Month: April 2022

On Thursday morning, Nancy and I enjoyed another delicious breakfast at Casa de San Pedro. We again started with fresh fruit, this time accompanied by a small chocolate pastry and then two poached eggs served over flatbread, ham and cheese, with a hollandaise sauce and mild chiles. It was all great.

After breakfast, as we were walking around the grounds of the B & B looking for birds, a Border Patrol helicopter made two low passes over us and the cottonwood trees of the San Pedro River, causing the tops of the trees to flail and scaring out a hawk. We had noticed several Border Patrol cars the previous night as we went and returned from Bisbee too.

We packed up our things and checked out, noticing a Border Patrol truck with two saddled horses in a trailer just outside the B & B. We drove about 30 minutes to the Coronado National Memorial located at the start of Montezuma Canyon near Hereford. We went into the visitor’s center and walked around the oak and grassland habitat nearby. Then we drove up to Montezuma’s Vista overlook via a narrow, windy gravel road that was about 2 miles long. On the way up, a Border Patrol truck passed us, then when we reached the top, it was preparing to drive back down. We figured the agents had used the overlook to look for immigrants trying to enter the country. The view from the vista was expansive, looking clear into Mexico. It was windy but there were a few birds in the bushes and soaring over the pass.

Returning to the visitor’s center, we noticed Border Patrol agents with a saddled horse nearby, possibly with someone they had apprehended. We continued driving, stopping at a diner in Sierra Vista for lunch and then making the hour-long drive to Tucson.

Our hotel for the night was The Tuxon near downtown. It was pretty standard looking from the outside, but modernly decorated on the inside. It was over 90 degrees in town and our room doors and windows faced the afternoon sun. The heavy window blinds were closed to keep the sun out of the windows, but the metal door handles were super hot. The room air conditioning struggled to keep up.

We went out for Mexican food at Mi Nidito (My Little Nest), famous for good food and because Bill Clinton had eaten there in the 1990s. I had nopal-filled enchiladas and we both enjoyed our meals.

We saw on the local news that Cochise County, where we had just been in Hereford, was experiencing an uptick in illegal immigrants and high-speed chases after people transporting them, so that must have been why we had seen so many Border Patrol agents. Yet the Border Patrol checkpoint on the highway from Sierra Vista, where we had expected to be stopped, wasn’t operating for Tucson-bound traffic so we were happy about that because it would have slowed our trip.

I left my room window open overnight Tuesday so I could hear the sound of the courtyard fountain at Casa de San Pedro. It was nice to hear as I awoke in the morning. Nancy and I had breakfast at the first seating at 7:30 a.m. and it was fresh fruit, a small lemon poppyseed muffin and French toast made from English muffins, all very good. The various family/couple groups were seated spaced out, due to COVID, although everyone who stays at this inn must first show proof of COVID vaccination.

Soon after breakfast, we drove to San Pedro House, which is a trailhead and information center in the conservation area for the San Pedro River about 25 minutes from our inn. We took a path along the river to see what birds were there. Besides birds, there were occasional frogs that jumped in the river when we got close. Once we heard something slither away from the trail in the dry leaves as we walked by, but we never saw it so we didn’t know if it was a rattlesnake or a lizard.

Returning from our hike along the river, we drove into Hereford to find lunch. We ended up at a place called Urbano Coffee House, Brews and Chews, where we had sandwiches. We didn’t really find a town center in Hereford. It’s very spread out, as are other towns around here.

We took it easy at the B & B during the afternoon and I used the free washers and dryers to do a load of laundry. I also bought a Casa de San Pedro T-shirt with a vermilion flycatcher on it, caught up on emails and worked on the blog. I enjoy having some down time while traveling.

For dinner, we decided to go to the historic copper mining town of Bisbee, about 30 minutes away. We went about 5 p.m. so we could walk around town before dinner. From the highway between Hereford and Bisbee, we could see the border wall in the distance and there were quite a few border control and sheriff cars parked at intervals along the road. The highway was probably only 2 miles from the border.

After walking a couple of the streets of the old town, we ate dinner at Bisbee’s Table, located in an old building in the historic area. I enjoyed a tasty pasta dish. We returned to the B & B for our last evening there.

It was another beautifully sunny day when we woke up Tuesday morning at the Spirit Tree Inn. Mary Jane’s husband Tom was in the kitchen of the ranch house by 6:30 a.m. fixing breakfast for the guests. There were two other couples staying there besides Nancy and I. One couple was from Boise and the other from Green Valley, AZ. We talked while drinking tea/coffee and watching Tom prepare breakfast. The breakfast itself was great, with the best grits I’ve ever tasted, egg and ham muffins, and pineapple.

