Archives: Festival Events

Difficulty: Easy. A few mild slopes but mostly flat ground and good walking surfaces. Bathroom and water on-site.

For visitors and those new to the Sonoran Desert, Tohono Chul’s easy-walking trails and gardens provide close-up looks at many of the desert specialties. Of the more than 500 bird species that spend time in Arizona during the year, 140 are known to have visited Tohono Chul, and on any given morning you might see up to 15 species here. All year long you can watch our state bird, the Cactus Wren, flit from cactus to tree and back again, chattering as he goes. Observe the Curved-billed Thrasher, with its saucy two-part whistle, scrabbling on the ground or nesting in cholla cactus. Enjoy our two year-round resident hummingbird species, Anna’s and Costa’s, as they dart about, feeding among the many colorful flowers. And be sure to look upward for a glance of our majestic Cooper’s Hawks, a pair of which has nested in the gardens for each of the last four years. Meet at the Tohono Chul Admission Window. Limited to 10 participants.

Curve-billed Thrasher, Martin Molina

Difficulty: Easy. Mostly flat ground and good walking surfaces. Bathroom and water on-site.

Located on the site of the historic Porter property, Tucson Botanical Gardens (TBG) is a five and a half acre collection of 20 gardens in the heart of Tucson, Arizona.  A true urban oasis, Tucson Botanical Gardens was selected #4 in USA Today’s 10Best Botanical Gardens Readers’ Choice Awards, 2 years in a row. 20 curated gardens including the Cactus & Succulent Garden, Barrio Garden, Zen Garden, Bird Garden, and many more, showcase a diversity of plants both native and those you wouldn’t expect to see in the Sonoran Desert. Drive time to the meeting location from festival venue is 10 minutes. Limited to 15 participants.

Abert’s Towhee, Greg Lavaty

Difficulty: Easy. Paved pathways and bathroom/water on-site.

Join keepers at the Reid Park Zoo for a tour of the South American and Flight Connection Aviaries, as well as visits to the flamingo and Abdim stork habitats. Please be prepared for moderate walking in the heat. Participants will meet keepers at the Zoo’s main entrance at 8am. Includes zoo entry fee. Limited to 15 participants.

Difficulty: Easy. Paved pathways with benches but there is some steeper incline. Bathrooms/water on-site.

Join docent and bird guide, Michael Sadat, for a guided bird walk around the beautiful grounds of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The Desert Museum is ranked on TripAdvisor.com as one of the Top 10 Museums in the country and also is home to many Sonoran desert specialties such as Costa’s Hummingbird, Gilded Flicker, and Pyrrhuloxia. Entry fee of $29.95 not included. Limited to 10 participants.

Pyrrhuloxia by Michael Sadat

Difficulty: Moderate. Mostly well groomed walking trails but may have some incline and may be on some uneven and rocky terrain for about 2.5 miles roundtrip. Bathrooms on-site. Bring 2 liters of water.

We’ll bird Sabino Canyon Recreation Area walking a loop that includes both Sonoran desert upland and Sabino Creek riparian area. Gila Woodpeckers, Purple Martins, and Cactus Wrens should be readily seen with other desert and riparian birds. Meet at the ramada by the Visitor’s Center at 5700 N Sabino Canyon Road. $8 parking fee. Return to car by 9am. Sunhat, water and walking shoes always recommended. Leaders are Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists. Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 25 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.

Purple Martins, Henry T McLin

Difficulty: Moderate. Flat walking surfaces, mostly packed dirt around the lake, with less than two miles covered. Fairly exposed so wear sun protection and bring 1-2 liters of water. Bathroom on-site.

This city park on the west side of town hosts two lakes, Silverbell and Archer Lakes, that provide habitat for herons, Neotropic and Double-crested Cormorants, a resident Snow Goose, hummingbirds, kingbirds, Lazuli Buntings, and more. Vermilion Flycatchers are all over the place and the water resources bring a variety of other bird species to the park. Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 20 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand.  Limited to 10 participants.

Vermilion Flycatcher, Greg Lavaty

Difficulty: Moderate. Around two miles roundtrip on soft sand surface. No restrooms or drinking water available.  If there has been recent rain the wash may have standing, or flowing water and we may change our location.

This major wash flows west from creeks that drain from the northern side of the Rincon Mountains and provides diverse riparian vegetation for a variety of bird species. We will head downstream along the north side of the wash, first checking the brush for Lark Sparrow, Abert’s Towhee, Lazuli Bunting and more, then continuing to the large cottonwoods for Gray Hawk, woodpeckers, flycatchers, and warblers. Sunhat, water and good walking shoes are recommended. Drive time to the meeting location from the festival venue is about 30 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.

Gray Hawk, bryanjsmith

Learn about simple ways to use spotting scopes to take beautiful images of the natural word with Jeff Bouton of Kowa Optics! Today, birders have a wealth of excellent spotting scopes available to them, and the state-of-the-art in smartphone computational photography means that birders can take photographs that are near-DSLR quality in a portable, easily shareable format. Meet at Reid Park, which is close to the festival headquarters for a field workshop designed for hands-on work and problem solving for anyone just getting started. Vermilion Flycatchers, Neotropic Cormorants, and Broad-billed Hummingbirds will be on our radar for digiscoping! Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is less than 5 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 12 participants.

Neotropic Cormorant, David Quanrud