The Bird Whisperer: Coronado Trail

On August 20, 2010, my mom and I went birding at various spots along Hwy. 180 in eastern AZ and western NM, in the Big Lue Mountains, and along the Juan Miller and Eagle Creek Roads off the Coronado Trail (Hwy 191 between Clifton and Alpine). This was only our second time on the Coronado Trail, the first time being when we went on our first trip down to the Chiricahua Mountains back in '95 (a route we swore never to travel again because of its slow, winding, switchback nature). However, this time it was great in traveling it just to explore the route itself. The name "Coronado Trail" was given to this highway because it is believed to be the approximate path that Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado took his men in search of the "seven cities of gold" between 1540 and 1542.

View from Coronado Trail looking south (its hard to tell in this photo, but from viewpoints along the way we could make out the Pinaleno, Galiuro, and Santa Teresa Mountains to the south)

Swallowtail butterfly on thistle (Cirsium sp.) at Coal Creek Campground in Big Lue Mountains:

The whole drive was beautiful with everything looking green from all of the monsoon rains. The monsoons had also led to massive breeding events of grasshoppers. On the drive down the west flank of the Big Lue Mountains we encountered thousands of the grasshoppers covering the road. We stopped to photograph some of the large, colorful grasshoppers had saw that the still-living ones were cannibalizing their squashed relatives.

In general the birding was mediocre during the trip with the only highlight being a Red-breasted Nuthatch in Granville Campground north of Clifton, which seemed fairly low in elevation to find this species at this time of year. The road to the Upper and Lower Juan Miller Campgrounds had very lush riparian habitat dominated by Arizona alder (Alnus oblongifolia), chokecherry (Prunus serotina or virginiana) and Arizona sycamore (Platanus wrightii). The chokecherries were loaded with fruit which should have attracted a lot of birds, but it was early afternoon at that point and bird activity was low. We then tired to get to Honeymoon Campground off Eagle Creek Rd., but we only got to the stream crossing at the settlement and turned back due to several large rocks in the stream (we were driving in my low-clearance Corolla). We figured it was better to turn back then anyways as the thunderheads were starting to build up just to the north and the area had evidence of recent flooding. One of our last stops was at KP Cienega Campground near Hannagan Meadow where surprisingly most of the wildflowers were already past their peak blooming.

Riparian habitat at Upper Juan Miller Campground: