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SCHOLARSHIP REPORTS 2006

2006 VENT Camp Chiricahua

6-17 July 2006

By Tim Snieder

Camp Chiricahua is the first birding camp I've ever attended. To say it plainly, it was unquestionably the single greatest experience I have ever had. With a simple email to VENT to secure my place, I had turned a dream into reality, and I think young birders near and far should do the same for next year's camp, because value of the experiences cannot be measured in dollars.

When I first got to the airport, everyone was shy of course, except Moez Ali who greeted me with a hearty welcome. He was one of four awesome leaders, the others being Jessie Barry, Barry Lyon, and of course Victor Emmanuel who was leading the tour on occasion of it being the 20th anniversary. Perhaps the pleasantly mild air that greeted me as I passed through the airport door was a symbol of how Arizona would treat me during the next few days. While waiting for the shuttle, we spotted a Cactus Wren fly over. Yes! My first lifer wasn't a Great-tailed Grackle! Already the camp was off to an exciting start.

Once we got our gynormous bags to the hotel, one of which was suspected by the shuttle driver to contain the corpse of Elvis, we started our birding without delay. Western Kingbird, Cactus Wren, Verdin, Hooded Oriole.if this was so much fun, I could only imagine what the next few days would be like. I got to meet all 14 other campers (the more the merrier) and our 4 guides, who were very friendly, while we ate dinner.

We kicked off the camp with a visit to Madera Canyon, the famous site where a pair of Flame-colored Tanagers has bred of late. Despite our inability to find the pair, the birding did not disappoint. It was a good opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the relatively common birds of area. We were treated to a pair of gorgeous Sulfur-bellied Flycatchers at the nest hole. On the drive out Jessie's amazing ear caught the sound of a Botteri's Sparrow, which we were able to see well in the scope.

The following day we visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It was great that it was mostly an outdoor museum because we could bird while we walked around. We got familiar with the vegetation and wildlife that we would be seeing during the next several days. My favorite bird there was a male Pyrrhuloxia that was singing right in the open. The Sonoran landscape was very dramatic with huge ancient saguaro cacti everywhere, overshadowed by a breathtaking panorama of mountain ranges. Later we passed through New Mexico on the way to the famous Cave Creek ranch. With this dramatic change in habitat from arid desert to riparian woodland came an equal change in birdlife.

After a brief but heavy rainstorm, a few other people and I went for a walk into the desert and soon I saw a bush moving. Then a bobcat popped its head up and walked in front of us across the road! This would be my number two highlight of the entire trip.

For the next few days we birded around the desert and the ranch. For two mornings, we were divided into two groups to explore the Chihuahuan desert and the riparian habitat, respectively. The goal of this exploration was to have a mini-seminar on taking field notes, and to gain some valuable knowledge on the vegetation and ecology of both habitats. The knowledge on shrub identification proved crucial in pointing out birds. My favorite things we found here were a juvenile western banded gecko and a migrating Lucy's Warbler, but I'm sure that for most it was the unusual find of the White-tailed Kite, spotted by Moez.

On our last day at the ranch we all went out together to find the very special Bendire's Thrasher. Alex Hickey was the hero when he spotted a tiny Burrowing Owl from the car, to everyone's surprise. We finished off the day with a nice hike up to the south fork trail on a quest for the elusive trogon. Only some saw a female briefly, but that made the quest all the more exhilarating. Dave Jasper, a self taught naturalist and genius, joined us for the afternoon and showed us many cool birds and plants that are special for the region. My favorite things that we saw were the Painted Redstarts and a beautiful canyon treefrog.

For the next few days we spent our nights camping at the sunny flats campground which is surrounded by dominating cliffs where peregrine falcons rule the skies. This is where I learned a valuable lesson: playing ultimate frisbee and birding at the same time is hard. At this point of the trip, the membership of each van had clearly been established and would remain the same for the remainder of the trip. I was in "Van Barry", which was clearly cooler than Van Victor. As our custom, after finding some great birds, we would celebrate our triumph by yelling "VAN BARRY!" when Barry started the van. We all had an amazing amount of energy and spirit considering our lack of sleep.

