Happy new year! This morning I went to Madera Canyon with a quick stop at Canoa Ranch to catch some birds. In Tucson we had rain coming in so we got an early-ish start.
Madera Canyon
Madera Canyon is one of the ~premiere birding destinations~ of the US. It’s home to over 250 species of birds and many other less-important-to-me animals. Birds aside, the canyon features spectacular scenery and is only about a 50 minute drive from Tucson. Because of the elevation, it’s usually colder than Tucson so can be nice escape from the heat in the summer. There are several great areas to hit in Madera Canyon. Today we just went to a couple:
Santa Rita Lodge at Madera Canyon:
Santa Rita Lodge is a great place to start. There are feeders set up by the lodge which attract many birds, including around 15 types of hummingbirds! The lodge itself is also a good place to buy Elegant Trogon merch. If you do get to see an ET, I recommend flexing on other birders by wearing a t-shirt or earrings with him on there.
At the Lodge this morning, we saw 16 different species of birds. A highlight was a Rivoli’s Hummingbird hovering just inches from our faces! The feeders also bring in a very impressive variety of birds and you can literally sit on a bench to watch them. Amazing. Today we saw: Mexican Jay, Hepatic Tanager, Acorn Woodpecker, Arizona Woodpecker, House Finch, Rivoli’s Hummingbird, Painted Whitestart, Townsend’s Warbler (N2MB), Inca Dove, Mourning Dove, Bridled Titmouse, you get the idea.
Here is a Hepatic Tanager enjoying some quality bird feeder time at feeder 11 (the feeders here are conveniently numbered so you can point out birds annoyingly). They’re named for their jaundice-like color and only make it up to Madera for breeding season. Otherwise, they hang out in Latin America. Must be nice!
Picnic Area:
This area has picnic spots fucking obviously so is a nice place to sit down and enjoy the scenery. More importantly, it’s where people have been seeing Elegant Trogons in the winter. From asking fellow birders, we learned that there are a couple of year-round resident ETs in the canyon. Unfortunately, we did not catch a glimpse of an ET today, but others have been having better luck (eBird).
The most exciting bird of the day was a Williamson’s Sapsucker, a N2MB. I asked a nice guy with a fancy scope if he had seen anything in the area we were in and he pointed the WS out for us, which was great because there was probably a 0% chance we would have seen him otherwise. My number 2 birding tip (after buying decent binocs) is to ask people what they’re seeing. You can really catch some great birds, learn some info, and have a nice chat with a New To You Person (N2YP) this way. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, I was able to snag the world’s worst picture of this bird.
Canoa Ranch:
Canoa Ranch was a working cattle ranch (yee haw) from 1820 to the 1970s. In 2012, its lake was recreated and today is a popular place for ducks to hang out. We saw a few water birds: American Widgeon, Mallard x Domestic Duck, American Coot, Great Blue Heron, and Redheads. The scenery here is also beautiful. Unless you’re pretty bored, I wouldn’t recommend hitting this area unless it’s a stop on a multi-hotspot day tour as the area is quite small. Because we went at off-hours (noonish, windy, and beginning to rain), we did not get to see much this time.
All in all, today we saw 29 types of birds, bringing my 2023 bird total to 29 (lol). I saw 2 N2MBs bringing my life list to 3
join me on a wild goose chase 
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