Trees - Grasslands - a Few Birds

We have several favorite routes for getting out and about here in South East Arizona. They are mostly in the country away from concentrations of folks. This particular route is to the west of Sierra Vista and traverses over Canelo Pass, out through San Rafael Grasslands and into Patagonia. It has a bit of diverse scenery and habitat and there is always something fun to see along the way.

This shows the route. Sonoita, Arizona is at the top center just off the map and Mexico is along the bottom edge.

South of Elgin you pass through some grasslands on a paved road. There is not much traffic and we can readily stop to see birds. This Grasshopper Sparrow was most cooperative perched on a strand of barbed wire. They do eat grasshoppers but were actually named for their insect buzzing like song.

The paved road we have been on makes a hard turn to the left and goes towards Parker Canyon Dam. We will go straight here getting on Canelo Pass Road, a gravel but well conditioned back country roadway. Lochiel is on the border with Mexico and Patagonia, only 23 miles to the west, will take us about 2 hours to get there because we stop a bit along the way.

This provides a perspective on the road and the countryside. Canelo Pass is not far off in the upper left hand corner of this image. We have climbed up onto a ridge and now will drop down a bit as the road climbs and descends up over the pass.

This is an example of one of the trees you can see along the way. There is mostly juniper, manzanita, and oak. This is a species called Alligator Juniper. They come in all shapes and sizes, this is a nice large specimen.

Here is the reason they are called Alligator Juniper, the pattern on the bark looks a lot like an alligators skin.

Before you reach Canelo Pass the Arizona Trail crosses the road. There is a trail head here for parking. The AZ Trail goes from the Mexico Border to the Utah State Line traversing the Grand Canyon along the way. It is about 800 miles in length and purportedly a difficult trail due to the desert conditions, mountainous terrain, and elevation changes. Please, do not anticipte a post covering the entire trail, at least not on this blog, and certainly not from us.

We are approaching Canelo Pass and we thought we would give you a look at the landscape. The hills you see here are over 5,000 feet high and are not densely covered.

This sign marks Canelo Pass - obviously.

We paused just past the summit. This view is looking to the west across the San Rafael Grasslands. When you reach this point the Verizon Cell phone will beep and you will get a text message welcoming you to Mexico. We are not in Mexico but they think we are and want to charge us a boatload of money to use the cell phone in Mexico.

Looking to the left or uphill side just past the summit we saw this tree. It appears to be a neat looking old and weathered oak.

The same tree and same picture as above but transformed into black and white. It is always fascinating to see the contrast between the two images. Which do you think is more appealing?

We have dropped down onto a series of benches, not to the flat grasslands yet. The trees are becoming sparse and there is this huge spreading oak tree. It sits adjacent to a stock pond. There is not much water in the area.

Looking under the oak we can see the stock pond and a rope swing for the more adventurous. We did not try the rope swing but it looked sturdy enough.

On different trips through here we have seen a variety of birds getting water from this pond, Kildeer, Chipping sparrows, Says Phoebe, Mexican Jays, and others. Here we found several Western Bluebirds. There was a small flock of about 23 Bluebirds flying around and getting water from the pond. There were also several Northern Mockingbirds that drank as well.

When standing under the tree don't forget to look up. There are often a variety of birds in the tree. In this instance we found a White-breasted Nuthatch that was taking acorns that an Acorn Woodpecker had stashed in holes in the tree to be eaten later. The nuthatch figured, why not eat them now.

Continuing down the road we are getting out into the grasslands and the trees are few and far between. Here is a large tree that was previously covered with lush green leaves and lots of birds. The birds search the tree for small insects.

This is a Yellow-rumped Warbler that was scourng the tree. There was a flock of maybe 15 Yelow-rumps in the tree. There are not a lot of other feeding opportunities in the immediate area. On a later trip, we saw that a cold snap had killed the leaves and we did not see a bird in the tree.

Further down the road we paused and looked back. You can see how the Warbler tree is indeed way out by itself in the grasslands.

We are always fascinated by these wooden signs that indicate where the various ranches are located, at least which direction to go to get there. They harken back to a time before Google Maps and GPS systems. It is neat to see some still around.