On a couple of the nights we did a drive into the desert to search for reptiles on the road. My highlight would have been a 4 foot Mojave rattlesnake if it had not been for the stupid car that ran it over before we could get out of the van, but instead it was a tie between a plains spadefoot toad that smelled like peanut butter and a gorgeous gopher snake, one of the nicest snakes I have ever seen.

An exciting element of the trip was the fact that danger lurked around every corner. Rattlesnakes lurked by the roadsides and brush, scorpions crawled in crevices and there were always forays up steep rocky slopes. I was glad that that the leaders were not too worried about us getting hurt, although they did urge us to hydrate a lot, which was appreciated, since it got pretty darn hot. My scariest moment was when a bear came sniffing around my tent at 3 am because I had left a granola bar in my backpack, but it's still pretty awesome that I get to talk about that now.

I think one of everyone's favorite experiences was owling around Portal with Dave Jasper. We got absolute bowel-loosening looks at a pair of Elf Owls feeding young, and also awesome looks at Western and Whiskered Screech-Owl. In fact we had such a good time that Dave claimed that he hadn't had that much fun since the pigs ate his brother. Fortunately Dave Jasper had something else in mind for the trogons. He knew where a nest was, and this site was in close proximity to a goshawk nest. Wouldn't that be sweet! We ended up dilly-dallying at the nest hole for about an hour, during which Neil and I had a decent pine cone fight, and then continued on up the mountain. Several Yarrow's spiny lizards and one Douglas' horned lizard later, we were at the goshawk nest. Our next experience was really incredible because not many people get to see goshawks near the nest, let alone Mexican ones. I mean, regular goshawks are beasts but these were the huge Mexican subspecies, which were even more beastly. The speed at which the adult female cruised by was breathtaking. Satisfied, we continued down the mountain to try for Buff-breasted Flycatchers.

While searching for these tiny little devils, Moez suddenly cried out "male trogon!" Everyone jerked around like someone had just stolen our binoculars to behold this insanely beautiful glossy bird no more than 20 feet away. In the heat of the excitement, my friend Kevin couldn't get on the bird, so I pummeled him to the ground where we both got a jaw-dropping view of the trogon. It turned out that that wasn't necessary because the bird was quite tame compared to the other trogons we had come across, and it was catching bugs right over our heads. Life doesn't get much better than this. Fortunately, the owner of the property, Dave Utterback, was there to tell us some amazing stories about "his" trogons. Despite their dumb appearance, trogons are actually really clever. The male, having to share the woods with a pair of Cooper's Hawks and Goshawks, had sacrificed his fear of humans in order to heed his avian predators. Dave is also an elite artist and we were able to see his prints in the Portal store.

Later in the day, after receiving a tip on two fledgling Spotted Owls near South Fork, we tried for them. Before we were able to find the signaling red ribbon on the side of the road, Craig Bateman's eagle eye somehow spotted the two fledgling owls in a tree not far from the road. We rushed out of the vans and put the scope on the babies. Finally! Just as if this wasn't awesome enough, the mother owl cruised in and brought a beetle for one of the young, then flew to a nearby perch. "So this is what heaven feels like" I thought.

That night, our final night at sunny flats, was incredible. Alex Greene had lost his binoculars, so we had to drive back to try and find them. On our way back to finding them (which we did), Van Barry saw a black-tailed rattlesnake, a striped skunk and a gray fox. After that, the whole group had a try for Flammulated Owl but instead found a male Spotted Owl calling which we spot-lighted in a tree.

The next few days would take place in a completely different setting. We were camping at Rustler park in the high Chiricahuas where enormous pines dominated the canopy in the Canadian zone. Immediately upon arrival we were greeted by a mob of raucous Steller's Jays, a welcome sight. The rest of the day was spent birding and butterflying around the camp. This area probably had the best butterflies with an Arizona hairstreak being my favorite. That night, Kevin, Craig, and I had a pine cone war against Neil in which he almost attacked our leader Barry.

When we were not butterflying or whipping pine cones at each other, we were finding awesome high altitude birds. On an amazing hike to Barfoot peak at almost 9000 feet, we were able to witness 2 Short-tailed Hawks (yes, I said Short-tailed) soaring together. At the breathtaking lookout we took many photos, chucked many rocks off the cliff, and also had views of Zone-tailed Hawk and Peregrine Falcon from above. On the way down, using an alternative route, we managed to pull out Olive Warblers and a spanking male Red-faced Warbler.

