Madera Canyon Trogon Trek!

The trogons are back! I am going to try to track these beauties down, along with a number of other gorgeous species on this trip to one of Arizona's premier birding locations! The main effort will be the trail above the Mt. Wrightson picnic area, which is the uppermost parking area in the canyon. From recent e-bird checklists, all the trogon sightings have been early in the morning (between 6 and 9am), so we will plan on meeting a little earlier than usual at 7am in the upper lot by the restrooms. Recent reports also include painted redstarts, Arizona woodpeckers, Scott's oriole, and Grace's, hermit, and black-throated grey warblers. And one of Monday's checklists (April 13th) also showed a Williamson's sapsucker and a Montezuma quail, so we could have quite a day! After birding the upper trail for 2.5-3 hours, we'll head down to the Santa Rita Lodge and spend some time at the feeders. Expect to see orioles, tanagers, siskins, grosbeaks, juncos, warblers, woodpeckers, and lots of hummingbirds there!

Madera Canyon is located about 25 miles south of Tucson, in the Santa Rita mountains east of the town of Green Valley. There is an $8 day-use fee that you can pay at the parking area, if you don't have an America The Beautiful/Senior Lifetime pass. This trip will involve some moderate hiking over fairly well maintained forest trails at a moderately high elevation, so is probably not suitable for anyone with health or mobility issues.

Since this is a fairly short-notice trip, I'm not planning any Friday afternoon or Sunday activities. We can decide whether to have lunch together after we leave the Santa Rita Lodge, or we can just head straight home then. I will most likely drive down Friday evening and stay at the Vagabond Inn in Green Valley.