I woke at 4:30 to a steady 51º rain. There is no coffee maker in the El Dorado Inn’s rooms, and their office doesn’t open for coffee until 6:00. So, I used the weak connection to the Internet to upload yesterday’s photos of the Ruddy Ground Dove to the eBird checklist. I left the motel at daylight, vowing to give one last effort to see the Becards.
It had stopped raining but was threatening another thunder storm as I stopped at Tumacácori National Historical Park, looking for the birds along the riparian zone. With last night’s rains, the Santa Cruz River was high and muddy.
A couple birds of the species has recently been seen around last season’s nest, but I had no luck here. The Becard builds a hanging “football” shaped nest which is fairly easy to see. The birds are more cryptic.
I left the Monument and went south to the town of Tubac, and parked along Bridge Street at the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historical Park trailhead. I had read on eBird that the nest area was marked. I didn't realize that it would be marked with cans and bottles!
I walked down the east side of the river 0.4 miles from the bridge to the area where the Becards have nested in the past. There, I saw another nest hanging from a branch in the canopy.
After about a half-hour of wandering around, I heard the chittering call of the Becards, and got decent views of a male Rose-throated Becard!
A second bird flew in, giving me a brief view of the female. Yay!!
This was my 603rd species for my “Peregrination” year, and my ABA “Life” Bird No. 664!!
I spent a while after the birds flew off in exploring up and down the river bank. I was intrigued with the knobs at the bases of the leaves that had fallen from the towering Frémont cottonwoods (Populus fremontii). These are the galls caused by the cottonwood gall aphid (Pemphigus populitranversus). Growing up in the Willamette Valley, I’d find falls on oaks that contain only a single egg/larvae of a wasp or fly. These galls on cottonwood leaf-stems (petiole) contain a big group of petiolegall aphids, and may be of more than one generation.
Aphids seldom have straight-forward life cycles. These over winter as eggs on Cottonwood twigs. The eggs hatch in the spring and the nymphs feed on developing leaf petioles through their tubular, sucking mouth parts. This feeding induces the host plant to produce a swollen growth, called a gall. Then the insect moves inside to continue feeding until it becomes a winged adult and exits through the slot in the gall’s side. They complete their life cycle on the roots of cabbage, turnips, or another member of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) - Another common name is Cabbage Root Aphid. The aphids complete their life cycle by flying back to Cottonwoods and depositing eggs on the twigs or bark. Cool.
Elated with knocking a “Nemesis” bird off my list, I headed back to the parking lot, where a Say’s Phoebe hunted from the parking lot.
Also in the parking lot was this cool “western horse lubber” grasshopper (Taeniopoda eques). The vernacular “lubber” refers to the flightless terrestrial status of the grasshopper subfamily Romaleinae. I don’t know what the reference to “horse” is . . . The grasshopper secretes a noxious, frothy substance from the thorax, meant to deter would-be predators from trying to eat it. The grasshopper also drops to the ground and 'hisses' when it is disturbed! Kind of surprising!
I got back onto the freeway, and headed north and west. Interstate 19, which is entirely in Arizona, is an oddity among U.S. interstate highways. This freeway, which runs from Tucson to Nogales, is the country's only continuous highway that lists distances in kilometers, rather than in miles. It is a legacy from the Carter Administration’s efforts to move America into the 20th Century, and a sad reminder that Americans are still using a measurement system different to the rest of the civilized world.
Continuing north, besides leaving behind the only ‘official’ use of the metric system, I left behind the Customs and Border Patrol inspection stations. I always feel as though I’m a foreigner in my own nation when I have to stop and identify myself at these damned things. Thank God, I’m a male Anglo, rather than someone with Brown Skin, trying to travel around in my own Country.
I drove back to Sierra Vista to check with the manager of the Magnuson Hotel for my brand-new (and somewhat spendy) Coleman cooler. I’d called earlier, but the desk clerk said I’d have to check back (!) so I figured I’d just stop in to pick it up. No such luck. The manager appropriately (?) backed up his employees. On the other hand, I know that I’d left the thing in the room yesterday morning, so am pretty sure that someone on the cleaning staff just got themselves a new cooler, a 6-pack of good beer, and a quarter pound of cheese.
My homeward journey took me as far as Salome this
evening, where I checked into Sheffler's Motel - an older “budget” place that
was comfortable and clean enough; the shower never did heat up enough to use it,
however. Supper was had at the Cactus Bar, which was pretty darned good! Maybe I just needed the beer?
Tumacácori NHP eBird checklist is Here
Tubac - De Anza Trail eBird Checklist is Here
