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In lieu of our usual Memorial Day Marathon, I'm scheduling a visit to another birding hotspot we haven't visited before: Bear Wallow Spring, in the cool mountain air of Mt. Lemmon. The spring migration is in full swing, and many warbler species have been spotted here, including Grace's, Red-Faced, Hermit, Townsend's, Wilson's, Black-Throated Grey, Virginia, Yellow, Orange-Crowned, and Olive. Other sightings include red crossbill, pygmy and red-breasted nuthatches, plumbeous and warbling vireos, yellow-eyed juncos, and band-tailed pigeons. And northern saw-whet and flammulated owls are present in this area, although our changes of finding them are probably pretty small.
Bear Wallow is approximately 22 miles up Mt. Lemmon Highway. The most direct access is to take a right turn off the Highway on E. Upper Bear Hollow Rd; follow the gravel road down to the vicinity of the spring. Alternatively, you can take E. Mount Bigelow Rd (to the right of the Whitetail Campground Rd) and follow it left past the U of A Observatory to the spring. Parking should be available near the spring or along the road; there are no fees for this area. Because this is Memorial Day, we will plan on arriving here about 7:30-7:45 am to beat the crowds. (This is not a camping area, so hopefully traffic and parking won't be bad.) We'll plan on spending several hours birding along the road, around the spring, and perhaps along the creek and trails.
Tess and I are planning to drive down early Sunday afternoon, and are staying in the Eddy Hotel Tucson, which appears to be a very nice and reasonably priced resort-style hotel. It's about 6 miles from the Mt. Lemmon Highway, in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson; the address is 4626 N. Campbell Avenue.
Because we'll want to get back on I-10 early to beat the weekend traffic, I won't plan any formal lunch afterwards for this event.

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