Monday, December 8, 2014

Blue Goose ~ Day 191

December 4, 2014 ~ Gila Bend, AZ to Tucson, AZ

Sometimes I wake up thinking it's morning and it's only 3:40. And I try, almost always unsuccessfully, to go back to sleep but I usually have to pee or have gone to sleep at 8:00 the night before and am slept out.

In the warmer months I would read, with dawn imminent. But dawn is not imminent these days and, on this rainy morning, it wouldn't be full light until 8:00. I went to the McDonald's next door and sat there with my computer until the sky began to clear, with breaks in the clouds and soft blue patches of sky.

But once I started driving east towards Tucson, I caught up to the clouds and rain and arrived there, having merged onto busy Interstate 10, in driving rain plus all that water that speeding cars and truck throw up. I had no firm destination, was running on empty and couldn't deal with finding a gas station in the rain.

I finally pulled off an exit near the Sweetwater Wetlands and sat in the parking lot for an hour, at which time the rain stopped leaving pristine clean foliage and sunny blue skies. But while munching on a breakfast bar, a piece of tooth broke off. S--t! At my last dentist appointment in Michigan in October, he had told me this was a vulnerable area and that next time, we/he would work on it. So, after stewing about options for 15 minutes, I searched online for dentists in Tucson. Pretty high on my list of things I don't want to do is go to a strange dentist, but I found one whose website said I could message them which I did and (surprise, surprise) never got a reply. By then, I realized it didn't hurt at all; it was on the upper back inside and did what I do well - decided to procrastinate. I would keep the area super clean and see what happened.
Sweetwater Wetlands - Tucson, AZ

Besides, there was a wetlands to explore. Sweetwater is an urban place, an artificial wetlands adjacent to / and part of a not-so-sweet wastewater treatment faculty. It was created to restore the riparian habitat of the Santa Cruz River which runs (usually underground now) through Tucson.

WWW.FRIENDSOFSANTACRUZRIVER.ORG
The Santa Cruz River (SCR) originates in the Canelo Hills area of southeastern Arizona. It flows south into Mexico, makes a U-turn after about a 12-mile run, and heads back north into the U.S. where it crosses east of the twin cities of Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona. It is one of the few rivers in the world that run south, then north; and is the only one in the U.S. to cross an international border twice...Today, the river is much changed from its former self. Groundwater pumping has lowered the level of the subsurface water that once was shallow enough to support reliable surface flow in many places.The river’s existence as a visible stream is now “effluent dependent,” that is, its surface flow through much of Santa Cruz County is dependent on the discharge of treated wastewater (effluent) from the bi-national Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant (NIWTP).

WWW.AZHERITAGEWATERS.NAU.EDU

Beginning about five miles north of the International Boundary near Lochiel, the river becomes perennial for about a two-mile reach. The remainder of the Santa Cruz River within the basin is ephemeral. 

A poetic phrase, an "ephemeral river...." I crossed it several times, on bridges crossing only sand with areas of brush and the braided eroded channels I see all over, where summer monsoons (or any heavy rain) find a way through and over the sunbaked earth. There are hundreds of "washes" everywhere, and the road always "dips" when crossing these: "Do Not Enter When Flooded" signs warning of DIPS were unique a week ago but no longer.

The Santa Cruz River was was another thread I could have followed for hours.....

At any rate, the Sweetwater Wetlands is partially sanitized water and cattail marshes, willows, cottonwoods, overlooks and an extensive trail system. How nice to visit a project of expiation. The I10 traffic in the background was easily ignored as I walked a couple of hours in this lovely spot, seeing two dozen birds. The highlights were three immature or female Hooded Mergansers, uncommon here; Gila Woodpeckers, a life bird; many Verdins, an Abert's Towhee, a Red-naped Woodpecker and an active Red-tailed Hawk constantly hunting the wetlands which I saw numerous times. 
Hooded Mergansers at Sweetwater Wetlands - Tucson, AZ


I talked with a gentleman from the UK whom I met on the trail. He was in the States for business and mentioned the pouring rain he had in San Francisco and which had followed him here on his brief US birding venture, including the downpour this morning. But all was clear now.... 

An eBird report from the previous day listed over 50 birds. I didn't scan the restricted "dirtier" wastewater area, but there were many shorebird and waterfowl species there if I had been concerned about just a big list. What I didn't see but wished I had was a rare Lucy's Warbler, seen the day before. 

Reluctantly leaving Sweetwater as sunset approached, I got gas and then found a Walmart with a Starbucks almost IN the parking lot, which is where I spent the next couple of hours and ate my dinner of smoothie and three madeleines. 

There were more RVs in this parking lot than any place else I've stayed, probably because it was one of the few Walmarts in the greater Tucson area that allows overnight parking. For once, I didn't settle there until 9:30 which works out much better for not waking too early. 

Read The Worst Hard Time by Egan for awhile and slept soundly. 




2 comments:

  1. I'm really beginning to love ducks - the hooded mergansers are so unusual. Can't say they are beautiful like the wood duck though.

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  2. Look at them in breeding plumage; they are much more elegant, but yes the Wood Duck is stunning!

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