After breakfast, Nancy and I moved our luggage to the car, but hung around the grounds of the inn for another hour or so, finding more birds. The other guests, Mary Jane and her husband left for the day, so we had the yard and birds to ourselves.

We decided to go into Las Cienegas National Conservation Area before going to Hereford, our next hotel spot. The grasslands conservation area was recommended by Nolan, our owl guide, as a good place to see birds and it was along the way to Hereford. It was a vast area of rolling hills, a few mesquite trees, a few springs and dry river washes. At first the road was paved and traveling was easy, but the road soon deteriorated into a rocky, difficult way. We saw some birds and some pronghorn antelope. We finally turned around as the road got worse and we encountered a gate.

We continued on to the city of Sierra Vista, where we looked for a lunch spot that preferably wasn’t fast food. We found a German deli that served authentic German food and we enjoyed some Black Forest ham sandwiches. It was about 2 p.m. by that time, so there were only two other people in the deli besides the German lady owner and us. After lunch, it was time to find our lodgings near the town of Hereford.

We drove to our upscale B & B, the Casa de San Pedro, and arrived a few minutes before the 4 p.m. check-in time. One of the owners, Patrick, met us at the gate to the inn’s courtyard and showed us our two rooms and the grounds. What a beautiful place! There are 10 luxurious rooms surrounding a courtyard with gardens and a fountain. Bird feeders and bird nest boxes surround the outside. A large sitting room with tall windows looks out on the courtyard. The dining room adjoins the sitting room, where breakfast is served and there are a selection of pies laid out on a countertop for any guest to help themselves in the afternoon. Desert gardens, a shady ramada with a barbecue, labyrinth, and pool are also outside. It was a delight to walk into my cool room after being outside in the sun and dust.

After being shown around, Nancy and I walked through the gate pictured above, into the San Pedro River conservation area that adjoins the B & B. Notice the rattlesnake sign. Patrick said he had seen the first snake of the year earlier in the week. It was a short but hot walk to the river in the afternoon. We didn’t see any snakes and only saw a few birds, so we returned quickly and got ready for dinner.

Patrick had suggested a couple of restaurants, so we drove into the spread-out town of Hereford to one of them. At Mimosa Italian, we ate a light and late dinner, then returned to our inn for the night.

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.

On Saturday morning, we again left early after breakfast at our rental house for a day of birding. This time we went to Catalina State Park, just north of Tucson, where our birding book said we would likely see the flame-red vermilion flycatcher. It was only a 15-minute drive from our house on a very sunny and warm morning. After paying our entrance fee, we drove to the picnic area where the bird was supposed to hang out. We parked and got out and there it was, sitting boldly out in the open on a bare tree branch. There’s nothing shy about the bird.

After expressing appropriate enthusiasm about finding this showy little bird, we went in search of other species. We were rewarded with seeing a greater roadrunner in the campground, a gila woodpecker, and several other birds. Then we drove to the trailhead parking lot, which was quite full of cars. We set out on the Birding Trail, one of several trails in the park, to see more. After first crossing a dry wash, we took the dusty loop trail to see what we could see and ended up seeing a few more species. By the time we finished the loop, we were really hot, sweaty and tired and we returned to the car.

We had a second destination planned too, so we left the park around noon and stopped for lunch in one of the many strip malls along the highway. Then we made our way downtown to Tucson Audubon’s nature shop. There we did some binocular and souvenir shopping and learned more about this large chapter, which was started in 1949.

Returning to the rental house, we took it easy until dinner time, when we went to a hip place called Culinary Dropout. The kitchen was visible through glass and was huge, the waiters were young, and the place was large, airy and very busy. I enjoyed a great hard cider and chopped chicken salad, while Nancy had a spicy vegetable curry.

Sunday was our day to check out of Tucson and move on to Tubac. First we enjoyed a good breakfast at Blue Willow restaurant, where I had huevos rancheros. We returned to our VRBO house to finish packing, then hit the road about 10 a.m. southbound. An hour later, we were in the small artist’s village of Tubac.

We drove to the trailhead for the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail and set out to see Lucy’s warbler, among other birds. And we found the Lucy’s, thanks to the help of two birders from Portland who took us to the right spot.

It was another hot and dusty trail, so we hit Tubac Jack’s Saloon for beers right away. After being refreshed, we found the Tubac Country Inn, a cute five room inn where Nancy had reserved us a two-room suite.

Tubac is a very small town with only seven streets. After taking it easy in the suite for a while, we looked at the list of the hotel’s recommended restaurants for dinner ideas. Some were in a nearby town, others weren’t open on Sunday. We ended up eating in the restaurant of the nearby Tubac Golf Resort and it was nice. It had been another good birding day.