Day One, Sunday the 12, 2007
At 7:00 I got up out of bed in Ruidoso, NM, which is a town on the outskirts of Lincoln National Forest. My Grandparents have a cabin there, so we were staying here.
By 10:15 we had the car loaded and were ready to make the 5-hour drive to Portal, AZ, and Coronado National Forest! I was really exited, and after my mom said goodbye, we hit the road. The drive wasn't bad at all, it had wonderful desert and mountain scenery and I slept most of the way.
We stopped in Las Cruces at a subway joint to get some lunch, 'cuz we were starving. We ordered a footlong Pastrami Sub, split it in half, and barely managed to get our mouths around it.
Very delicious though.In a couple of hours, our GPS showed us getting closer and closer, until we crossed the NM/AZ border. I didn't even see a sign saying: "Welcome to Arizona"! I guessed this place was pretty deserted, and when we arrived in Portal, I found I was right. The only buildings there were A little shop which we drove past, and a several houses.
About two or three miles up Portal Road, we approached a sign that said: Cave Creek, Coronado National Forest. We were finally there. I was trying to think of the bird I'd most like to see, but before I could we had driven into the parking lot of the visitors center. It looked as if it had once been a house for someone. Inside, there was a lady who helped us choose the campground to stay at. We decided on Sunny Flat, because it was the closest to the South Fork, a.k.a. "Home of Trogons".
I also picked up some flyers and crappy checklist that hadn't been updated since 1983 (what the heck is a Brown Towhee and a Gray-breasted Jay?!?!?!?!?!? ).We drove in our old minivan past Idelwilde and Stewart Campground, where the rare Berylinne Hummer was nesting. I decided that as soon as we were settled in, we would go looking for the nest.
At roughly four in the afternoon, sweating and being tortured by the relentless gnats, we had set the way-too-big-tent up (my mom bought it, ya know how girls are about camping) In #4, Sunny Flat. I went down to Cedar Creek, filled the cheap hummer feeder I bought with fresh water, and mixed it with sugarwater.
Thirty minutes later, full with ham/cheese sandwiches, The first bird arrived, a hummingbird. It zipped to the feeder, with a dark tail with white tips, and a bright iridescent blue throat-patch. A Blue-throated Hummingbird, my first lifer!!! It stayed for ten more seconds, then sped off into the woods. It went to a nearby perch and started squealing a high pitched "seek, seek, seek" over and over again, relentlessly. It kept coming back and speeding back to the tree. I had a feeling he would be here for awhile, so I nicknamed him Bob Bluethroat.
Using the directions from the AZ/NM listerv, we had found our way to the Berylinne Hummer tree thirty minutes later. I scanned around for the nest; the bugs were biting, crawling, itching, buzzing, and it was the heat of the day... I quickly gave up, and my dad and I drove back to portal to buy some bug spray at the shop.
At night we drove around South Fork to look for nightjars and goatsuckers, possibly some owls, but with no luck. I figured there wasn't much chance of finding an owl anyways because playing recordings is prohibited during the breeding season, which I think is an excellent rule.
At sunset, my dad built a fire and we ate a wonderful dinner of corned beef hash, and then watched the beautiful stars in a pitch dark sky clear of bright city lights. I even saw a shooting star. Now I ain't the superstitious type, but I couldn't help but think that I would have lots of luck seeing many species the next day after seeing the meteor.
I set the alarm for 5:50 in the morning and dreamed of trogons...
Day two report coming soon