The cottonwoods are shedding their bud covers, and I’ve even seen a few green leaves.  Our first broad-tailed hummingbird came earlier this week, and it seems like many hundreds of pine siskins are gobbling the niger seed.

Our first coatimundi of the year appeared for a couple of days this week.  It looks like a young male recently expelled from the big family group.  His fur was unmarked by any scars, but he’s missing about a third of his tail.  Like elephants, the coatis are matriarchal.  The mothers, daughters, and young males form troupes that can number up to sixty.  When they’re two years old, the boys get the word that they are no longer welcome, and are solitary after that.  Here are a couple of pictures:

Hiking has been very good.  Some friends from Ithaca sent this great shot from the Silver Peak trail, which starts about a quarter mile up the canyon from here.

 Cave Creek Ranch is lucky to host wildlife   artist Narca Moore-Craig and her students this coming August when she teaches a WINGS sponsored class called Sky Island Sketching:  Field Sketching & Birding in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains.  To be held August 19 to 25, it will feature individual attention for each student from the highly respected artist.   Those who have been to the Ranch will have seen a sample of Narca’s art on our tee shirts, a beautiful collection of local birds.  More about this exciting opportunity can be found on Wings’ website at http://wingsbirds.com/tours/sky-island-sketching-field-sketching-birding-arizona-s-chiricahua-mountains/    Space is limited to ensure individual attention, so don’t delay if you’re interested!

More examples of Narca’s art can be seen at this website:   www.narcamoorecraig.com

Narca’s fascinating blog covers many interesting facets of this area: www.narcamoorecraig.blogspot.com

Portal (but not Cave Creek Ranch) now has Cell Phone Service!  A tower went into operation on Wednesday, just north of Rodeo, and the signal reaches Portal and a short distance into the canyon.  It does NOT reach the Ranch, but a five minute walk out the back driveway and up to the paved road will put you in a spot with reception. 

Much else has been happening — we had rain and then snow last week, the better part of an inch!  It has melted here (temperatures are back in the 60′s during the day), but the cliffs and peaks around us still have snow.  That brought in  the Yellow-eyed Juncos to the feeders, normally a higher elevation bird.  The Scott’s Oriole and Painted Redstart continue, as do two Fox Sparrows and a White-throated Sparrow, and an Arizona Woodpecker.  All the other birds normally here are abundant, and the javelinas have been coming in far too often, sometimes multiple times a day, keeping the many deer at a distance.  A Varied Thrush is being seen at the South Fork bridge, having moved downstream from some Madrone trees a mile upstream where it and several dozen Hermit Thrushes had been feeding in the past few weeks.

Reservations have been coming in at a surprising pace for the spring.  If there’s a specific time you would like to be here, please call soon!  We have plenty of room still, but it’s starting to fill up.

Birds have been very interesting — a Varied Thrush near the second stream crossing in South Fork, and good birds at the Ranch, too.  We’ve had Black-chinned Sparrows at the feeders, as well as both Myrtle and Audubon’s Yellow-rumped warblers, Fox Sparrow, Juncos, Painted Redstart, and lots of Pine Siskins and Lesser Goldfinch.  The Mockingbird, Curve-billed Thrasher, and Cactus Wren are beginning to tune up for spring.

The birds are flocking to the seed, suet, and peanut butter.  The Painted Redstart is especially cheerful, and likes the grape jelly best, but comes to the home made suet, also.  Everybody likes that — warblers, titmice, kinglets, woodpeckers, jays, and wrens.  Email us at the Ranch if you would like the recipe– info@cavecreekranch.com .

Reed

A male Elegant Trogon is in South Fork, and a Varied Thrush has been see there in the past week as well.  At the Ranch we still have our White-throated Sparrows and Painted Redstart, as well as several Yellow-rumped Warblers in a variety of plumages — some quite dull, and others as bright as Magnolia Warblers. 

We have a first pass at a Facebook page now, Cave Creek Ranch, and it should be improving soon.  I’ll have to learn how to work with that! 

A front is supposed to be coming through, but so far it has been beautiful.  The deer and javelinas are in the front yard at the moment.  A baby javelina appeared about two weeks ago, still with about 6 inches of umbilical cord attached.  It screeched loudly every time its mother stepped away from it.  It’s grown a bit, maybe a foot long now, but still pretty tiny.

January is a beautiful time here, and no one seems to realize that, so we’re offering 10% off this month’s low season rates to encourage a winter time visit.

