When picking a favorite bird of the year, it is hard for all those beautiful feathered creatures who deserve consideration to compete with one that:
1- is utterly beautiful, to my eye at least (what made it evolve like this?)
2- is seen in only a small range within our country, and it’s not our hometown
3- you hope to see on a specific hike, and that’s your only chance
4- you studied for, and plotted the course to find it
5- received info on your hike/search that lowered expectations
6- appears out of nowhere as you stop and look up
7- actually seems to be as interested in you as you are in it
As Lynn noted in her post, for us that would be the Elegant Trogon we saw on the Carrie Nation Trail in Madera Canyon, southeast Arizona during our December trip. Here is some more detail. We hope you enjoy it.
With the family Big Year 2021 competition approaching the final month and heating up other teams were making quantum leaps in sightings and identifications. We knew we could not rest on established sightings and needed to push into new territories before year’s end. A road trip to White Sands National Park in New Mexico would be a beautiful addition to our park portfolio, and passing through southeastern Arizona (there and back) with its reputation for good birding sites seemed like just the ticket.
Pre-trip reading brought the Elegant Trogon to our attention. A visually spectacular bird whose range per Sibley (West) barely enters the U.S., only in a small region we were including in the itinerary, Madera Canyon, Arizona. Wouldn’t that be something to see in the wild?!
Early in our first hike in Madera Canyon (Proctor Trail) we met one person who felt the trail was not meeting their expectations for birds. Our experience turned out to be the opposite. As we stood in a single spot we saw many birds and added some 2021 birds and lifers (i.e. Mexican Jay, Red-naped Sapsucker). We met another person who asked us if we had seen a trogon yet. When we responded no, she added that she was involved in trogon counts, and noticed there seemed to be fewer this year, perhaps due to a long lasting drought in the area.
Undeterred, the next day we headed to the trailhead in Madera Canyon that Lynn had read contained the two best trails for seeing trogons. If we saw only one bird all day, and it was an elegant trogon, we would deem the day a success. We selected the Carrie Nation Trail, whose first mile was noted as historically promising. One half-mile into the hike the trail widened slightly. I passed right by, but Lynn stopped, scanned around and saw a large multi-colored bird on a tree branch overhanging the dry creek bed. She knew immediately what she was looking at, the backside of a male elegant trogon. It was about 50 feet away. Lynn whispered for me to return and verbally directed me while keeping her binoculars locked on the bird. Fortunately for me it stayed in the tree. I finally saw it, and quickly started taking photos. Strangely, haste turned out not to be required as the bird seemed to notice us, but didn’t seem concerned. It began to shift locations from one side of the creek bed to the other, but never added too much distance at one time. At last it disappeared up the rocky creek bed out of sight.
With smiles that would not leave us all day, we moved 100 yards up the trail. There we diverted from the main trail a few yards to a spot where we could look back down the creek bed hoping we might catch a view of the bird again. At first nothing. Then suddenly, up popped the trogon onto a large tree branch that had fallen into the creek bed about 50 feet away. We had a completely unobstructed view of the front side of this beautiful foot-long bird. As before it stayed in place for quite a long time, scanning its surrounding with smooth slow circles of it head, tilting it back and forth as if in a daze. It moved positions a little but stayed in view for several minutes until I shifted my feet, crunched some dry leaves, and it darted out of sight. Dang it.
The bird had gone between the creek and the trail, so deciding to push our good luck to the fullest we moved back down the trail about half way to the original sighting point. As we looked into the thicket there it was again, maybe 80 feet away. We watched with increasing amazement as it flew in zigzag steps, not away from us, but to perches closer and closer. It seemed interested in us! It was perched about 30 feet away when it flew right at us, swerving at the last moment to touch a tree no more than 8 feet behind Lynn, seemingly thought more about that, and immediately turned 180 degrees, flying back in front of us to perch on a low branch 12 feet away. Full-frontal view, calm and collected. It did its slow motion scanning for many minutes. We stood as calm as possible while I took as many frames as I could. There would be no need to crop these photos, it was so close.
Our encounter lasted more than half and hour, and unbelievably we were the ones who decided to leave the scene first and continue our hike. It was hard leaving this amazing bird there in the thicket. We headed up the trail, our hearts full of joy and wonder. We didn’t see another trogon nor many birds of any description on the rest of that hike. Just one bird for the day. Total success.
Thank you everyone involved in the Family Big Year 2021. No matter the “count”, you all had an impact on our year and the happiness this project brought to our household.
Dean
The Big Year 2021 