West of the Huachucas (continued)


storm clouds over Mexico


Steve wrangles a tarantula


uh oh...


 

We released our little Ridgenose back in the clump of grass where we found it, and then poked around a little for more herps. The clouds had continued to spill over the mountains and a cold rain began to fall, forcing us back into our ponchos. This was not much fun, and even the lizards seemed to have gone to ground in this weather. We decided to move on and head west, away from the rain.

Patagonia was a good place to stop and eat lunch, tacos under the tent in front of Santo's cafe. We had left the afternoon open to get in some birdwatching, and headed over to the Sonoita Creek preserve on the outskirts of Patagonia. On the way out of town we stopped to get field glasses on a Vermilion Flycatcher, perched on the 'Welcome to Patagonia' sign along the road. Small wonder this place drew in birders from all over.


Lesser Goldfinch

The sun was poking through the clouds over Sonoita Creek, and we spent a few relaxing hours rambling about the place and enjoying the bird life. Acorn Woodpeckers were in abundance, and a couple of young Gray Hawks just out of the nest keered at us from along the creekbed. Also among the day's total were Greater Pewees, Western Wood Pewees, Western and Tropical Kingbirds, and Lesser Goldfinches. Tracey has become an avid birder over the past few years, so we all had an enjoyable time, even though we saw no reptile life other than a few Whiptails.

From there we headed southwest to Nogales, and we got a room at the Super 8 and grabbed dinner at the pancake house next door. The sun hadn't set yet, but it was time to do some road cruising along a stretch of road running parallel to the border. The spiders were out on the road at this time and we zigged and zagged to avoid squashing them. About twelve miles down the road we ran into a problem - a rain-swollen creek was washing several feet of water across the road. We were not going to chance it in our rental car and not for the first time I found myself wishing we had rented an SUV. Our destination for tomorrow lay down this road and we hoped the rainwater would recede by morning, or we would have a long drive around, or have to come up with another plan.

We contented ourselves with running up and down the twelve mile length. It was not terribly productive, producing one adult Diamondback, and a throng of Couchs' Spadefoots. The border patrol stopped just as we were wrangling the atrox, and watched with interest as we took some photos. We tried again to photograph the male spadefoots calling from a roadside ditch, but as soon as the light was played over them, they would cease.

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