Birding the Casa Grande Ruins and the Agricultural Wasteland of Pinal County, AZ

Casa Grande and the agricultural fields of Coolidge, AZ -

84 miles. It's 84 miles from my office at Saguaro National Park's Desert Learning Center to Casa Grande National Monument in Coolidge Arizona. What that really means is a 2:45am wakeup at my camp on Redington road, high above Tucson to be to be on site by 5:30am for surveys. I was to spend the next two days surveying the birds of Casa Grande Natl Monument. I must admit, I wasn't expecting lively ecology, as the monument is a cultural resources park entirely surrounded by agricultural fields. This notion was to be an erroneous assumption as I was happy to find out. Casa Grande is a massive pueblo structure which was built a matate's throw from the Gila River, in the ancestral farming lands of the Hohokam people. Built sometime in the 1300s, the ruins were first described by Father Kino in the 1600s, and was a well known land-mark in the region for the next 300 years, finally coming under federal protection in the 1890s - early in our nation's attempts to preserve cultural resources. By the 1930s it had become a National Monument, during which time a large pavilion was built over the ruins to preserve the structure's relatively fragile adobe walls. The monument is one of the smallest in the Sonoran Desert Network, surrounded by urban sprawl and agriculture. Highlighting this point, the park's boundaries are formed by two busy state highways, a walmart, a safeway, and a large industrial agriculture irrigation canal. Within the monument, the vegetation is sparse, primarily consisting of aromatic Creosote bush (Larrea sp), with small bosques of mesquite growing within depressions in the landscape, some of which are probably ancestral ball-courts.

Potsherds on the desert plain surrounding Casa Grande.

I often get to see these monuments and parks before anyone else shows up to work, a nice time for a morning stroll!

The sparse habitat and surrounding urban setting makes for interesting bird compositions; lots of species typically associated with agricultural fields, mourning, white-winged, and Eurasian-collared doves, pigeons, lots of blackbirds (Icterids), and a handful of desert residents. Driving up to the monument at 4:00 am, my mind was on one of the site's more interesting species, some burrowing owls that were reportedly living in some Arizona State Game and Fish - created burrows. The reports did not disappoint, as I found at least 3 individuals, one of which was very bold and incredibly photogenic. To find a Burrowing Owls in a heterogeneous landscape, you must let your imagination run wild and turn every stump, rock, and grass clump into a potential owl. Luckily the first individual I found was perched on a large dead mesquite snag. I waited until the transect was complete to try and get some photos, I was really pleased with the results! A caution with Burrowing Owls, during the nesting season owls can be disrupted by approaching their burrows, these individuals were far from their burrows foraging and not too bothered by my presence (from a considerate distance away). 

Burrowing Owl, Casa Grande NM, Pinal Co., AZ

Burrowing Owl, Casa Grande NM, Pinal Co., AZ

Some other cool birds in the park included a migrating Wilson's Warbler hanging out in one of the Mesquite bosques near the Visitor's Center. It was great to see a colorful neotropic migrant like this surrounded by so much development. The Wilson's wasn't alone as a neotropical migrant, Lucy's, Audubon's, and Orange-crowned Warblers were all found within the park on the first morning, each heading for greener pastures to the north.

Wilson's Warbler, Casa Grande NM, Pinal Co., AZ

The monument housed another fun species, although these were not feathered, they attracted a lot of attention - Round-tailed Ground-squirrels. These energetic and coy ground-squirrels lived in a drainage grate within the parking lot and were a lot of fun to watch come in and out of the grate, like a living incarnation of a 'whack-a-mole' game.

Round-tailed Ground-Squirrels, Casa Grande NM, Pinal Co., AZ

While the ruins have been unoccupied by humans for some hundreds of years, plenty of Arizona's wildlife still call it home. Like many other large metal awnings in southern Arizona, a pair of Great-horned Owls were utilizing the structure as a diurnal roost, while the ruins themselves was acting as a nest. While I was not able to find the baby (the staff informed me that at least 1 owlet was tucked away into the ruin), the two adult parents were fast asleep high in the metal roof.

Great-horned Owl roosting above the ruins.

In all, I ended up seeing 39 species at Casa Grande over the course of two days, far more than I expected, with a few oddities brought in by the desert canal, like White-faced Ibis, and Great-blue Heron, strange sights to see flying over a desert plain.

