Decided to stick with the plan and start pre-dawn at the top rather than try for screech owls again at Proctor, and I’m glad I did: the lightning show in the distance was spectacular (and you had a great view from the upper parking lot), and after a while a Mexican Whippoorwill started “whipping” and then launched into his song, followed by another distant one! No owls, but eventually other diurnal birdies woke up, like Black-headed Grosbeak, Mexican Jays, and even the trogon! (A gal pulled in wondering if I was Bill (??) and said she was meeting some hikers, and wanted to see the trogon as she’d heard them a gazillion times…)

Headed down at sunrise, stopping every half mile this time (including at the feeders for a couple of minutes to pad the list) and didn’t pick up anything different; at Proctor decided to walk to that little overlook the “Mimosa Guy” pointed out, and it was a lovely view of Elephant Head! Richard had mentioned seeing Black-capped Gnatcatchers at Florida Wash, so I was sure to stop there; had a nice Varied Bunting that posed for video (and a Bell’s Vireo, Rufous-winged Sparrow, and Nashville Warbler that didn’t), but no gnatcatchers, so after a while I headed on to the main target, Box Canyon.

Rainbow over Elephant Head

      Which is a lovely road in and of itself: started out with lots of Black-throated and Botteri’s Sparrows, and climbing up the scenery was gorgeous as always (but I could see that Madera Canyon was getting clobbered already; I felt sorry for those hikers)! It actually started raining on me before reaching the Five-striped Sparrow Spot, so I had to bird from the car, and even then I wasn’t sure if I had the right spot (although the habitat looked perfect; it was the same area I had Black-chinned Sparrows the first time I did it). I stopped at the 6.5 mile spot (as that’s what I had calculated), and stood around for 15 minutes only logging a pewee and two orioles (Scott’s and Hooded – the pewee got flagged as I was once again without a signal and had to use the West Box Canyon list). But as I continued on I saw several cars parked ahead (it had quit raining by then), so I joined the line and then joined the crowd, several who had passed me earlier, including the Susan look-alike, who introduced herself as Cheryl! She also knew exactly where the reported Lucifer Hummingbird nest was, so she took me right to it! That was great! So then we went back to the Sparrow Spot, and finally I heard the Five-striped Sparrow singing from waaay over there, impossible to see, of course! No one else really knew what to listen for, so when I told them it sounded kinda like a Dickcissel, they picked it up right away!

Black-throated Sparrow along Lower Box Canyon Road

Incoming!

The rain quits by the time we get to the Five-striped Sparrow spot!

Female Lucifer Hummingbird on the nest (no one said anything about with whom she mated…)

      I took off shortly after that as I didn’t like the threatening sky, and shortly came to that lovely riparian area with all the big trees. At one stop here actually got a Pacific-slope Flycatcher as he was thankfully saying pee-YEET! and not pee-DEET! like his mountain cousin! A local came rolling by about that time and said he’d had that sparrow several times (rub it in L), but also that the riparian area I had just passed was called “The Dam” and was great for migrants! I was actually planning on coming back the next day, so I said I’d look for that gate he told me about, but with all the flash flood warnings coming over the Weather App I wanted to move on. His response: ignore them! If you say so…

“The Dam” area (apparently)

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

      Anyway, continued on, picking up a shrike, two squealing Zone-tailed Hawks that eBird didn’t like, and up in the grasslands finally a distant Cassin’s Sparrow! What I’m wondering is what happened to the Montezuma Quail – I hadn’t even heard one yet in all the normal places! At the time I had yet to do Ruby Road and Mt. Hopkins, but I never made it to Ruby Road, so I’ll never know if I would have finally bagged them there or not… What shocked me was that the Collared Dove got flagged, and the thing was posing nicely until I saw that it was flagged, so the minute I turned on the camera he took off! L Near the end of the paved road was a female Vermilion Flycatcher, which was a nice addition.

