The Bird-athlon is Sunday!

I'm pretty excited about an event for this Sunday. My husband & I and a few friends are participating in the Tucson Audubon Society's annual "birdathon" but we are going to do it on bikes and ride up to the summit of Mt. Lemmon. So we are calling it the "Bird-athlon".

Teams of birders try to see as many species as possible on a certain day, and gather pledges in advance, asking for an amount per species or a set amount. We have already raised well more than our modest $200 goal.

We will start by visiting a pond/riparian area and then ride to various spots about 5-7 miles apart up the mountain. We are hoping for about 100 species.

We expect to ride close to 70 miles, with over 7000 feet of climbing. (The descent will be nice except that Tucson will be close to 100 degrees F during the afternoon and the car will be parked about 5 miles from the base of the mountain.

I'll post a report on Monday or Tuesday.

Sounds like a perfect day! My two favorite activities.

Sounds great. I look forward to your report.

67.8 miles, 8200 feet of climbing, 79 species of birds- 5:30 am to 7 pm.

Wow- what a day. We started with 6 cyclists and a support vehicle with extra water, food etc. We rode 25 minutes to the first stop, catching a few cool species along the way, including Rufous-winged Sparrows singing, and a lot of common species. Our starting elevation was around 2400 feet.

The first stop was a park with a little oasis park with a pond. We got almost everything we expected there, but missed out on a few common birds.

We had stops 3-6 miles apart up the mountain, as the habitats changed and where water could be found (not too much water on this island of mountain habitat in middle of the desert. The road is a steady, moderate 4-6% grade, rarely varying much from that range. A spot called Molino Vista had a trickle of water and quite a few birds were coming in to get water.

It was the hottest day of the year and broke 100 degrees in the valley, so even up at 6000-8000 feet, it was not exactly cool, especially in the open and south-facing slopes. But we didn't have to push that hard cycling wise.

At Bear Canyon, about 5700 feet, only 10:30 am, we were ready for lunch. Our friend driving the support van had a huge amount of ice cold water, subway sandwiches and between all of us, we had a lot of great snacks. Also, it was very exciting to see a Northern Pygmy Owl with the help of some other birders.

3 of our cyclist friends had to turn around at that point. We continued up what I think is the toughest part of the climb- about 700 feet in 2 miles, on a shade-less south facing slope. It was pretty hot still, even as we passed the 6000 foot mark. It is a little easier after turning past Windy Point, but we didn't really have any birds in that section.

It was past noon when we arrived at the turn-off for Rose Canyon Lake in the Ponderosa Pine forest at 7200 feet. Lots of good birds to be seen on the road down to the lake, including a Painted Redstart, unusual Buff-breasted Flycatcher, Western Bluebird and Yellow-eyed Juncos.

Time was getting away- it as 1:22 now as we got back up to the road. 3 more miles to Palisades, and then our support vehicle had to turn around. Our remaining cyclist friend agreed to ride to the crest of the mountain, about 1 more mile. Then the road dips down a few hundred feet over the next few miles, and finally climbs a mile to Ski Valley.

My husband thought we were on our own, but two friends, quite late in getting going, had parked half-way up and ran into us. They stayed with us as rode up to over 8300 feet at the end. We really enjoyed 4 Wild Turkeys, Steller's Jays, and Magnificent Hummingbird at the feeders at Ski Valley.

Coming down was fun. We made lots of stops and eventually found a great flock of warblers just before we dropped out of the pines. Circling overhead was Zone-tailed Hawk. Despite a couple more stops to look around, that was the last new species to be seen. Our two friends stopped at their car, but met us for pizza when we got down to the bottom of the mountain, already after sunset.


This link will take you to a few pictures my husband took. Picture 1 shows a Vermilion Flycatcher, Picture 9 has a tiny Northern Pygmy Owl on the upper left, picture 10 has Ravens, Picture 12 is a Red-tailed Hawk, Pictures 15 &16 are Wild Turkeys.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1117972...52958422382146

Sounds and looks like an awesome trip. The pictures are wonderful.