Thursday morning, March 31st, I woke up on the train before sunrise. I had slept better than on the Coast Starlight train, but still not too soundly. On this train, the dining car was five cars away, with coach cars in between. As I walked through the coach cars, I felt a little sorry for those passengers sleeping in their seats with their masks on. In my roomette with the door closed, I could take off my mask for sleeping.
After ordering the continental breakfast, I looked out at the dry Arizona scenery. The first Arizona birds I saw from the train were doves, which really contrasted to the next birds: dozens of ostriches on a farm next to the tracks.
The train arrived at the Tucson station about 7:40 a.m., just 10 minutes later than scheduled. I “detrained” with my luggage and summoned an Uber to take me to the Tucson airport where I was to meet Nancy coming in from Seattle. I found a nice waiting area near the Alaska Airlines baggage claim and hung out until her flight arrived about 10 a.m.
Once we had picked up her luggage and the rental car, a Nissan Sentra, we set off into the Tucson sunshine. Our first stop: the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. We had to park seemingly miles away from the entrance; there were many more visitors than I expected on a Thursday morning! We donned our binoculars and sun protection and walked for several minutes to the entrance. Once inside, it didn’t feel too crowded because it’s a big, outdoor museum of native plants, birds and animals. We walked the paths through display gardens, two aviaries, and a few native animal displays. We saw our first cactus wrens, Inca doves and Costa’s hummingbirds. We finished with lunch at the museum’s cafe.
By then, it was mid-afternoon so we drove to the northeastern Catalina Foothills area to our VRBO house, a two-bedroom stucco house on a large lot. We got the key and entered, exploring the house and grounds a bit before heading out to dinner. We ate at Oregano’s, an Italian food and pizza place, where we shared a large salad and a delicious thin-crust pizza. After dinner, we stopped at a grocery store for breakfast items and snacks for the next day, since we had a long birding day planned.
On Friday morning, Nancy and I were up around sunrise, which was easy to do since we’re both early birds. After getting dressed and eating breakfast in the house, we left for a day of birding on Mt. Lemmon. It’s in national forest land and there’s a 29-mile drive to reach the 9000+ foot summit. Using Tucson Audubon’s birding location book, we were guided to many birdy spots on the way to the top.
During our stops, we saw many birds that were new to us. There were bird calls we didn’t recognize and some birds we saw that we couldn’t identify, but generally we figured out most of them. It was a great day for birding: sunny, not windy, and a pleasant temperature that cooled near the top. The best stop was a campground called Marino Basin, where we walked for a ways along the road between mostly empty campsites. So many cool birds! It was nearly a perfect birding day, with the only thing lacking being internet connectivity. Without it, we couldn’t use the bird identification apps on our phones, so had to identify the old fashioned way, from knowledge, memory, and a field guide Nancy had brought.
During the whole drive up, from Tucson’s 2,300-ft altitude, to the top of the mountain, we saw bicyclists going up the road. They had impressive endurance to continually ride upwards. We saw them descend too, which looked considerably easier and more fun than going up.
We were surprised to see snow at the top, persisting despite daily sunshine. It wasn’t on the road and it wasn’t deep, but was interesting to see in southern Arizona. Also surprising was the small, one-lift ski area near the top. The lift was operating, but the snow cover so sparse that it would’ve been difficult to ski down.
We closed out the nearly perfect day with a great Mexican dinner and margaritas at Guadalajara restaurant about 15 minutes away from our house.
Lori's Travels 