My Life’s Birds: #225-232

June 30, 1994 – Sabino Canyon, Az – How do I begin to describe my time in Arizona? The two weeks I spent there have more importance than just mere birding, which was obviously phenomenal. The context, and its meaning to a young birder, is inseparable from the birds. I was attending the VENT/ABA Camp Chiricahua, a tour specifically for young birders. It’s a potentially expensive proposition to fly a young birder out west for two weeks straight of mind-blowing birding, and I was helped by scholarships and kind donations from my local Audubon Chapter, the State Audubon Society, and the ABA. Organizations to whom I was, and still am, enormously grateful and loyal to. If being a young birder has its perks, the greatest of which is having a community of people dedicated to helping you get fantastic experiences.

So for the first time, I left my family and flew off alone to Tucson, Arizona, where I was met at the airport by a friendly face, Rob Day, who had a placard with my name on it. We hopped in a car with another kid and were chauffeured off to a local hotel to await the arrival of the rest of the young birders. And what to do while waiting? Well, why not dust off the binoculars a little. And in short time we had found Verdins and Curve-billed Thrasher in the hotel garden, but despite my best efforts, the Western Kingbirds in the parking lot just wouldn’t turn into Tropicals.

Once everyone had arrived, and with the latest barely off the plane, we were off to the first field trip of the Camp, a short excursion to Sabino Canyon just north of Tucson as I remember. There was only a couple hours of daylight left, but that was enough to find some good birds as soon as we stepped out of the van.

Gila Woodpeckers popped out of holes in the Saguaros, Gambel’s Quail ran across the path, Cactus Wrens and Black-throated Sparrows sang in the mesquite and Common Ravens flew over in pairs. I’d never birded the desert before, and our guide / camp counselor Rob along with second guide Dave Jasper picked up everything that moved to show to us. By the time we’d found Black-tailed Gnatcatchers that led us to a Roadrunner nest in a potted tree by the parking lot, we were spent, but in a completely satisfying and exciting way. This was without a doubt only the beginning of what was going to be some seriously good birding.

VERD from wikipedia
BTSP from J.N. Stuart via flickr