A quick trip yesterday to Flor --- ee -- da Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains got me a little excited. I went because there had been reports of Rufous Capped Warblers. These would have been a wonderful find. Like some of the small flycatchers, many of the warblers have very similar plumage and can only be correctly identified by their song. However the Rufous Capped Warbler is unmistakable. This is a rare visitor to the US with only occasional sightings along the Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico borders with Mexico.
It reminded me of the movie The Big Year (2011) which is about birders and birding. I could just see Owen Wilson hearing about the Rufous Capped Warbler and immediately dropping whatever he was doing, drive to the Minneapolis Airport, taking the next available plane to Tucson, renting a Jeep, driving to Florida Canyon, getting out of his Jeep, finding the Rufous Capped Warbler before reaching the trailhead, taking a photo, jumping back in the Jeep, driving back to the Tucson Airport, taking the first flight back to Minneapolis, driving to his office, and updating his bird finding list --- all in the course of two hours. But, as any birder would tell you, IT'S JUST NOT THAT EASY!!!!!!!!!!! The Tucson Audubon Rare Bird list comes out weekly. There are other birding lists that are updated daily, but often a sighting is at least a day or two old -- maybe a week old. And usually they don't tell you precisely where the bird was sighted, or what time of day it was sighted. And, even if it did, birds often don't hang out in precisely the same spot every day all day long. They often move around and often move up canyon as the day gets warmer.
So, it wasn't the first time I went out looking for a specific bird and not finding it. Reminds me of another quote from the movie Zero Effect: "When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them."
So, I didn't come home without any photo. Here are a few photos from Florida Canyon:
 |
| Dusky Capped Flycatcher |
 |
| Gray Flycatcher |
 |
| Arizona Thristle |
 |
| Ladderback Woodpecker |
Love your adventure!!!! This happens all the time to me. Thanks for sharing....hopefully another opportunity will arise:) My challenge was the Red Phalarope, but I would have loved to see all the hummers reported in Carr Canyon!!!
ReplyDelete