The Race to 100

Every year we attend the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival in partnership with Swarovski Optik. We serve as a vendor, but, given that the festival is held in the AZ birding mecca known as Sierra Vista, we obviously go birdwatching as well. Of the many birds that appear in that region we get about 80% of them in the Prescott area, but that last 20% is really important.

‍

The city and the adjacent Huachuca Mountains are only about 20 miles from Mexico, and the ranges of a set of birds barely extend north into Arizona. So people travel from all over the world for a chance to see birds like the elegant trogon and blue-throated mountaingem.

Having birded for a significant portion of my life, there aren’t many regularly occurring birds in Arizona that I haven’t seen. There are different types of birders, and while I love seeing the common species, I can definitely fit into the “lister” category. I’m a collector by nature, so seeing and documenting a new species or ‘lifer’ is something I really enjoy. During my first trip to Sierra Vista I probably recorded 20-30 lifers, but with this last festival (my tenth) it’s increasingly hard to add new species to my list. So it’s fun to make up little side-games, and this year I set a goal of detecting over 100 species during the festival.

In theory this isn’t terribly hard in a region as amazing as Cochise County, but some variables work against me: weather, the abundance of birds at any given time, the movements of individual species, the timing of migration, and the reality that I’m there to work, to name a few. The count started for me as I pulled out of my driveway in Prescott. My first bird for the count was a lone Swainson’s hawk sitting atop a light pole on Ruth St., a good start indeed.

As we made our way south we picked up a red-tailed hawk, common grackle, white-winged dove and others. Our first break in the day came at a small rest stop outside Patagonia, famous for thick-billed kingbird, and while we didn’t find this species, we did document several others, including a dusky-capped flycatcher, varied bunting, gray hawk and white-throated swift.

After setting up our festival exhibit we made our way to Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary, the most reliable spot in the country to see the striking Lucifer hummingbird. Strike out we did not, as we got amazing looks at this species along with views of Costa’s hummingbird, wild turkey, Cooper’s hawk, Mexican jay and greater roadrunner.

The next morning we woke up early and drove to Willcox. At first glance most people might discount the birdwatching viability of a town like this one, but you’d would be wrong. A massive playa along with recharge ponds and an irrigated golf course make this a little oasis for migrating waterfowl and other species. We padded our list with many birds, such as Baird’s sandpiper, American avocet, Bendire’s thrasher, Chihuahuan meadowlark, and we even got lucky with a perched golden eagle! It’s only the second individual of this species that I’ve seen in my decade of visiting the region.

We spent the rest of the week hitting established birding hotspots and added several of the area’s specialties. Rivioli’s hummingbird, sulphur-bellied flycatcher, Arizona woodpecker, violet-crowned hummingbird, buff-breasted flycatcher and yellow-eyed junco all made appearances! I also had the pleasure of introducing birders new to the area to the species it’s known for. That’s one of my favorite things about birding — you can go anywhere on earth, and if you find someone who’s into the hobby, it’s very likely you’ll become fast friends. This year we were able to help some Florida birders with the Space Coast Birding Festival find birds that they may have otherwise missed. When you’re birding in a new area, it can be very hard to get your bearings, so finding some help is invaluable. With this new contact I now have a knowledgeable resource when I finally make my way to Florida!

As much fun as it is to see these species and help new friends, I’d already seen all these birds. Fortunately, on the last full day of the trip I added the flame-colored tanager to my life list that we’d set out to find. That evening, birding with a group of friends, we stumbled on a small flock of painted bunting, taking me to 419 species for my life list!

After a long, humid week of work, birding and bug bites I completed the trip with 134 total species detected by sound and sight! I couldn’t have asked for a better week of birding with good friends. Get outside today and set a goal to see 25 species, you’ll have a blast!