Blue Goose ~ Day 203

December 16, 2014 ~ Sierra Vista, AZ to Nogales, AZ

It was cool this morning but the sun was shining as I drove for 15 miles to Ash Canyon where Mary Jo Ballator maintains a casita B and B and a yardful of feeders. I spent an hour in a comfortable chair (there were at least two dozen of these placed advantageously for viewing the birds) with a down jacket and a lap blanket.

Mary Jo's Ash Canyon B and B - AZ

Mary Jo came and sat with me and we spent a delightful half hour talking about her situation and the birds /birders she attracts. She built her straw-bale home, which fortunately survived a devastating man-made fire in 2011, even though the fire roared through her property. She noted that the firefighters dropped slurry on her roof which also helped save it.

A few days previously, she had had a covey of Montezuma Quail move across her yard. She told me they eat tubers and bulbs and are secretive and difficult to attract. But the variety of bird activity, even on this cold breezy day, was impressive, with woodpeckers, thrashers, goldfinches, jays, nuthatches, a tame Bewick's Wren, Anna's Hummingbirds and satisfying views of a Sharp-shinned Hawk as it flew in and perched near the feeders for a couple of minutes. Her immediate yard overlooks a side canyon and a wetland (cienaga) is near enough to attract waterfowl; thus, her yard list is impressive... in the 250-280 range if I am remembering right. She has been doing this a couple of decades, tucked at the end of a rocky road in stunning landscape. Mary Jo is mentioned specifically in the newest edition of the bird-finding guide published by the Tucson Audubon Society. Cookie, her African Gray Parrot kept trying to get her attention from inside, tapping on the window and pleading.... Mary Jo, her parrots and cats coexist here peaceably.  She is a knowledgeable and interesting lady. DHC and I will definitely visit in April....

My next stop was Bisbee, Arizona and what a place that is with a huge, gigantic open pit mine, lovely warm red earth, blue skies...a quaint and quirky place with art and antique and gift stores here in the southern Arizona desert, colorful and striking, surviving on its history and its contemporary status as a tourist destination...a place to buy stuff, which I did (a few things).

I looked through a couple of the emporiums filled in every possible nook and niche with stuff...books,

jewelry, dishes and pottery, old toys, photos, posters, vinyl records, shelves of things like salt and pepper shakers, Day of the Dead memorabilia, old scarfs, clothing, tablecloths, samples of the bright minerals found in the area, gold, silver and copper objects and a thousand other things. 

There was a quartet of troubadours wandering about, dressed in suits and wearing hats over their long hair. The pants of the suits were short and showed their socks. They had a dog or two with them and would stop on the sidewalk and play, then move about in and out of stores, generally wandering up and down the street. The town is like San Francisco in that it is built on a steep hill so there are stairs for people to move between levels.

Bisbee, Arizona

Leaving Bisbee, I went north to Whitewater Draw and was too lazy to get out of the car and walk to the open water where there are high concentrations of waterfowl and Sandhill Cranes. Pathetic, but I've seen ducks and cranes. I was in a wide valley with farms and ranches, wanted to see and figure out grassland sparrows, I so headed slowly south along a wide gravel road back to Nogales, where I stayed in a Best Western, almost on the border. I love when I get a room with a western exposure, which I did here, and can watch the sky at sunset and (here) a thousand lights to the south and west...town lights? or border lights?

Bisbee, Arizona