Six SAS and Birders' Anonymous members and guests saw more than eighty species of birds including at least ten species of hummingbirds on the trip to the San Pedro River in July. We noted several southeast Arizona rarities and learned much about the ecology and problems facing the Sierra Vista area from our very knowledgeable guides. Attendees were George and Maria Wall, Joe Woodley, Joanne Loza, Josh Burns, and Mark Leppert of Salt Lake City, Utah.

On Saturday morning, we took the regular daily fieldtrip (highly recommended) at the Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Preserve. Mark Pretti, an expert NCS naturalist, led the walk. Mark’s identification help and near encyclopedic knowledge of the natural history of the Huachucas made the trip very rewarding. After some time spent at the feeders at the visitor center identifying hummingbirds, we walked up Ramsey Canyon to the frog pond.

Among the birding highlights of this walk was a male Blue-throated Hummingbird on an advertising territory, a female Berylline Hummingbird building a gossamer-seeming nest above the creek and a flock of radio-equipped Gould’s Turkeys. Mark pointed out the Conservancy’s efforts to remove undergrowth fuel from the forests to return to a more natural fire regime. He also discussed the supplanting of many local frog species by eastern bullfrogs.

Sandy Anderson, owner of Gray Hawk Ranch Nature Center, met us at Beatty’s in Miller Canyon after lunch for more hummingbird watching and a climb to see the Flame-colored Tanager. The Beatty's kindly let us cross their land and stop at some feeders not available to the public. A tiring but rewarding climb led us to the tanager and other montane birds including a Red-faced Warbler. The head of the Black-footed Ferret reintroduction program in Wyoming also accompanied us.

We met Sandy at her center on Sunday morning and did a long and delightful walk along the San Pedro. Birding was most successful with a cooperative male Painted Bunting being the highlight. Sandy showed us some of the ponds being built by the several families of beavers now along the upper San Pedro. Their presence is being suffered as an experiment. Even rather large trees are being harvested and utilized by these delightful and diligent creatures.

The changes that have occurred in the conservation area in the short period since its establishment have led local naturalists to believe that the cottonwood gallery forest is not the climax vegetation for the river.