After our very productive few days in Madera Canyon we then moved south on 3 May (day 7) to Patagonia, a small town on Arizona State Route 82 the other side of the Santa Rita Mountains. After leaving Madera Canyon we first drove east along the small road towards the Santa Rita Experimental Station, which had been recommended as a good place to see Botteri’s Sparrow. This proved to be the case as we got good photos of this bird, which we could identify by its distinctive call. We also saw several Black-throated Sparrow, which posed well for us.

Black-throated Sparrow
Botteri's Sparrow

We then retraced our route of the previous day to Box Canyon and continued eastwards on the very quiet unpaved Highway 62, before taking the larger state routes 83 and 82 to Patagonia. There we were going to stay two nights at the characterful Stage Stop Inn, which is set on the wide main road through the town.

Our hotel in Patagonia
The Gathering Ground restaurant

Once we’d checked into the Stage Stop Inn we had a late lunch at the Gathering Ground restaurant just a few yards from the hotel before visiting the famous Paton Center for Hummingbirds run by the Tucson Audubon society. This is a remarkable site with lots of feeders designed to draw in the many hummingbirds found in this part of the USA.

Paton Center for Hummingbirds
Paton Center for Hummingbirds

The Violet-crowned Hummingbird is one of the star attractions of the centre as it has a very small range in the USA, being limited to just the southeastern corner of Arizona. We were very lucky to see this bird close to one of the feeders, along with Anna’s Hummingbird and lots of other birds drawn in by the plentiful food around the centre.  

Anna's Hummingbird
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
Lazuli Bunting
White-crowned Sparrow
White-breasted Huthatch
Summer Tanager

The following day (4 May, day 9) we did some pre-breakfast birding along a dried up river bed close to the Paton Center where we soon had a lifer in the Blue Grosbeak. The bird was quite distant but it was still a good start to the day.

Blue Grosbeak
Costa's Hummingbird

A walk around the Paton Center gave us a chance to take more photos of the many hummingbirds around the feeders and other birds in the grounds.

Broad-billed Hummingbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Rufous-backed Robin
Yellow-breasted Chat

After a late breakfast we drove up Hershaw Road (site G on the map) to the east of Patagonia, which is well known as a good birding route. It was getting a bit late for the best birding activity but we still saw a few good birds, including the Thick-billed Kingbird, which was a lifer for us. The stream that runs beside Hershaw Road provides much needed water in the dry environment and there we saw Vermillion Flycatcher, Black Phoebe, White-breasted Nuthatch, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Violet-green Swallow and Ash-throated Flycatcher.

Hershaw Road
The stream that runs next to Hershaw Road
Vermillion Flycatcher (male)
Thick-billed Kingbird
Black Phoebe
Ash-throated Flycatcher

In the late afternoon we had a final session at the Paton Center as we couldn’t resist getting a few more hummingbird photos.

Rufous Hummingbird (immature)
Broad-billed Hummingbird