Saguaro in bloom, Casa Grande NM, Pinal Co., AZ

There are a few mighty Saguaros outside of the visitor center, this was probably a much more common vegetation type here in the area at the time of occupation by the indigenous peoples. Today the Saguaros have been cleared for row crops and hay fields, with a few scattered across the rocky hillsides that border the valley on slopes too steep for the plow. Sometimes it takes a relict plant like this to make one realize just how sweeping landscape changes can be. In a hundred years period we've cleared the beautiful and lush Sonoran desert and with our aquaduct projects, river diversions, and laser-leveling combines we've made enough hay to fed all of the dairies and feedlots in the west. Aldo Leopold wrote about relict patches of tall-grass prairies growing in old cemetaries in the northern Great Plains. Wildflowers and economically un-desirable grasses, the last of their kind spending out their days in a retirement home of sorts. Leopold speculated that some of these native plants would probably disappear into oblivion as these last relicts were put under plow or take out for a highway widening project - you know, progress. As I drove back to Tucson, this point was highlighted when my truck was hit with the dust-storm from a combine tilling up more of the fragile desert soil. While we humans have certainly created economic prosperity from what was historically an arid land, only able to support small bands of people, we're also using our natural heritage at an alarming rate. Desert soils blowing away, desert plants disappearing, and the river's of the west dying out here in the agricultural fields of central Arizona. Weeks later I would drive north of Casa Grande on my way north and drive across a bridge, under which was a dry dusty wash. The sign informed me this was the Gila River. The mighty Gila that carves it's way through those blue mountains of southwest New Mexico goes to die in the desert of Arizona, to feed Phoenix's growth and golf courses, to grow hay and row crops. Casa Grande represents a 700 year old structure that was built in support of a vibrant farming culture that relied on the Gila, their diversions and ditches were probably modest, built with 13th century technology. While we'll never get back to that way of life without a push and a shove, sites like Casa Grande National Monument can at least act as a relict of 'worthless' desert creosote plain, reminding us what places like the Gila River valley once looked like.

The future is blowing in the wind. Soil Erosion from a combine in the ag-lands of Pinal Co., AZ

Sycamore Canyon and the Pajarita Mountains - 5/16/2015 - Tropical life and tropical peoples where Mexican butterflies and Mexican migration meet in southern Arizona's most tropical of canyons

At about 10:00 in the morning this past Saturday (5/16/2015) I found myself just a couple of miles into Sycamore Canyon, a remarkably wet, north-south running canyon in western Santa Cruz County, AZ (More info on Sycamore Canyon from Coronado National Forest ). The canyon is somewhat famous in biogeographic circles for it's tropical influences of flora and fauna meeting with more northerly species. I was at a point in the canyon I refer to as 'the narrows', where enough water in the stream bed precludes a traveler from following the creek bottom, and the rock along the sides is steep and relatively smooth enough to warrant very close climbing attention - a slip would mean a bath in the best case scenario,  and a busted ankle in the worst.

The 'narrows' of Sycamore Canyon.

Sycamore Canyon, a ribbon of riparian through the Atascosa Mountains of southern Arizona

It was at this moment, trying to figure out how I should approach this canyon conundrum, when a flash of blue and black flushed from the rocks below my feet, the flash revealed it's self as a brushfoot butterfly (a large family including some of the most recognized species, like the Monarch). The butterfly glided, and then batted wings again up and above me. While I only had a fleeting look in flight for a moment, it's size, color pattern, and my biogeographic location sent my heart-rate into overdrive. Adrenaline kicked in as I slung my pack down, quickly grabbed my camera (with my 'good butterfly glass', my canon f3.5, 18-135mm lens) and began a frantic chase after this butterfly up ledges, down rock slides in a frenzied ballet of lepidopteran proportions. The butterfly alit on a vertical cliff face, a Bluewing! I was able to approach slowly, with the sun to my back, but my shadow off to the side of the butterfly. This is the number one rule in butterfly chasing, your shadow is your biggest enemy and number one factor in inadvertenly flushing a butterfly, given the right shadow-management (I'm coining this term here, let's see if it sticks!) you can put your finger on a skipper's proboscis. I was able to get stellar photographs of this Blackened Bluewing, a member of an extremely attractive, large group of tropical brushfoots, and a very rare stray to the United States. 

Blackened Bluewing butterfly in Sycamore Canyon, Santa Cruz Co., AZ, 5/16/2015

I had experience with this species from a very brief previous encounter in the Alamos region of southern Sonora, Mexico last summer, but no photographs and an all too fleeting look. In birding terms this would be like a slate-throated redstart or something of that tropical magnitute gracing this side of the border. After 15 minutes of watching this superb specimen I gathered my wits, allowed my heart rate to return to something approaching normal and climbed over (river right) the narrows. 