The San Pedro River Inn was our next lodging for the final days, and my favorite. This was a rich riparian area, with more humid weather and more birds. In a relaxing walk around the property, we could see Botteri's Sparrows, Roadrunners, Tropical Kingbirds and more Vermilion Flycatchers than you could shake a stick at. Kevin and I accidentally flushed a Barn Owl from its roost, causing it to awe us with a ghostly daytime flight. I will never forget one of those evenings. It started with a violent wind storm, with tumbleweeds flying everywhere, and then suddenly everything was calm. It was probably the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen, with the whole half of the sky turning yellow and orange and the other half with a huge rainbow. When this died down, we could lie on our backs in the field and feel the wind of Lesser Nighthawks whizzing over us.

The next day, we made a well anticipated trip to Patagonia Lake, a place I had heard of well before going there, because of the famous Patagonia rest stop affect. One main objective was to find a Black-capped Gnatcatcher, that Mexican one. We also hoped to snag a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet on the way. This was one of the most exiting parts of the trip for me. The plan was for me and a few others to form a line, so that we were all within earshot of each other but far enough to cover a lot of ground. I was in the zone. Somewhere in between all those cow patties I caught the call of a tyrannulet, so I summoned as many as I could to admire this tiny bird with a really long name. The tyrannulet found, we were off to complete our ultimate mission. I decided to work a hillside. This decision paid off, because I ended up hearing the wheezy calls of a gnatcatcher. There were in fact three, and they were in the sun, but I saw the female well enough to tell it was a Black-capped. Aaron and I did not delay in calling as many as we could and eventually the word reached everyone. So here we were, the whole group, gleaning the hillsides. When I was searching for the group that had flown away, someone called "gnatcatcher!" on the opposite hillside. After a full sprint, I was reunited with everyone and we were all getting jaw-dropping look at a male Black-capped Gnatcatcher. This was even amazing for the leaders, for Victor had never seen one in the U.S. Leaving on a high note, we went over to the rest stop to see a Thick-billed Kingbird and to fail at Rose-throated Becard. A miss at this point, however, was trivial.

With the persuasion of every camper, the guides decided that we could go to Sycamore Canyon to do a little chasing. It ended up being more than just that in the end, however, because we got great looks at birds that we had not yet seen or not seen well, among them a male and female Montezuma Quail in the same binocular view, and a spectacular Golden Eagle on the hunt. Our targets here just happened to be a Rufous-capped Warbler and a Tropical Parula. Missing the parula didn't matter because we ended up finding the Rufous-capped Warbler, to much rejoicing. To push our luck even further, we pushed our vans to the limit by driving down the rough road (if you can call it a road) to California Gulch to see Five-striped Sparrow. After this arduous journeyette we came out on top once again by getting this little beauty in the scope for everyone.

On the drive back, the celebration was under a gloomy shadow of our upcoming departure. The trip was not over yet, however, because we still had one more stop. We returned to Madera Canyon to finish off what we had started. After snagging a Rufous-winged Sparrow, we got to the Flame-colored Tanager spot to begin our thorough gleaning of the canopy leaves. Eventually, after I and two other people saw the male tanager, it returned to give an even more brilliant look for everyone. For our guide Barry, who was still down the hill, this would be a life bird. As he sprinted up the hill, he was greeted by our smiling faces guiding him into a funnel of people to the scope, while we gave him pats on the back. He finally got his bird. As the Flame-colored Tanager flew away, there was applause and many high fives by everyone. This was the perfect ending to our trip.

Back at the hotel that night, we gathered round for the closing messages from the leaders and campers. We listened closely to Victor's haunting and exciting tale of an Eskimo curlew. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone because we had gotten to know each other so well, and in the best way. Part of what I carried away from the trip was the undoubtedly lifelong friendships of the other campers, and the memories of fun and laughter to last a lifetime.

I am indebted to leaders Barry, Victor, Jessie and Moez and all the campers for being so awesome and making this the best 10 days of my life. I know that being a leader is not just fun and birding! Thanks most of all to Victor for starting this camp, and to the ABA for financial assistance which both made this trip possible. It is my sincere hope that many other young people will be privileged enough to have the experiences that I've had at Camp Chiricahua.

These young birders attended the camps/events they report on with the help of ABA scholarships.