May 09, 2010 – May 16, 2010 - Benson, Arizona, Kartchner Caverns State Park

We packed up for our move to Benson, Arizona. It didn’t take us long to get here. We went to the SKP’s park but the office was closed on Sunday and we were going to have to dry camp today. It was quite hot (in the 90’s) and we didn’t want to be without the air conditioner. We decided to go on to Kartchner Caverns State Park. They had plenty of room. We had lunch then headed to the cavern and took the tour. It was very nice, we enjoyed it.

May 10 - We got up quite early (5:30). It starts getting light about 4:15 a.m.!! We headed out to the Chiricahua National Monument. We had been here about 8 years ago but didn’t hike any of the trails and had always wanted to come back. The morning was very cool and windy. Very nice hiking weather. We decided to hike the Echo Canyon Loop Trail. It’s 3.3 miles and consists of Echo Canyon, Hailstone and Ed Riggs Trails. The trail winds through spectacular rock formations.

We heard a raven overhead making a lot of noise. We looked down into the canyon and saw him mobbing a Golden Eagle! We watched for quite a while before the eagle had enough and took off.

After dinner we walked over to the Cavern’s visitor center. It was closed so there wasn’t anyone around, which we really enjoyed. There is a very nice hummingbird garden where we saw a Costa’s Hummingbird!

May 11 - We got up at 5:30 and drove into Sierra Vista to go to Miller Canyon to Beatty’s place. He has put a lot of work into the place since we were here last. We sat up at the hummingbird feeders for a while and saw Berylline, Broad-billed, Blue-throated, Magnificent, Black-chinned, Anna’s, White-eared and Broad-tailed. We walked up the canyon to see the spotted owl. He was quite close to the trail and we got very good looks.

May 12 - We went to San Pedro House this morning. We got there at 7:00- right when a bird walk was starting. There were only 3 people so we decided to go too. It was a 4 hour walk. We saw a great horned owl, Abert’s Towhee, gopher snake. It was a very pleasant, cool morning.

May 13 - We decided to hike the loop trail around Kartchner Caverns. It was a great hike. The trail went around the mountain that the cavern is in. There was a look-out trail that was pretty strenuous. I pooped out about half way up but Mark went all the way to the top. We saw several pretty lizards!

May 14 - We drove out to Fort Huachuca this morning, drove up Garden Canyon to Sawmill Canyon. We saw Cassin’s Vireo (a lifer, our 2nd one this trip), heard some turkeys, saw a Cooper’s Hawk nest.

May 15 - We drove down to the French Joe Canyon. The road into the canyon was very rough. It took about 45 minutes to go 2 ½ miles! It was nice in the canyon. Lots of trees and a little bit of water trickling down.

Photos: Arizona State Line, Mark standing on a Hoodoo (Chiricahua National Monument), Spotted Owl, Collard Lizard, French Joe Canyon.

May 6, 2010 – May 9, 2010 - Rodeo, New Mexico

We moved to Rodeo, NM today. We’re staying at Rusty’s RV Ranch.

After supper we went out for a walk and noticed a lot of smoke coming from the other side of the mountain. There is a large wildfire on the other side of the ridge. After the sun went down the wind shifted and there didn’t seem to be as much smoke coming our way.

May 7 - We got up early (5:30 NM time, 4:30 AZ time) and drove to Portal, AZ. It was quite cool (50°). We parked at the post office and walked down Portal Road. There was one house where we were invited to come into their yard and sit. We saw Gambel’s Quail, Blue-throated and Black-chinned Hummingbirds, and a bunch of Western Tanagers.

We drove on up to South Cave Creek and walked about a mile up the trail. We had a Painted Redstart that followed us for a while. He kept getting right in front of us!

We also saw Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Hermit Thrush, Black-throated Gray, Orange-crowned, Lucy’s, Yellow-rumped, Townsend’s, and Wilson’s Warbler.

While we were looking at an Elegant Trogon, a Law Enforcement officer came up the trail to tell us there was a wildfire on the ridge and we needed to go ahead and head back to our car. This was the same fire we were seeing last night.

We drove on down to the Southwest Research Station. They have built a new gift shop that is very nice. We bought a couple of t-shirts and talked to the women running the store. She said the fire came very close to her house last night.

May 8 - We drove up Paradise Road this morning. There is a wonderful home owned by Jackie Walker (called the Walker House). She has her yard open to birders. We sat there for over an hour and saw Lazuli Buntings, Juniper Titmouse, etc. She has a very nice boxer named Tundra!

We went up to Rustler Park (over 8,000 feet up). There was snow on the ground in some places.

We stopped at Dave’s place on Foothills Road. In the log/guest book several people had mentioned a large rattlesnake. We found him!

Photos: Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Mark with a snowball, Painted Redstart, our RV, Sunset, Sunrise.

