Today we wake up quite early as we want to reach the Ridge Trail before it gets too hot. We eat breakfast from our provisions while watching a Ringed Kingfisher showing off his fish catching skills, that is quite a big fish he caught.
Before the longer hike to the Ridge Trail we have a shorter hike planned to the place where we saw the Potoo the night before. The early morning views are magical, the sunrise is really something else especially with the whistling ducks doing flyovers.
It is a bit eerie to walk so early in the morning especially as we know mountain lions have been sighted on the property. Even the horses behave like two-headed monsters keeping the heads in opposite directions to notice any danger. Still the walk is worth it as we hear the song of our nemesis the Louisiana waterthrush and this time we also see the bird. Previous times the bird never came out as it was quite skulky so this is a big win for us :).
It was a long shot but the potoo isn’t there in the morning unfortunately but at least nearby we see a Berylline hummingbird a relatively difficult hummingbird to see as it doesn’t go to the feeders often.
Then it is time to go to the Ridge Trail passing horses and beautiful butterflies along the way. And of course macaws and also some interesting woodpeckers.
Here we also are lucky and get views of a orange-fronted parakeet. They are always quite skittish and high up in the trees so getting a good look is a bonus.
We spend a bit at the feeders watching the birds. One of the surprises yesterday was that the main speaker at the festival, Richard Crossley, is also spend a few nights here and we meet him at the feeders. We exchange a bit of information but we don’t want to impose so we move on.
The owner has multiple dogs which are very friendly, sometimes even too friendly jumping on us all the time when not sitting lazily in the sun. Today we know that we can pass by the main house and start that way to arrive at the top faster because that is where we expect the special birds to be.
And they are, we first see a pair of blue buntings, a species that we wanted to see, first the female and then the male. The male is especially inquisitive and we see it for quite some time as it looks at us quizzically.
And then almost immediately we see the Citreoline Trogon that we were really hoping for. It is behaving a bit weird like it didn’t believe that it was here watching us. But still it waited for quite some time allowing us some great views, thanks a lot trogon!
We see a couple more first timers, a Happy Wren and a Rufous-capped Warbler, but they are very skulky and we barely snap a photo for identification purposes. And then it is time to return and on the way we also see some interesting glass wing butterflies, quite cool!
It is quite hot when we walk back towards the cabins at noon and we are tired and hungry so our plan is to go to El Tuito for lunch and then return for one more short hike in the evening. But first we have to make sure we are not scared to death by the lizards in our room that jump from under the table while we try to charge our camera giving both of us quite a fright. And then it is off to El Tuito described in a different blog entry.
Returning from El Tuito it is already late in the afternoon and it is time to explore a few more of the shorter trails around the cabin. Almost immediately we meet a Collie’s Squirrel, we have seen a few of them from afar but this is the first one we see close up.
It seems this evening is the evening of seeing birds and animals that previously we only saw from afar because almost immediately we see a West Mexican Chachalaca. This is the closest we have seen them which is quite cool. And then almost immediately we see an Elegant Trogon, surprisingly how common they can be after all the effort we put in to see them in Arizona.
We also explore the docks one last time watching the whistling ducks and otherwise just enjoying the great evening.
There are surprisingly many birds even close to the cabin, we see a rose-throated becard and even a mystery bird that is very likely a Varied Bunting, still a cool bird to see.
As we return we enjoy the sunset and then wait for a while until it is dark as we try to see the potoo again but no luck tonight. So it is back to the cabin to prepare the bags as tomorrow it is time to return to the airport and then to Phoenix.
