Huachuca Mountains

Ed Tobin, Jenise Porter and I took a half day trip to the Huachuca Mountains to look for hummingbirds.

There were plenty of birds at Ash Canyon B&B around lunchtime, but hummingbird numbers were very low for the first week in August. We struck out on Lucifer but only spent a short while looking. Mary Jo’s yard looks stunning right now and birds like BLACK-HEADED and BLUE GROSBEAK, BUSHTIT and WILD TURKEY added to the splendor.

Things were equally quiet at Beatty’s Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon, with surprisingly few hummingbirds for the time of year. The species were impressive though – WHITE-EARED was regular, a BERYLLINE made a brief appearance to grab a huge chunk of nesting material, whilst BLUE-THROATED, MAGNIFICENT, BROAD-TAILED, BROAD-BILLED, BLACK-CHINNED and ANNA’S made it eight species in total. Near the parking area we stumbled upon a small flock which included LAZULI BUNTING, PAINTED REDSTART, WESTERN TANAGER and BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.