Reed

RAIN!  We had almost an inch of rain on Friday and Saturday (.96 to be exact), making 12.68 for the year so far, with more moisture possible tomorrow.  The higher peaks in the Chiricahuas are white with snow, and we’re hoping this is the beginning of the wet winter promised by some forecasters.   While this year’s rainfall is well below the recent average of about 18 inches, we’re still much better off than the dismal 8.98 we had in 2003!

Birds are good: the Scott’s Oriole is still here, as is the Painted Redstart, and many kinds of sparrows and varieties of juncos.

Reed

There are still Blue-throated and Magnificent Hummingbirds, but the last of the smaller hummingbirds departed earlier this week when the night temperatures dipped into the twenties.  Daytime it’s in the sixties, and very pleasant.

The creek is not running here at the Ranch, although it is in South Fork, where there have been rumors of an Eared Quetzal, but no confirmed sightings.  A few years ago one stayed here for weeks.   This is my first posting using a new system, so we’ll see how well it works!    Reed Peters

We have a relatively new Toll Free number: 855-558-2334. The long distance connection problems we’ve been having for 24 months continue. So if you call us and the phone doesn’t seem to ring or answer, please try the above number. It’s from AT&T, and is supposed to go through different switches that may not be subject to the issues that prevent many of our calls from getting through.

Rainfall

The monsoon rains were good, with over 10 inches, but there has been no rainfall since September. While Portal and the San Simon Valley around Rodeo had enough, the higher elevations had less, so the creek is not running at the Ranch. The grasses that had grown tall with all the water have gone to seed, and it’s fun to identify the many beautiful varieties of grasses native to this area.

Fall Color

The leaves around the Ranch have been turning for a couple of weeks. The pomegranates are golden, the redbuds a very clear yellow, the sycamores turning bronze, and the grasses are pleasing shades of red and tan. The cottonwoods are still a very contrasting bright green, but they’ll become a brilliant yellow in a few weeks. Farther up canon the big tooth maples are turning from green to yellow to orange to a vivid shocking pink – quite a progression! Temperatures are still in the upper forties at night and lower seventies during the day.

Birds

Fall birds are arriving, with new species appearing every few days. Recent arrivals include White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, Lincoln’s Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Pine Siskins, Western Bluebirds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Cedar Waxwings, and a Painted Redstart, which last bird usually winters at the Ranch, adding to the atmosphere with its vivid appearance and cheerful calls. Sandhill Cranes have been returning in large numbers to nearby valleys. This may turn out to be an irruptive year for Evening Grosbeaks, which have been seen in Portal in small flocks for the first time in more than fifteen years.

Hummingbird numbers have declined with the tail end of migration, but we’ll have a few Blue-throateds and Magnificents throughout the winter. There are still several Anna’s and Rufous.

The resident birds continue in daily attendance: the flock of twenty-five or so Acorn Woodpeckers, Mexican Jays, Western Scrub Jays, Bridled Titmice, Lesser Goldfinch, Arizona and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, House Finches, Pyrrhuloxias, Gambel’s Quail, and the marauding Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks.

We had an exciting visit from a Rough-legged Hawk a few weeks ago, which perched for hours in several easy-to-watch locations, and gave many guests (including me!) their best views ever of this dramatic hawk.

Butterflies

Butterflies are the most visible insect at the moment, attracted by the late-blooming Mt. Lemmon Marigolds we have in the garden. There won’t be many bugs from now until the next monsoon, July and August being the months for them. So fall and winter are nearly perfect, outdoor-wise, with comfortable days, cold nights: ideal hiking weather.

Mammals

We’re seeing fewer Bears, perhaps they’re seeking out dens for the winter. Foxes, coyotes, the bobcat, and skunks are all present.

Friends of Cave Creek Canyon

Our local Friends group has been busy with creating a Native Plant Garden at the Ranger

Station, and after months of design, preparation, and plant acquisitions, the Garden is in! We had two work days in the past month to lay out the paths, line them with stones, compact the paths, and dig holes and plant the plants. We’ll have another work day next week to trench for the watering system — even native plants will need a season or two of water to get established. Then we’ll get plant identification tags, and you will be able to identify plants you see in the Canyon in the Garden! The local community has been very active — over twenty volunteers of all ages have contributed much time and talent. More information can be seen at www.friendsofcavecreekcanyon.org.

Maybe we’ll see you here soon!

Reed Peters