I took a drive out to Sycamore Canyon yesterday. I have been wanting to do this for days. Finally I was free after dropping the grandson at school and I headed south on Houghton Rd. I stop at the Rita Ranch Fry’s to buy a coffee and a bag of Smartfood popcorn, but as soon as I park the car and open my door I hear a Verdin calling. Next thing you know I am counting birds in the parking lot! This used to be my regular stomping grounds when I lived in corona de Tucson 15 miles south of here. As I walk inside I think to myself, I rarely come here now and soon I will not come here at all. After making my purchases I get back in the car and drive around the parking lot just to see if there are any more birds to count before I get back on the road.
I always like the drive up to Corona de Tucson. The road used to be a country road, narrow and quiet. But now as I head south I see a new Houghton Town Center sign at the junction of Old Vail Road and Houghton. Houghton Town Center? Are they creating a new town here called Houghton? There is already a fast food Chinese place on the corner and down over the hillside yet another Walmart has risen from the dust of the desert. The once wild area has been scraped clean of all vegetation and massive asphalt parking lots have been laid out for more stores and restaurants to go in. I suppose it is not so bad hear because it is already near an industrial area and the highway, but I still now that birds and wildlife have been displaced to make room for this “progress.” I am sure the people who live nearby will be thankful they do not have to drive as far to get to Walmart!
I drive up over the train tracks, cross the highway, and continue my way south. As I drive I am scanning the utility poles for Red-tailed hawks. While I used to see them all along Houghton road, I only see one until I pass the Pima County Fairgrounds. Between Dawn Road and Sahuarita Road I spot three individual hawks on the sides of the road, along with a common Raven, a Phainopepla and a pair of cactus wrens and a pair of Red-shafted Northern Flickers! But there is yet another change since I lived out here before: Not only have they put two new schools in on the west side of Houghton, I also notice the increase in traffic in both directions as I drive. I want to stop and count more birds, but there are at least five cars behind me, and the one directly behind me looks like it might be a cop, so I keep on driving.
When I reach the intersection I am trying to decide if I should go straight or turn right. I want to shake this car on my tail. I decide to turn right. It follows me. I am hoping that it will go straight when I turn onto South Harrison Road, the Road that leads to Sycamore Canyon. I watch in my rearview mirror. It does not turn on its turn signal so I turn on mine and pull into the turning lane. So does the white car with the large antenna behind me.
Now I am heading uphill towards Sycamore Canyon but I want to turn onto a dead end road to count birds. With the white car still on my tail, I decide to turn left onto Comino del Toro. I figure I do not want to be alone on a dead end road if this person is following me. I look again to see if the driver behind me has his blinker on. He does not. We are very near the turn, so I turn mine on and slow down. He does the same! Now my heart is beating faster as I make the turn. I also notice a phainopepla and a mourning dove up on the wires. My car crosses the cattle guard and I am starting to think of what my strategy should be if this vehicle continues to follow me. I decide I will cross Comino del Toro and head for the Road Runner Market back down on the junction of Houghton and Sahuarita Road when suddenly the white car makes a right turn into one of the neighborhoods! Finally! I pull off onto a parallel street which is marked out for more housing but hasn’t been developed yet and take a deep breath, but not for long.
Around me now is open desert scrub with ocotillo, mesquite, prickly pear and various other plants rising from the desert. On a nearby cholla I see a Curve-billed thrasher perched. Poking around on the ground and in the bushes and cacti are a couple of cactus wrens. A phainopepla flits about catching insects, and on another nearby bush a Rufous-winged sparrow calls! Bingo! This is one of the species I was hoping to see while out here! It is species number 86 for my 2014 Year List and my Big January List! However, as I sit here I remember how this place used to look.