May 3, 2010 – May 6, 2010 - Silver City, New Mexico

We left Uvalde, Texas this morning. We had a wicked head wind through Texas! We’re staying at a very nice RV park called Manzano’s. It’s cool (67°), very sunny and pleasant. We were told that they had snow here yesterday! We seemed to have left the wind behind.

May 4 - We got up fairly early to go to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. It was 38° when we woke up. There was frost on the picnic table outside out RV!.

The guide book said it would take 2 hours to get to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. It’s not that long of a drive but the road is very winding. We stopped at several places and campgrounds on the road to look at birds. We found Red-faced Warblers, Painted Redstarts, etc.

It took us quite a while to get to the dwellings. The bridge was out (partially washed away) so we had to park about 1 ½ miles from the trailhead.

The cliff dwellings were awesome! We had a great time!

May 5 - We drove to The Catwalk this morning. It’s a mining area that was discovered in 1889. The Catwalks were built in 1961 and renovated in 2004. It is in Whitewater Canyon. In places, the Canyon is 20 feet wide and 250 feet deep.

Photos: The first two photos were taken at The Catwalk. The second two photos are from the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

April 28, 2010 – May 3, 2010 - Davis Mountains State Park, Texas

We got up early and left for Davis Mountains State Park. We got site #20, same one we had last Thanksgiving. The park is full of Casita’s! It turns out that a Casita’s group was having a rally.

April 29 - We drove to the Lawrence Woods picnic area. Hiked the Madera Canyon Loop (2.4 miles).

About 9:00 p.m. we hiked up the trail behind our campsite. There was no moon, it was pretty dark. There were a lot of stars out. Once we got to the top of the mountain, the wind was howling!!

April 30 - We went to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center & Botanical Gardens. We ended up walking about 2 ½ miles. We had never been there this time of the year and there were a lot of cactus blooming.

May 2 - We walked the HQ trail this morning. It’s the trail that starts behind Indian Lodge and ends up by the park headquarters. It turned out to be about 2 ¼ miles.

Photos: Javelina, View from Madera Canyon Trail

April 26, 2010 – April 28, 2010 - Uvalde, Texas

We’re at the Quail Springs RV Park in Uvalde, Texas.

April 27: We left the RV at 6:30 and drove to Garner State Park. We got there too early for the office to be open so we didn’t have a trail map. We walked on a few trails but didn’t want to get lost so we back tracked to the car. Once we got back home we googled a trail map and found out we had hiked 5 miles!

We saw several Golden-cheeked Warblers on our hike.

Photos: Teri at the base of a giant Bald Cypress, Frio River, Mark next to the river.

April 11, 2010 - April 26, 2010 - Mission, Texas

We moved to the Valley today. We got to the AmeriCana RV park about 1:00. It’s a really nice park. All the winter Texans have left so it’s pretty empty, just like we like it!

Sharon and Rick had invited us over for dinner. Sharon is a fabulous cook. We had a wonderful visit.

We’re right outside the Bentsen Rio Grande World Birding Center. We have taken some guided bird walks and walked around by ourselves quite a bit, especially in the evening.

On one of our walks our guide, Javier, found a Cane Toad. It was huge and had a foot missing. Javier showed us a couple of trees that had elf owls in them. We went back a couple of evenings and watched them emerge. We also saw several bobcats and heard Chuck-wills-widow’s and Pauraque.

We visited Santa Ana, Estero Llano Grande, and Frontera Audubon. We saw a lot of birds and really enjoyed ourselves.

We drove to S. Padre Island. Stopped at the visitors center to get a map to the ‘woodlot’. It was hopping! We saw Cerulean Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler (a lifer for us!), lots of Indigo Buntings, etc.

We also visited the S. Padre Island World Birding Center. It’s brand new with a lot of boardwalks. Very nice! It rained on us a little while but there are covered seating areas that we were able to get under.

Photos: Mark in front of the S. Padre Island World Birding Center, the beautiful headquarters of the birding center, and a very large Cane Toad.

April 5, 2010 – April 11, 2010 – Elgin, Texas to Goose Island State Park, Texas

Night view from the pier


Black Skimmer


Black-bellied Whistling Duck


Brown Pelican

We have spent the last 4 days going through the house, getting rid of stuff, and packing the RV. Today we left the house at 11:00 am. We got to Goose Island SP at 2:30.

Mark started to get the Internet stuff set up and realized he left the USB receiver at the house. We leave early in the morning to go back home to get it.

Later that evening we walked down to the pier. There were a couple of dolphins that were about 50 feet out!

On Tuesday we headed back to Elgin to pick up the USB and a few other things we thought of. We spent about 30 minutes in the house and headed back.

While at Goose Island SP we went to a shorebird program and a songbird program given by Dennis Haessly. We really enjoyed his presentation. The morning after each program Dennis led a bird walk. One evening he had a presentation on short-eared owls. We also went on a wildflower walk and learned a lot about the different wildflowers in the area.