 

Sycamore Canyon downstream of the narrows, long pools like this and hundreds of others are connected during high flow months and support several species of desert canyon fish, as well as a host of dragonflies and damselflies.

The other side of the narrows instantly felt different, perhaps it was happenstance, but upon getting off the rocks I instantly found one of the canyon's most famous plant residents, the famed ball-moss. This pineapple-family species (Bromeliads) is a farily common flowering epiphyte in Coastal regions of Texas (More info on Wikipedia). This is not Texas. This is far from Texas, and could not be considered coastal by any means. The nearest other population of this species is found many miles away to the south. 

This botanical oddity was not alone, just downstream of this point, from beneath the shade of Pinons, Sycamores, Willow, and Wanut, towering above this riparian corridor stood a massive 12m tall Saguaro, a stately centurian with full blooms. A handful of these giant columnar sentinals guard over the canyon from the arid heights above, ever reminding one of the desert that lies just outside of the watertable's reach. The tree and shrub diversity (of which I feel I'm qualified to talk about, the number of herbaceous plants must be truly amazing, but I'm a macro-botanist!) in a place like Sycamore Canyon is truly amazing; Rocky Mountain, One-seed, Alligator Junipers, Sycamore, Cottonwood, Walnut, Willows, Black Cherry, Pinon, Chihuahan Pine, Poison Ivy (as a vine, shrub, and undergrowth plant), Ceanothus, Chuparosa, and oaks, lots of oaks; Emory, Netleaf, Arizona-white, and probably more I missed. 

The trophy bird of southern Arizona, a male Elegant Trogon. Sycamore canyon is home to many many Trogans, unusual given the canyon's lack of surrounding pine habitat and relatively low elevation.

Another look at a male Elegant Trogan, this photograph shows off the huge bulging eye of the Trogon.

I should add somewhere in this post that I saw a few birds in Sycamore canyon as well as rare butterflies and cool trees. Over the course of 3 days I spent in the canyon, Friday afternoon - Sunday morning, I saw 70+ species, including 11 Elegant Trogans, Gray Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk,  Common-black Hawk, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Rufous-winged Sparrows, and Varied Buntings. With Summer Tanagers and Vermilion Flycatchers around every corner, this was truly a fantastic couple days of colorful, quintessential Southern Arizona birds. As the missle-like trilling of Montezuma quail ran right into the rhythmic notes of the Common Poorwill as the stars, unhindered by any light pollution, began to put on their show. At my camp near the mouth of the canyon I heard Elf Owls barking and Great-horned Owls hooting away. (List of checklists: Friday Evening eBird checklist , Saturday's long hike eBird checklist , Saturday evening eBird checklist - owls , Sunday morning eBird checklist )

A young curious Bewick's Wren, showing his youthful gape, that orange extending from the bill back in the cheek. In nearly all species this is a great field mark for distinguishing juvenile birds.

Human Elements
When I bird the borderlands, the border issues that are an everyday fact for a handful of migrants, smugglers, and border patrol agents is never far from my thoughts. As someone who is very liberal when it comes to immigration reform, anti-NAFTA, and disdains the economic subjugation of Mexico by the US, I'm filled with mixed emotions when I come across the tell-tale signs of human migration northward into the US. On the one hand, part of me is initially glad that people are making the trip, going after a better life. On the immediate second hand is the sorrow and anger I feel for the people making the trip, putting their lives in this sort of danger while our country 'fixes' the immigration problem by hiring more buzz-cut Border Patrol agents and new shiny  all-terrain trucks. This seems to be a very American sensibility, fix domestic and economic issues of the world with more law enforcement and militarization.

Waterjug handle, Sycamore Canyon, Santa Cruz Co., AZ

Sycamore canyon is a classic smuggling route (I'll use smuggling here to mean people, drugs, anything, right or wrong), it heads directly north and south, with the far downstream end of the canyon deep into Mexico. I found the signs of people making the journey in their water jugs, old pants, beach towels with superman depiction, and wrappers from packages of mexican ramen noodles and potato chips. I also found the shreds of burlap and carpet booties, those artifacts of  drug smuggling rather than people migration (Burlap sacks are used to transport bales of marijuana, some weighing up to 60lbs. 'Carpet booties' are rough sewn slippers that are put over a pair of boots, they're made of shag carpet, and mask the direction of a footstep and lessen the depth of a footprint, making it difficult to judge how much weight a person is carrying). While the hair on the back of my neck doesn't stand up anymore from this kind of thing, my awareness levels in this region are always at a high level, sometimes I feel like a housecat; every sound or slightest movement gets my attention as my brain runs through my acoustical-visual algorithm to determine the causal agent. If one listens hard enough, you can distinguish between a rock let loose by a Rock Squirrel or a rubber-soled boot.

