Blue Goose ~ Day 196

December 9, 2014 ~ Madera Canyon, AZ to Nogales, AZ

I walked by Connie and Joe’s campsite on the way to the bathroom. They offered coffee and breakfast which I accepted. Joe soon had the coffee ready, and Connie made a cheese, egg and veggie tortilla wrap; their mesquite campfire was burning nicely and adding warmth. Although it was warmer today than yesterday, it was still only in the 40s. When the sun clears the mountain tops though, the temperatures quickly rise into the 60s and 70s.  We talked about our respective lives generally and our respective plans for the day specifically.  Meeting them was one of the pleasant surprises that a trip like mine offers. It was serendipitous that they also were seeking birds and appreciating the natural world. 

The second Elegant Trogon wintering spot was Florida Canyon so I went there after leaving Bog Springs, and hiked up a trail to the first high spot, looking and listening. I think I may have heard the trogon three separate times - a loud hoarse barking call - but it was distant and only very intermittent. The habitat had the requisite sycamores that trogons prefer, still with yellow leaves. The morning was again sunny and quiet, easily shirt-sleeve weather by 10 a.m. The canyon bed was dry with large rocks but one can always see evidence of water on the sides of the washes, in the stream bed erosions. in the driftwood tangles and the still-flattened grasses. 

(Within a day or so, someone posted a photo of the trogon right at the trailhead here. So it goes....)

Yes, I decided I would visit my uncle and aunt and found their home on the south end of Green Valley, situated with wonderful views over the valley and of the Santa Ritas on the eastern horizon.

After two hours of visiting, reminiscing and catching up on 20 years of family doings, I left for Buenos Aires NWR. 

(After I went to Buenos Aires, I read The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea -  a true story about a group of Mexicans attempting to illegally enter the United States, and the Border Patrol whose job it is to apprehend them. Please read this book. As the author states, who else is going to bear witness for these unfortunates?  I found it fascinating, especially as I have been driving around southern Arizona for last few weeks.)

The road to Buenos Aires NWR is 50 miles on a road full of curves and dips, through the small town of Arivaca, through a Border Patrol stop, past another group of BP agents farther down the road, standing around with a slightly disheveled Hispanic woman. 

The refuge is eight miles from the border, but the volunteer couple (from Lowell, Michigan) were not bothered as the  BP agents are a near-constant presence. But "everyone told us it was dangerous" when their friends learned where they were going. 

Loggerhead Shrike - Buenos Aires NWR - AZ

The "chicken-scratch" town of Sasabe is just down the road. I almost went there, just to see a town named Sasabe. The "chicken-scratch" adjective comes from the book I just mentioned. 

This couple will be at the refuge for five months, living in an RV, getting their propane, helping out. The volunteer told me that when he was small, his parents made a trip to the American Southwest and bought one of those little clear glass containers with layers of colored sand, representing Arizona. He said he thought it was an exaggeration but is now seeing the sunrises and sunsets and is a believer.  We went down the hill to see a dozen Masked Bobwhite Quail in an screened enclosure. This species is in danger of extinction: 

ARCHIVE.AZCENTRAL.COM

Captive-raised birds don’t have the natural instinct to find food, evade predators or raise their young. The agency has released thousands of birds in the 117,465-acre refuge about 60 miles southwest of Tucson, and sometimes fits them with radio collars to track their movement. The collars have been found in hawk nests. 

WWW.DESERTINVASION.US

In the last century, the Altar Valley was an open grassland teeming with large herds of pronghorn. Aplomado falcons swooped down on rodent prey and masked bobwhite quail calls filled the early morning summer air. Mexican wolves, black bear, and an occasional jaguar roamed the grassland, traveling between mountain ranges.  As settlements sprang up in the Altar Valley in the 1860s, the delicate balance of the ecosystem was changed. Overgrazing left the ground bare, exposing it to torrential summer rains that quickly eroded the soil. With the grass gone and natural fires suppressed, mesquite gained a foothold. The grassland could no longer support masked bobwhite quail or aplomado falcon. Pronghorn, wolves, bear, and jaguar were hunted or trapped out. Lehmann's lovegrass, an African grass, was introduced in the 1970s to help stop erosion. While the grass did hold the soil down and was drought resistant, it was a poor substitute for the diverse native grasses it replaced. An ecosystem without its natural diversity is a bleak landscape for many wild creatures.

In addition to the masked bobwhite quail, Buenos Aires NWR protects habitat for six other endangered species (cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl, Pima pineapple cactus, Kearney bluestar, peregrine falcon, southwest willow flycatcher, and razorback sucker).  

The staff at Buenos Aires works in this remote area of Arizona, in the heat and aridity, in a place that most Americans consider dangerous, in this wild sunny landscape of mountains and desert and grasslands so that our indigenous flora and fauna may again flourish.

The volunteer pointed out two trees on the lawn at the VC: one was a Cedar of Lebanon and the other an Aleppo Pine.

Back to I19 in the golden light of late afternoon, and then down to Nogales, AZ, where I stayed in a Walmart lot. All the signs were in Spanish and I didn't hear anyone speak English. Many of the license plates were from Sonora, which I soon realized was the Mexican state across the border.

My vehicle is cluttered and again needs rearranging. It was cold by morning and I questioned what I was doing.

Between Tucson and Nogales - AZ