Patagonia Lake State Park - Patagonia, AZ - May 6-9, 2018

Patagonia Lake State Park - Patagonia, AZ - May 6-9, 2018

Bambi begged for an outing before the heat of the summer lands with full force.  We opted for a short outing to Patagonia Lake State Park … part of our effort to explore the Arizona State Park system and wanting something close, yet graced with water (and, potentially cooler temperatures).  

After a leisurely drive from Tucson to Patagonia, then another 15 miles beyond the town of Patagonia to the State Park, we tucked into campsite #14 overlooking the lake, near the “No Wake Zone” (away from fast moving boats) and away from the Beach Swimming Area.  We had a relatively private camping spot overlooking the lake and considered ourselves fortunate.  We scouted the area, visited the Visitor’s Center (no movie) and settled in for dinner and some amazing star gazing without urban night lighting.

On Monday, May 7, we took off early in the morning (desert heat control strategy) along the Sonoita Creek Trail just yards from our campsite.  This is a major birding destination as the trail initially wanders along the cattail filled marshland at the end of Patagonia Lake and home to many resident and migrant waterfowl and continues along the tree-covered Sonoita Creek filled with songbirds and that most precious Arizona resource, free-flowing water.  We hiked up the Sonoita Creek Trail to the dead end at the Circle Z Ranch.  Part of the hike was along the former rail bed for the defunct New Mexico-Arizona Railroad (built in 1882) that use to carry supplies and people between Fairbanks, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico.  The railroad is long gone, but part of the trail is on the embankment that elevated the rails from the creek bed.  

We added a few new birds to our list of birds, but were seriously outclassed by the near professional level of the serious birders who were out in numbers with binoculars, spotting scopes, cameras with lens longer than a child’s leg, and vests with birding guides and notebooks hanging out of their pockets.  I was just pleased to nab a few new birds, but the Visitor’s Center had provided us with a list of 90 birds that had been identified and reported as of the day before we arrived.  We did find a very dead turkey, surrounded by turkey vultures (got to love the irony of turkey vultures feasting on a dead turkey) to add to our list … we could have found him by smell alone.

In the afternoon we went into the town of Patagonia to the Paton Center for Hummingbirds … a home formerly owned by Wally and Marion Paton and gifted to the Tucson Audubon Society as a hummingbird sanctuary along Sonoita Creek.  The hummingbird population was somewhat down given the heat of the day, although we did see hummingbirds playing in a running water fountain.  We saw a number of other birds at the various feeders littered throughout the property … nectar feeders, seed feeders, and fruit feeders, including a black-headed grosbeak with his vibrant orange chest putting on a great show at a feeder.  The paths are short and easy to follow … benches are well-placed near feeding sites … reference guidebooks are available for use while trying to identify various birds.  The Center is not large, and must go through gallons of sugar water each day, volunteers keep the property running under the management of the Tucson Audubon Society … well-worth a visit.

We had hoped to also walk to The Nature Conservancy Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve from the Paton Hummingbird Center, but I failed to read their information carefully enough.  The  Preserve is not open on Monday or Tuesday.  Note to self:  Read all of the information on a website before making plans to visit.

On Tuesday, we had a permit to hike in the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area … this is an area that is below the dam that makes Patagonia Lake and a spillway that handles overflow and routes the overflow back into Sonoita Creek.  We went out along the Blackhawk Trail that paralleled the Spillway Creek and then intersected with the New Mexico & Arizona Railroad Trail that ran along the Sonoita Creek below the lake.  We eventually turned around and retraced our path as day was getting hotter and hotter.  Again, part of the trail was on the remaining embankment of the old rail bed … a few signs of old rail road ties, but largely the evidence of the railroad line is gone.  There were some enormous cottonwoods with girths rivaling some of the redwoods … again the magic of walking under the shade of huge trees with some water running alongside portions of the trail (must be a southern Arizonan’s version of a “wet dream”).

On Wednesday morning, we again went out on the Sonoita Creek Trail … the birders were enthusiastic and plentiful, the birds reluctant to stand still long enough for us to identify (and, frankly, we were not patient enough to stand and try to identify all of the birds) and our dead turkey was ever more foul.

Time to head home and put Bambi away … to borrow and modify a phrase from Game of Thrones - “summer is coming”.   

We were, indeed, happy campers.