You are looking at the Santa Cruz River, no it is not meadering off to the left of this image, it is dry. Much of Arizona is in a severe drought. Perhaps this river holds some water during the summer monsoon season.

These are Lark Buntings. They are not residents here but do spend winter in Southern Arizona. You can sometimes find large flocks containing several hundred of these buntings traveling around together in winter.

This is one, albeit inadequate, view of the grasslands. As seen in the earlier images they go on for miles and miles. It is a fascinating place.

Along the road is this set of corrals called the Vaca Corrals. The Vaca Ranch was indicated on the earlier sign. You may have noticed the mailbox situated high on the side of the cattle chute here. A weathered sign indicates it is for "Air Mail". Looking across the grasslands you can easily envision an old bi-plane heading this way with the mail.

There are often various birds in and around the corrals.

They do raise cattle here and on one excursion they were moving a large herd over to a new pasture. They did, politely, move the cattle off to the side of the wide road so we could pass by, there were a lot of cattle.

This Vesper Sparrow is a very common winter sparrow here in Southern Arizona. We look for them along the fence lines as we travel around. They have a bold eye ring, strong facial markings, and the red shoulder patch. The patch on the shoulder is not always visible but this bird was most cooperative.

This shows the road heading west. It is wide and in great condition. It can be very dusty but this is dry Arizona.

As we approached Patagonia there is a field with a bunch of trees and open pasture land. There were several of these long horn type of cattle in the field, really long horns.

Last but not least we are wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving and may the rest of your holiday season be full of joy and peace. Stay safe.

We hope you enjoyed the excursion over Canelo Pass and through the San Rafael Grasslands. It is a fascinating drive with lots to see and do. The road wandering down into Patagonia is quite fascinating and we will cover that with a separate post, later.

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

Pronghorn Antelope and a Crane Landing

In our travels here in Southern Arizona we have seen some number of Pronghorn Antelope. Though not true Antelope they are called that here in North America. They are the fastest animal in the Western Hemisphere and can reach speeds in excess of 60 mph.

One day out on the Elgin-Canelo road south of Sonoita we encountered a band of Pronghorn and watched their movements, it was quite fascinating.

We first saw this doe standing on a hill to the right or west side of the road. She was looking to the east, across the road we were on. We then noticed additional antelope coming over the rise. There were barbed wire fences on both sides of the road so we stopped to watch the proceedings.

Antelope can jump and could clear the fences easily if they chose to jump but normally they will crawl under the fence. The bottom strand of wire on the first, right hand fence, to the right out of this picture, was smooth. Many of the ranchers here have replaced the bottom wire with a smooth wire and raised it a bit to allow easier access for the antelope. In this picture this animal had already gone under the right, smooth bottom wire fence but seemed to have some trepidation about this next fence.

Another pronghorn came up towards the first one and the fence.

With the encouragement they decided to go under the fence.

The first antelope cleared it quite easily crawling on the ground under the barbed wire. This side did not have the smooth wire and the animals can tear their hide and injure themselves on the wire if not careful.

The second pronghorn crawled under the fence with room to spare.

We watched 24 pronghorn cross the road successfully navigating both fences and there were still more appearing from beyond the rise to the west. It was fascinating to watch and readily apparent that they had done this before. We did not see one jump or appear to contemplate jumping, they all crawled under the fence.

This big buck antelope was not in the group crossing the road rather he was seen up in Las Cienegas, an open grassland area not far to the north.

The pronghorn have horns, not antlers. Antlers occur on members of the deer family and grow as an extension of the animal's skull. They are true bone, a single structure, and, generally found only on males.

Antlers are shed and regrown yearly while horns are not shed and continue to grow throughout an animal's life. The horns of the pronghorn are made of two parts: a bony core that is covered by a sheath made of a stiff hair-like material. This outer sheath falls of every year in the fall and then grows back in the summer.

Moving to a different subject, we thought we would show a series of images that present a Sandhill Crane coming in for a landing. We saw this one and several thousand others on a recent visit to Whitewater Draw just east of where we live in Arizona. We often don’t realize what gyrations the crane goes through to land

As they would say in gymnastics "He stuck the landing". The movement and manipulation of the wings and feathers to slow and control the descent is fascinating to watch.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look at both the pronghorn antelope and sandhill crane.

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