I continue along Comino del Toro and find a few more birds alongside the road. A Say’s Phoebe makes a sortie into the sky and returns to its perch. At the east end of Comino del Toro a kestrel looks down at me from atop a utility pole with dark round eyes. It appears to look straight at me and I can see the gleam in its moist eye as it looks over its shoulder. It is so cute to me, yet it too, looks sad. I turn my car around and head back towards Sycamore Canyon. As soon as I turn left, I turn left again. I am now officially in Sycamore Canyon. At this point Harrison Road turns left and dead ends, while to continue straight on would now be Sycamore Leaf Road. I like to pull off onto this dead end and park to count birds. There is open desert around me and a wash to the north. No one comes down this road, so I am usually not disturbed, but I know I can usually see some good birds here on this short two-tenths of a mile stretch. There are plans to eventually run this road up the mountainside where I suppose even more houses will go in, but first they need to fill in all the rest of the open space they have already destroyed below.
As I get out of the car I start putting on my binoculars and getting my camera ready. I wore long pants thinking it would be a bit chilly out here, but the sun is quickly warming this place and I shed my extra layers of shirts and remain with only one long-sleeved one on. I brought along a sleeveless shirt just in case and I am starting to think I will need it! But right now I just want to count the birds. I am looking and hoping for more sparrows here, but I am seeing dozens of Mourning Doves as well as a few House Finches.
Gila woodpeckers are calling, as are Curve-billed thrashers and Cactus wrens. Finally I see and hear a few Black-throated sparrows, and then I find a pair of Canyon Towhees. A bit farther down the road a covey of quail moves slowly through desert making soft almost cooing noises as they move. I can tell they are wondering if I am a threat, but I move slowly as well and make no moves towards them and they slip away into the desert.
I am soon distracted from the quail when a few White-crowned Sparrows hop up onto a nearby Palo Verde tree. These are the Gambel’s subspecies as they do not have the black lores of the Mountain subspecies. 
I think that I have seen all the birds I will see here on this little side road, but then I find small Costa's hummingbird pumping its tail as it pokes around the twigs and branches of a nearby tree. While the male of this species can look quite ferocious for its size, the female has a sweet look to her face. She is so tiny! I am constantly amazed by these little brilliant birds! Costa’s hummingbirds love these desert slopes and I used to get 12 to 14 of them at one time at my feeders during the winter when I lived here. I wonder how many I would see if I still lived here now.
It is now after 10:30 a.m. and my bladder is warning me I need a restroom break. My other purpose for coming out here was to say good-bye to my friend, Sherri, so I decide now is the time to visit her and take care of both needs at once! I spend over two hours with my friend and though we sat outside the entire time facing the open desert I only counted a couple of a ravens, a Red-tailed hawk, yet another Costa’s Hummingbird, a Verdin, a couple of Mourning Doves and we hear a few Gambel’s Quail moving through the desert below us. It is nearly 1 pm when I leave and head for the Sycamore Canyon Wash.
Sycamore Canyon Wash is a holds a special place in my heart. It was here that I first started eBirding. It is here that I first honed my skills and learned about desert life. I used to love my walks up the desert wash and I would see so many birds! I have even found a Gila Monster here while hiking years ago. I also almost stepped on a rattlesnake once while hiking here with my husband, Gus, on International Migratory Bird day in May. That’s when I learned to stay out of the wash during spring and summer!
While at Sheri’s house I changed out of my long-sleeve shirt and into my tank top. Now I slather my arms with sun block before heading off into the desert. As I am 
As I move up the gravel road that runs alongside the wash I am scanning both sides for birds. I see a Curve-billed thrasher down below and watch a Gila woodpecker as it clings to its hole in a Saguaro. I know I will miss these plants and the uniqueness of the Sonoran Desert, but I feel a change has happened in my heart and I keep thinking of the Atlantic coast and the blue water and all the birds I will see there. Finally I reach the spot when the trail divides and I head down into the wash itself.
I intend to walk back down the wash to my car, but as I near the cliff base I use to walk along I can’t help turn south and head up a short distance. Besides, I hear some sort of bird calling and I want to see what it is. As I turn, suddenly a Great Horned Owl takes silent flight from its hidden roost in a twisted mesquite tree. It flies low and ponderously up the wash before me and all I see is its gray-brown back and pointed wings as it flies. Even from this angel I can see the round head and no neck of this magnificent bird! I had no idea it was there until it flew.
