After a restful night in Tubac, Nancy and I left the inn Monday morning and found breakfast just 3 blocks away at the Tubac Deli. I enjoyed a ham and egg breakfast sandwich and a blueberry-spinach smoothie. Then we drove a short distance to bird on the Tubac bridge over the Santa Cruz River plus hike a little ways along a dry river channel in search of a rose-throated becard nest we had heard. We found an old nest, but not the becard, but there were other birds to console us. We returned to the car to drive south to Patagonia. Of course, we stopped along the way to walk a recommended spot and there we were lucky to see a gray hawk fly over. There are only 50 nesting pairs in the area.
We arrived at the the small town of Patagonia around lunchtime and found a busy little restaurant for a sandwich and salad. Then we drove a few blocks to the famous-among-birders Paton Center owned by Tucson Audubon. It’s a house once owned by a bird-loving couple that has LOTS of feeders of various types to attract many species of hummingbirds and other types of birds. We spent a while there, walking around to view and enjoy all the birds at the many feeders.
Then we drove about 10 minutes outside the town to our B & B, the Spirit Tree Inn. This inn was previously a cattle ranch, with the main ranch house and out buildings built in the 1930s. Our host, Mary Jane, met us and showed us to our two rooms in the main ranch house. Creaky floors and doors, plus a living room full of antiques, made it an interesting place, and outside it was amazingly birdy. Many types of feeders to attract birds, including orioles, hummingbirds, pyrrhuloxia, cardinals, quails, and lots more. Nancy and I walked around the grounds to spot as much as possible.
After a dinner back in Patagonia at a saloon where there was only the bartender to do everything, including serve our so-so Mexican food, we drove to the post office to meet a birding guide Nancy had arranged. At 7:15 p.m., our young guide Nolan met and took us to find owls.
We followed him in our car, right back out to the road leading to our inn. It turns out that gravel road was the best place for owls in the area. Right away, after we parked on the road, Nolan heard and shone his flashlight on a calling elf owl and then a western screech owl. They were both in trees right next to the road. Then we spent another 90 minutes or so trying to find others that we heard but never saw. They included a whiskered screech owl, great horned owl, and common poorwill. We heard coyotes in the distance too. It was such a different experience to stand in the near absolute silence, under the bright stars and sliver of a moon, listening to hear owls. Nolan had fantastic hearing and knew exactly what birds were calling.
About 9 p.m., when Nancy and I were getting cold in the low 50s temperatures, we called it a night. We only had to drive a few feet to turn into the yard of the Spirit Tree Inn again, returning to our rooms for a very quiet, comfortable night.
Lori's Travels 