In the early morning on August 4th, 3:45 A.M.-ish, the three of us woke up and prepared for the huge hike we were planning up Arroyo Uvalama. This hike would give us many potential great birds, and many of those species were lifers-to-be for me. The trail would take us one way for 5 miles, and in those 5 miles the eleveation gain would be more than 4,000'. To say the hike would be exhausting by the end would be an understement, but the fact was the birds and adventure involved was worth every bit of the hike. Caleb explained that the hike would go through both Lower and Upper TDF habitat, TDF and oak, oak, and pine and oak forest as we would climb toward the top of Sierra De Alamos. Each of us packed 8 water bottles, snacks, and I made 11 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all of us. We left El Pedregal Lodge close to 4:15 A.M. and took roads for about 10 minutes to the northwest to the vicinity of Arroyo Encanto Road. Along there was a very rough and narrow dirt road that Caleb was able to take his Nissan Exterra up. We found a spot to park, walked up the rougher portion of the road to a gate, and once we got to the grate, we had reached the trail. After navigating around for awhile, it was 4:47 A.M. when we started hiking. In the early going, we did have it in mind to listen and try for owls and nightjars, but we were slightly late. We did listen and try for Mottled Owl a few times without luck. As it was still dark when we started, we hiked pretty quickly up the trail as it constantly increased in elevation. After about 45 minutes of hiking, it started to get a little light out and the activity was fairly quiet. We had come over a mile and a scare hit when Caleb started feeling sick to his stomach. After throwing up, resting for a few minutes, drinking water, and taking some medicine, Caleb felt a lot better-luckily!
When he was starting to feel better, he detected the vocalizations of a West Mexican Euphonia as we had reached the Upper TDF habitat. The bird was close to the trail, and Caleb used some playback as there was a mixed flock in the area with lots of activity. Scott looked up and spied a male West Mexican Euphonia, which is a very small, and bright-colored, striking finch. It was my first life bird of the hike, and there ended up being 6 birds. We got to study males and females. The West Mexican Euphonia has a range tied to West Mexico like many other of the lifers I was getting. We had up to 5 different Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls calling on the way up, and songbirds really responded to playback of their calls. We did try for another new bird, the Colima Pygmy-Owl, without luck. As we continued working our way up through the Upper TDF, the calls from another life bird were heard from a steep slope adjacent to the trail and they were coming from the Lineated Woodpecker. These woodpeckers are large, and are very similar to and closely related to the familiar Pileated Woodpecker in the United States. Their calls sound much like a laugh, similar to an eastern White-breasted Nuthatch. Eventually the woodpecker flew in close to the trail. Although the views were back lit, they were still awesome of this bird. Shortly after, another Lineated Woodpecker flew in and over the minutes we observed them we heard them a lot and had a few quick, but awesome views. Although my photos weren't good, they are still diagnostic. Lineated Woodpeckers have a big range, as they are found throughout much of Mexico and further south throughout the upper half of most of South America. We were also in range of the similar Pale-billed Woodpecker for the hike, but we weren't able to detect any. As we got into higher TDF, some oaks started to be a part of the habitat. The trail then paralleled a flowing creek which formed a waterfall. The wilderness kept getting better and better, and a replenished Caleb kept saying how things were going to continue to get interesting as we proceeded further up the steep trail.
