a dramatic encounter, and not a bird, but a lifer in a way.
Yes . Walked the same footsteps and again missed out on vagrants of the people kind! May be another way to look at the area is how bird watching brings in the $s. Arizona does have such a wide variety of bird and wildlife species ranging from alpine to desert and with the Grand Canyon to finish off, a trip makes a wonderful adventure.
I too have been to Arizona unfortunately not for long and there was less birding than I might have liked as it was a “business” trip although I did see some good birds. I found the people friendly kind and polite as most Americans are, so dreadful politics though! The whole thing about border guards, patrols and Trumpism is to somebody like me with a keen interest in native Americans is ironic as most if not all white people in the US are from an Amerindian point of view illegal immigrants. Ever heard an American say ” Arizona belongs to the Apaches” no! me neither.
It always struck me as paradoxical that “This land is your land, this land is my land” more or less denied the existence – let alone rights – of Amerindians yet Woodrow Wilson Guthrie is revered as a hero of the downtrodden and dispossessed
Indeed Filbert, I even have some of his music! He ought to have recognised, maybe he did, but not in song to my knowledge, the plight of the Amerindian as he came from what was once “Indian Territory” Oklahoma. Where of course successive US administrations placed a number of the displaced and dispossessed Indian tribes. Only the Comanche, Kiowa, various Caddo and Wichita groups retained any of the land in the territory that had once been part of their natural range. Oklahoma still has the highest native population, although the largest tribal grouping the Navaho live in part in Arizona.
Great blog, Mark. Richard is a good egg.
Hey, thanks, Ed! 😀
Thanks, Mark! I remember your visits very fondly. Despite the rhetoric, very little has changed down here on the border. The birding in Walker Canyon and the other wild canyons in this fantastic area remains excellent, while the whole area remains accessible, beautiful and rugged. By mid-summer this year, Elegant Trogons were nesting in a hole in the giant sycamore tree we parked underneath! You’ll have to come back for them soon…