The cave with the names. This cave has probably been used for millenia, by peoples from the ancestral homeland, by people from the south, and perhaps by a jaguar a night or two.

About 4 miles south into the canyon I came across a cave. This was a large, 120 sqft fairly flat floor, nice overhang that would make a cozy hideout in a big rain. The signs of use were everywhere, backpacks, clothes, water bottles, sterno heat cans. The names were the most interesting, supposedly nicknames of smugglers written on the walls, El Koro IIII, or El Tigre III, I took these to mean the number of times they'd made the trip. I wondered if they were still out here in the canyon somehwere, down in Mexico somewhere, or in a jail stateside anywhere. Quien sabe, but the names on the wall remain.

Samaritan water jugs. Por un mundo sin fronterras - For a world without borders.

While the relicts of migrants and smugglers were prevalent in the lower reaches of the canyon, they weren't the only evidence of this second, 'non natural history enthusiast' side of the canyon. The 'samaritans' a loosely, if-at all organized group that seeks to aid people on their journey puts out jugs of clean drinking water in some of these heavily trafficked routes. Each jug had different hand-written messages scrawled on them. No telling how long these had been there, or when they'll be used, but they're there for the weary traveler.

Beauty in the seeps of Sycamore Canyon, a stunning male damsefly (unknown species at the moment).

In the end the only mammals I saw on my walk were a few old rough looking Rock Squirrels. They barked their piping notes from on high as i clumsily walked through their canyon on my vastly inferior two legs compared to their four.

Rock Squirrel, with his mottled gray fur blending in perfectly with the surrounding limestone.

 One other mammal sign is worth a note, and a photo. As I scrambled through a section of the stream bed, I jumped across a pool and landed in soft river gravel, as I landed my heart stopped beating for a moment as I saw a track next to my own boot. This canyon is classic cat country, this mountain lion track was very fresh, potentially from the evening before. While I feel relatively prepared for mountains lions (don't ever bend down, turn away, and bark like a ferocious dog), seeing their track in this sort of rocky canyon, the kind of canyon where they have ancient routes, innumerable hiding spots, and the physical advantage in every sense of the word reminds me of our frailty and place on the food chains. Man may have mastered nature in urban settings, and in the farm  fields of the midwest, and even to some extent here in the southwest, but when traveling alone in a remote mountain canyon, you're in the stronghold of Mountain Lions and Jaguars, and one would do wise to remember it.

Fresh mountain lion track and my boot-print. Sycamore Canyon, AZ 5/16/2015

 The remainder of the hike back to my camp was just as wonderful as in the morning, dragonflies and damselflies filled the air, I added a few more butterfly species to the day's list (which ended with 30+ species, list to be included to the end of this post soon) including some beautiful, tiny, and very accommodating Orange Skipperlings that let me get great macro shots of them. This beautiful, fresh winged individual is in the classic 'jet-fighter' pose that skippers use to maximize warming up their wings.

I returned to my camp by 1800, tired, and ready for an ice cold Modelo that was waiting for me in my cooler. This canyon is one of those special places of the southwest, where the addition of a little water in this arid land brings in Trogons that roost over head, Common Black Hawks who come screaming out of the Sycamores, and the Mountain Lions that still prowl the cool evening hours, and life from the southern portions of the continent, both human and other, that still come to travel this most ancient of migratory corridors. Until next time, hasta luego! - Will JW

One of the hundreds of pools of Sycamore Canyon, Arizona.

Full Butterfly list
Pipevine Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Tiger Swallowtail sp
Orange Sulphur
Mimosa Yellow
Dainty Sulphur
Mexican Yellow
Reakerts Blue
Marine Blue
Gray Hairstreak
Juniper 'Silva' Hairstreak

'Dark Tropical' Buckeye
Common Buckeye
Painted Lady
Queen
Bordered Patch
Red Satyr
Texan Crescent
Blackened Bluewing
Gulf Frillary
Fatal Metalmark
Common Checkered Skipper
Erichson's White Skipper
Orange Skipperling
Skipper sp (pic, working on ID)
Arizona Skipper


Dragonflies
Filigree Skimmer
Flame Skimmer
Red Rock Skimmer
Blue Darner sp