Upper Box Canyon/Greaterville Road

Female Vermilion Flycatcher

      Headed on in to Patagonia and decided to check the butterfly garden first; had a few nice things, but one yellow struck me as being plainer and larger than the Little Yellow, and I was wondering if it possibly could have been a Dina! (Glassberg calls them a rare immigrant here in mid-August, which would fit the time frame…) I put it on the Arizona Butter Facebook page, and no one refuted it, so that may actually be a life butter, as I don’t think we had that one during our trip to El Cielo in Mexico! A lady from New York (at least she sounded like it J) came over to chat and said what everyone else was saying: it’s been so dry that the butter variety just isn’t there. She thought Paton’s might have more, and I told her I was on my way there. She also knew where the guy who was feeding the Ruddy Ground Dove lived, so I headed over there to try for it, only when I found it on BirdsEye, I realized it was too far to walk so I tootled over there with Heppy.

Gulf Fritillary (left); Dina Yellow (right)

      There was already a couple of guys in a pickup parked on the opposite street, so I also found a shady place to park and just walked around; a guy named Kevin showed up who had stayed with us at the Alamo Inn! We spotted a couple of Inca Doves, and even the owner came out to take a look for it, but she didn’t show in the 15 minutes I was there (and if she was wont to hide in those trees, I certainly never would have found her!), so I headed on to Paton’s.

      Not sure if it was the guy weed-whacking or what, but something started bothering my right eye something horrible, and I was in misery the whole time I was there! (One of the workers asked the standard, “How are you?” but I don’t think she was expecting an honest answer… J) Chatted with Louie, the caretaker from Bay City, Michigan, for a bit; they had taken down the “hard food” due to bear issues, but the hummer feeders were still up, with the standard Broad-billed, a couple of Blackchins, an Anna’s, and the requisite Violet-crowned. Chats were all over the place, and Louie confirmed that I was hearing Phainopeplas! Even the Song Sparrow was exciting (as we don’t get those in the Valley)! I took a stroll through their meadow (that’s what the guy was doing – trimming the trail) and sat by the pond where the Flame Skimmers were chasing each other; another volunteer wandered by and in the middle of chatting I thought I heard a tyrannulet do his dear dear dear! (Or else it was a goldfinch…) She said they had them there, and indeed, after she left, I heard a WheeK! later on… I warned her that after birds, you get hooked on butters, then odes, and then if you still want more you turn to grasshoppers! That’s where she drew the line, as even though they’re “part of the system” as she called it, they were very destructive to their crops! She said she also had to explain “the system” to her little granddaughter when a Roadrunner nabbed a House Finch… Beep Beep he ain’t!

Meadow trail at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds

Flame Skimmer

A Violet-crowned and female Broad-billed Hummer face off...

      Despite using half the bottle of Refresh (probably), my eye was still killing me, but decided to road bird Blue Heaven Road, and the eye actually cleared up a little! We decided to go as far as we could (that really bad crossing past the Patagonia-Sonoita Preserve was clear except for a little stream; last time I was there it was a raging river) then bird our way back. Didn’t make it as far as Salero Road (which is closed anyway, I understand), but apparently part of Sonoita Creek bled over onto the road, because I didn’t dare tackle that (a truck behind me did, though)! So we turned around and stopped every .3 mile, and that worked great (at least until the thunder started); chats were out the yin yang, but picked up some special riparian species for the trip such as Abert’s Towhee, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow Warbler (actually got the latter two at Paton’s), Yellowthroat, and Lucy’s Warbler (that one threw me as they were youngsters, but comparing them with Virginia, they couldn’t have been anything else…) and some flycatcher that came in that I couldn’t get a fix on, but was too distracted by the warblers as they were coming out in the open for video.

Where Sonoita Creek takes over Blue Heaven Road!

Young Lucy’s Warbler

Building monsoon

      Did not want to get stuck on that road in case a flood came, so hightailed it outta there, dropped off the donation at Paton’s that I forgot to leave because I was too distracted by my hurting eye, then headed down Sonoita Road to see if I could find those other feeders Louie told me about (and that’s an eBird hotspot), but couldn’t. Ended up going all the way back to Sonoita the town to get gas etc., picking up a Swainson’s Hawk on the way. Finally checked in to the very nice Stage Stop Inn and was able to get everything done (but was too beat to film the Barn Swallows drinking out of the pool…)!