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| West Mexican Euphonias |
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| Lineated Woodpecker |
As we were over halfway up the trail, we hiked along a creek as the trail went through a drainage. Oaks had come into play with the TDF, and the bird life stared changing before our eyes. It was awesome, and species that are rare in Arizona popped up in numbers and allowed great views and the chance to see these birds in numbers. Tropical Parulas were very common and there were 25 birds that we tallied on the hike. Songs of the males were commonly heard too. At this point of the hike, the drainage also had an old, abandoned stone house along the trail. It was interesting to see. At this point, we had 3 Fan-tailed Warblers singing. A few of them gave us good views, and it was great to listen to them and observe their behavior (this is a bird I've only seen once prior to this trip, in Arizona). As we climbed up a little further, we got into more oaks. Rufous-capped Warblers stared to show up in good numbers too, and by the end of the hike we'd have a tally of 18 of them. Once we got into more of the oaks, Caleb pointed out a juvenile Rusty Sparrow (my 3rd lifer of the hike), and right away it was obvious how much more bulky this sparrow is in comparison to the similar Rufous-crowned Sparrows that I'm used to seeing Not long after the juvenile, we would see plenty of the adults. The birds sang a lot, and would be common for the remainder of our uphill climb. The song of Rusty Sparrow is distinctive, and it has a fairly wide range in Mexico. This sparrow is one that receives high speculation from birders as being a good candidate to show up in the United States in southeastern Arizona or southwest New Mexico. Their range isn't far sought of the U.S. border at all.
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| Tropical Parula |
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| Sinaloa Wren |
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| Fan-tailed Warbler |
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| Rusty Sparrows |
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| Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher |
As we continued on through more oak stuff, a song from a White-striped Woodcreeper came from the woods. This song, one that's very distinctive, made my jaws drop as this became my first ever bird from the Woodcreeper family. After Caleb played it's song, the White-striped Woodcreeper flew right in, and main it was freaking awesome (my 4th lifer of the day). The Woodcreeper foraged by characteristically working it's way up the tree, and at times it would sing with its descending trill song. White-striped Woodcreepers are mainly found in West Mexico as their main range, and that range extends far enough north that birders predict that they are a very possible vagrant to Arizona. As we would walk up the trail of Arroyo Uvalama, we'd get more the the Woodcreepers as we climbed in elevation. Another woodcreeper species, the Ivory-billed Woodcreeper, is also in the Alamos range and was a possibility on this hike, but we weren't able to find one.
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| White-striped Woodcreeper |
After taking some time in the drainages as we were looking at Rusty Sparrows and the White-striped Woodcreeper, we went up steeply in elevation again (whole hike really) and the terrain transcended into more oaks and some upper TDF. When we got to a lookout point over a slope with a good view, Caleb pointed out a calling Squirrel Cuckoo, which sounds somewhat like the call of a Ladder-backed Woodpecker I was able to hear it well too, and the bird, another lifer for me, was giving good vocalizations for us to hear. When Scott caught up, we waited and the Squirrel Cuckoo eventually ended up close to us. When we saw it, all we could say was "wow" or "oo" and "ah" because the Squirrel Cuckoo is freaking impressive and striking. It's long tail is about twice as long as the rest of it's body. The Cuckoo flew closer to us a few times and gave us decent perched looks as it had branches in it's way, but the flight looks were epic. This easily became one of my favorite birds of the trip. Squirrel Cuckoo has a widespread range from northwest Mexico to throughout much of South America.
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| The Squirrel Cuckoo |
After the Squirrel Cuckoo, we continued up the trail to a few more drainages of oak an TDF. A pair of Military Macaws flew overhead, and it was great to see them again as they flew toward the area of our climbing point. Caleb heard a Blue Mockingbird in the distance, one I heard too but didn't know the call well previously to count it for myself. The drainages were very birdy and had plenty of neat birds like Rose-throated Becard, Tropical Parula, and Rufous-capped Warbler. We then heard a few calls that we thought were Rufous-capped Warbler at first but they turned out to be another lifer for me in a Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow. As we looked for it, Scott was the one to spy it and it eventually worked it's way into the open and it gave us good views. This is a larger sparrow, and it is a striking one too. They like thick understory of woodlands, which is exactly what we were birding. There ended up being a second bird, and eventually a third not much further up the trail in similar habitat. Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow is found in west Mexico in it's range, and is one I was glad we picked up.
Part 2 of the epic Arroyo Uvalama in the next post.
From the Birding Journal:
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