The Paton's House
The birding community is a very welcoming and friendly one. The biker's wave affords only a momentary acknowledgement. Although there are much more meaningful interactions at gas station, this is basically all you get from a biker you don't know. Birders get a bit more involved. They prefer to stop their cars and ask "Anything interesting?" Next is "Where're you from?" And finally "You should stop by [insert hot spot and directions]."

This morning I was working my way from Nogales to Benson with only one specific stop in mind -- Patagonia Lake State Park. The park was kind of a bust. It was more like a public recreation area, which means lots of vacationers with RVs, jetskis and picnic baskets. Not very condusive to good birding. When I got to the entrance and found there was a fee to get in, I figured I would just move on.

I-82 moves through a nice riparian area between Patagonia and Sonoita, so when I saw an opportunity I pulled off the road onto a small paved access road and parked in some shade. About 100 yards down the road a pick-up was parked. Some of the best birding occurs when you find a decent spot, turn off the vehicle, shut the hell up and wait a few minutes. As I was taking off my gear I started to hear the activity pick up around me. After 10 minutes and two lifers (orange-crowned and Grace's warblers), the pick-up started up and pulled up along side. It was a fellow birder about to move on to the next spot. She was a nice older woman with a strong face like Katharine Hepburn from "On Golden Pond". She asked me the usual questions. When she found out I was birding the west for the first time, she asked "Have you been to the Paton's?"

"No, is that around here?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I've read about the Paton's house in one of my birding magazines years ago. (Yes, there are many magazines devoted to the second-fastest growing outdoors activity.) The Paton's is nothing more than some folks who put out a bunch of feeders, and welcome in anyone who would like to view them. The Paton family lives very close to the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. (It's a nice little park that doesn't appear on any of the maps I have.) The creek is fed by springs and by snow melt run-off from the higher elevations in the mountains. And in this area of the country, anywhere there is water, there will be birds.

So Katharine gave me directions. "The next dirt road to the left, cross the creek -- your bike should be okay -- pass the preserve, there's some horse stables, it's on the right."

If I hadn't stopped where I did, I would have gone right past it and never known. Wait a minute... Did she say "cross the creek"? Did she say "your bike SHOULD be okay"? So I get to the creek and it didn't look that bad: 15 feet across, 6 or 8 inches deep in the middle. I was nervous, but Nina stayed calm and we crossed without incident.

There were four or five cars at the Paton's house when I got there. I walked around back in the direction from which I had seen some birders leaving. It didn't look like that big of a deal: Three hummingbird feeders, a couple of platform feeders a couple of finch feeders and a few oranges cut in half. There were some sparrows on the platform feeders but that was about it. There were about 10 people there, including two thirty-something blokes from across the pond. There was an old couple with their teen-aged grandson. The rest was a mix of retiree vacationers and locals. I sat down on one of the many benches they have set up. About a minute later the show began. In the order I saw them:

Bullock's Oriole, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Lesser Goldfinch, Anna's Hummingbird, Lazuli Bunting, Gila Woodpecker, Black-headed Grosbeak, Gambel's Quail, White-crowned Sparrow, Pyrrhuloxia, Costa's Hummingbird, Abert's Towhee, Zone-tailed Hawk, Black Vulture and Bewick's Wren. Eleven of these were lifers including all of the hummingbirds. (ATR, damn, you should be here.) One of the British guys was very knowledgable and helped me with the hummingbird IDs.

I heard there were two more oriole species there that morning, as well as a few other hummingbirds, but after an hour or so I had to move on.

With a quick stop at the preserve up the road -- and four more lifers -- I headed up to Benson to set up camp yet again. Tomorrow I head to Portal to spend some time in Coronado National Forest. CNF will be my last chance for some of the southwest species I've been hoping for like the Arizona Woodpecker. If the park looks safe, I'll camp there tomorrow night and give myself an extra day to fill out my life list.

As a biker said to me at a Sonoita gas station:
"Keep the rubber side down."
Namasté to you, too, brother.