I only walk another tenth of a mile before turning back, but this little detour paid off with the owl and a Bewick’s Wren I found scampering along a tree trunk. I looked farther up the wash where it all use to be wild, but now there are large “Estate Homes” overhanging the canyon walls and cluttering up the view. I walked back west towards my car in the wash.
The iron-oxide cliffs rise above me on either side with the exposed roots of mesquite trees twisting like large varicose veins from the edges. Still, it is so silent here! I know some of that has to do with the time of day and the time of year, but I can’t help thinking I used to see more birds here. I have not seen even one Phainopepla in the wash, and I know I used to see one here regularly in winter.
I can feel that I am sad and discouraged by this visit. I guess I really did come to say Good-bye. I thought that I would feel some sense of regret or longing, but I don’t. I guess I really am ready to move on. I am so happy for the memories of my time here back in 2007 to 2010. Those were the good years when things were still raw and undeveloped. Now it has all changed, but so have I, and I want something different now I think.
I think driving out here yesterday helped me make peace with this move. I don’t feel restless anymore. Seeing the changes in Corona de Tucson and Sycamore Canyon helped me let go of that place. I did leave with a sense of loss, not so much for myself, but for what was. When I first moved there I thought the idea the developer had was good, of trying to preserve the land and have man live in harmony with nature, but at the moment it seems the development has gone too far. Sycamore Canyon is not responsible for all of the development. The lower slopes have been developed by others. It is too bad that someone did not see the value in saving what used to be pasture and wild lands. I wish the cows were still grazing where the new neighborhoods now stand! When I got home last night, I wrote the following poem:
There is a saying that "One shouldn't go back as things are never the same."
ReplyDeleteI guess you had to make that trip Kathie.
Roy, I think I did. When I first came back last year, I did not want to believe it had changed that much or that it was having such an impact, but I certainly felt and saw the difference when I was there the other day!
DeleteHow vera sad this post is. Re-visiting a place you have been away from for just a few years and seeing the sort of desecration of landscape one would expect after perhaps an absence of 30 years. I grieve with you for the beauty and diversity that once was, even though it makes it easier for you to leave.
ReplyDeleteArija, yes, it is. The Santa Rita Mountains are so important and so special. These are the same mountains we are trying to keep the Rosemont Mine out of. It is the mountain range that has Madera Canyon, Florida Canyon, and Montosa Canyon. All are known as world class birding spots.
DeleteA very bittersweet goodbye to your old stomping grounds.
ReplyDeleteYes, Marvin, it is.
DeleteKathie, great post and lots of wonderful birds. It is hard saying goodby to your old birding spots. It is sad to see so much development going on, the birds and critters are losing their habitats.. At least you have wonderful memories of great birding. Have a happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteThank You Eileen!
DeleteIt's happening every where, and it's so difficult not to feel 'permanently' discouraged.
ReplyDeleteKaHolly, you are right, but there is reason for hope as well. I do see positive changes in some areas and I think educating the public and exposing young people to nature are so important if we want the next generation to care about these wild places and the environment.
DeleteKathie, I've been an advocate for children in nature for a very long time and totally agree with that thought. Thanks for correcting my ID of that hawk...you're a dear and you are absolutely right. You were so gentle, too! Funny, because after I posted, I read an article stating Coopers Hawks weren't so very common in my area.
DeleteKaren, I thought you would be delighted to know that you were seeing another species! Beside, I would want someone to tell me if I had mis-identified a bird. Plus, we have the highest concentration of Cooper's in the United States here in Tucson and I see one almost every day and sometimes several times a day so I knew right off it didn't look right! I am glad that you saw it!
DeleteKathy, it must have been bittersweet. I am going back for a visit to my homeland this summer. I have been away for 20 years and wonder what I will find.
ReplyDeleteDenise, I cannot imagine being away for that long or even imagine what you will find or how it has changed!
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ReplyDeleteSad but true...The only constant in life is change.
ReplyDelete