Sky Islands - A Few Birds - A Dessert Question

In this post we will look at a couple of Sky Islands here in Arizona, view a couple of other areas, find a few birds, and ask a question about desserts. We will jump around a bit with the information and images since this is not really a themed post so bear with us and read on.

There about 194 named mountain ranges in Arizona many of which are not Sky islands.
Sky Islands are isolated mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and northern Mexico.

Some of the mountains rise more than 6,000 feet above the surrounding desert floor making the lowlands and high peaks drastically different.

Plants and animals living in the mountains could never survive in the surrounding deserts. Thus by analogy, the mountains are “islands” surrounded by deserts that are “seas”.

Sky Islands are places where you can see incredible plant diversity in only a few miles. It is easy to visit both deserts and alpine areas in the same day.

Here are the Huachuca Mountains that are located to the west of Sierra Vista. We are, in this image, north of the Huachuca and there has been some wet and snowy weather the past few days.

This image is of the Dragoon Mountains east of Benson and on the North West side of Sulphur Springs Valley. Cochise Stronghold National Monument is located in these mountains. The image was taken from the Benson City Grill which is located at the Golf Course in Benson, AZ. It is a great place to eat and has some wonderful views.

Adjacent to the Golf Course mentioned above is a reclamation pond for water treatment and the water is used on the golf course. This Canvasback along with many other water fowl can be found on the reclamation ponds and the several lakes and ponds on the golf course.

To the west and north of the Huachuca Mountains, out in the grasslands, is a large cattle ranch called Babacomari. It is from an old Spanish land grant and there is a lot of history about the ranch on the internet if you are interested, just search for Babacomari. This sign is part of the front gate to the private ranch. You can drive through the ranch to get where we are headed the Appleton-Whittell Audubon Research Ranch.

Neat sign along the road to the ranch and yes they raise cattle on the 18,000 acres of grasslands and riparian areas. We were told in this environment that it will take about 25 acres to provide forage for a cow/calf pair.

Here is the start of the Research Ranch that is owned and managed by Audubon. You need to drive through the Babacomari Ranch to get here so a common road provides access.

Behind the sign in this image is the west side of the Huachuca Mountains. You can see how they rise above the desert. Appleton-Whittell is approximately 8,000 acres and primarily used for grassland research. There are over 100 different species of grasses that can be found here and unfortunately some introduced non-native species that are very invasive.

This is a little closer look at the west side of the Huachuca Mountains. The highest peak in the Huachucas is Miller peak at an elevation of 9,466 feet. The buildings down in the foreground are some of the offices and houses at the research ranch.

Here is another small mountain range that rises out of the grasslands. These are called the Mustang Mountains. They are on the north side of the Babacomari Ranch

Since we are in the grasslands we can find sparrows and other grassland birds. This is a Vesper Sparrow distinguished by the bold eye ring and the strong patterning on the face. Often they don’t pose very well for their picture.

One of the Sky Islands is the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. We are on the east side of the Santa Ritas looking west. On the west side is a well-known birding location called Madera Canyon. These various mountain ranges support vast numbers of migrating birds in the spring providing food and shelter and a pathway north away from the desert environment.

By the way they are not always covered with snow; this image was taken shortly after a series of storms had passed through the area.

Speaking of storms, this vehicle, a 1950 Ford, is parked about two spaces from us in the RV Park. It is snowing and we wanted to let you know that the Arizona weather is not all sunshine and warm balmy days. It does snow here but not too much, so far.

We have mentioned Whitewater Draw before; it is a great birding location here in south eastern Arizona. This image looks across some of the water towards the southern end of the Dragoon Mountains. If you look closely in the image you can see a line of white specks, those are snow geese on the water and behind them are many Sandhill Crane. One report claimed there are over 17,000 Sandhill in the Whitewater Draw area of Arizona this winter.

In one of the wetland areas at Whitewater we found this Wilson’s snipe. The markings and coloration on the Snipe help it blend in quite well with the surrounding environment and make it difficult to find.

Blackbirds lots of blackbirds. This is a mixture of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Brewers blackbirds, Red-wing Blackbirds, and Lark Buntings. They were quite a flock. How they can fly so seemingly close together and not run into one another is always surprising.

Perched on a power pole not far from Whitewater Draw was this Prairie Falcon. They are birds built for speed with long, pointed, powerful wings. They feed on a variety of other critters, rodents and rabbits in the spring and summer and in winter they will catch and eat Meadowlarks.

This was a just a fun and interesting image that we saw at Whitewater. A Red-tail Hawk perched on a pole with a large, not full moon coming up.

We like to find signs especially the ones that are humorous or don’t make sense. This contraption was along a trail by Parker Canyon Lake and is designed for fishermen to put nylon filament fishing line into so it is not just left lying around where critters and birds can get tangled up. Obviously the sign requesting “No cans, No Bottles, No Trash…..Warning No Garbage” was useless as it seems that is almost all there is in the fishing line collection device.

We had not seen one of these in a long time. At "The Horseshoe Cafe" in Benson, AZ was this music player. It is probably the original Itunes device. You get 3 plays for a quarter and you can, sitting at your table, choose the songs you want to hear by using the red buttons located at the bottom. Selecting K9 for example will play Ritchie Valens "La Bamba" from 1958. Neat device and my how the times and technology has changed. By the way, the food was very good at the cafe.

A last look at one of the Sky Islands. These are the Whetsone Mountains north of The Huachuca Mountains and Sierra Vista. Here, looking at them from the west side you can clearly see how they rise up out of the grasslands. The high point is Apache Peak at 7,711 feet. There are no roads in this sky island and the single trail starts in Karchner Caverns State Park on the eastern side.

We found this partial description of the Whetstones on the internet and borrowed it for further explantion. The Whetstone Mountains form a critical linkage in the chain of Arizona’s sky islands, connecting the Rincon and Santa Catalina Mountains in the north to the Huachuca Mountains and the Sierra Madre to the south. This may allow large mammals such as jaguar to move northward unimpeded, and provides rest stops for migrating songbirds.

OK here is a philosophical question about desserts. This menu is the first page, the cover as it were, for the Velvet Elvis Restaurant in Patagonia. (Odd name but a great place to eat). It shows the dessert offerings. Question: If you only order and eat dessert “Pistachio Cookie a La Mode” as it were have you eaten dessert or really had just the main course that consisted of savory delights and consisted of many of the major food groups - carbohydrates - pistachios - ice cream - etc. You have not really eaten dessert because this was the main course. Isn’t that true?

We hope you enjoyed a quick look around at some of the Sky Islands, a few birds, some other sights, and that you wrestled with the pressing question about dietary consumption and definitions. Looking around the great state of Arizona is a lot of fun.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna