On day 10 (5 May) we moved east to spend a couple of days birding in the canyons on the eastern side of the Huachuca Mountains, which are a well known birding destination and especially productive during the spring migration. We were based at the Beatty’s Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon for three nights, which was a good, central location for our birding.
We reached the canyons by taking Arizona route 82 around the northern edge of the Huachuca Mountains and driving down routes 90 and 92 towards the Mexican border, first stopping at the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary (location H on the map). We’d visited this site in 2010 when it was a private residence owned by Mary Jo Ballator, who opened up her garden to visiting birders. Since her passing the sanctuary has been operated by the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory and is open on several days each week. It’s an amazing sanctuary and well worth a visit.
The many feeders at the sanctuary draw in lots of hummingbirds, but the star has to be the Lucifer Hummingbird, which has a very limited range in the USA that just covers the extreme southeastern corner of Arizona. We were therefore very lucky to see this rare bird at the start of our visit. Other good birds we photographed later were the Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Western Tanager and Zone-tailed Hawk.
In the late afternoon we drove up Miller Canyon to Beatty’s Guest Ranch where we were met by Edith Beatty and shown to our accommodation for the next three nights. We were staying in Cabin B, which is a self contained building thats handy for the car park and hummingbird viewing bleachers.
The next day (6 May, day 11) we drove the short distance north to Ramsey Canyon, which is another excellent birding site on the eastern side of the Huachuca Mountains.
The birding highlight of Ramsey Canyon was undoubtedly seeing another Elegant Trogon. But we also photographed a Painted Redstart, which is another speciality bird of southeastern Arizona.
We had fun photographing the nest of a Plumbeous Vireo that was just beside the trail and further up the valley we had distant views of a Wilson’s Warbler.
After a late lunch at the La Casita Mexican Restaurant in Sierra Vista we made a second visit to the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary. Here the highlight was a Scott’s Oriole that perched well against the blue sky backdrop, but we also saw Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Mexican Jay, Hooded Oriole and of course numerous hummingbirds.
On our last day in the Huachuca Mountains (7 May, day 12) we walked up Miller Canyon after leaving Beatty’s Guest Range via the key-coded back gate of the property, which gives access to the main trail up the canyon. We saw a number of warblers, including Black-throated Grey Warbler and Glace’s Warbler, although they were high in the trees and difficult to photograph. More obliging were an Ash-throated Flycatcher and a Hermit Thrush, which were nearer the ground. We also had a lifer with the Western (Cordilleran) Flycatcher, although it was quite distant and difficult to photograph.
Beatty’s Guest Ranch has an excellent hummingbird feeder area with bleachers that allow you to view some of the rarer hummingbirds of the region. While there we saw a White-eared Hummingbird, which is a species mainly found in Mexico and is a rare visitor to Arizona. Another highlight was seeing a Rivoli’s Hummingbird, which is also an Arizona speciality.
