Archive for April, 2014

The San Pedro House Birding Attraction Is Being A Globally Important Birding Area.

The signage at the entrance to the San Pedro House birding area is easily seen from the road.

The San Pedro House birding facility is just a short drive away from Down By The River B and B. This birding hotspot is located in the center of the nearly 57,000 acre San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. This Globally Important Birding Area attracts visitors from all over the world. It is a jewel that is prized in Cochise County. With almost 400 species of birds that make their home here along this flyway as either residents or migrants, the San Pedro River birding can be fantastic for someone that wants to spend time in one location. The BLM has a birding check list for the area that you can download here.

The San Pedro House can be reached from the b and b driving on Arizona Highway 80 south to the Highway 90 junction and going west to the San Pedro River. There is a large parking lot at the San Pedro House. The visitor’s center is a gift shop and book store which offers light refreshments and information about the area. There are picnic areas and restrooms on the property. Fee camping is permitted at specific locations.

San Pedro House Birding Area Visitor’s Center is the old farm house.

The property was once a historic cattle ranch with alfalfa fields that is slowly returning to the natural vegetation. The visitor’s center was the original ranch house and is run by volunteers. There are trails that lead from the visitor’s center to the river and then north and south along the river. When completed the trails will interconnect and will cover about 30 miles with access to many areas of interest from the San Pedro House birding location. There is a lot to tell about this area and what can be seen as you enjoy the facilities. I will write about the trails later but for now I am going to focus just on what is around the visitor’s center.

A large Cottonwood Tree estimated to be about 130 years old is located at the San Pedro House birding area

At the visitor’s center there are many things to see and do. The San Pedro House birding has many feeders that attract many hummingbirds. Other seed feeders attract other birds and flycatchers can be found chasing flying insects. Foraging birds can be found around the native vegetation. One of the more impressive things to view are the large Cottonwood trees that are near the old ranch house. One tree has a trunk that I estimate to be twelve feet in diameter. The tree is massive and there are many birds that can be spotted in the branches. The large tree is estimated to be up to 130 years old. The Cottonwood behind the house is almost 60 years old and may be half the size of the bigger one shown here.

The Curved Bill Thrasher was foraging on the grounds at the San Pedro House Birding area

The Black-chinned Hummingbirds frequent the feeders at the San Pedro House Birding area.

While Angie was looking in the gift shop, I spent time wandering around the old ranch house and took pictures of 10 different birds in 30 minutes. I saw others but didn’t have time to identify them before they flew off. It was an amazing experience to see so much activity in a short period of time. We do have a lot of birds at Down By The River but we have been watching those birds for almost 10 years and some are almost old friends now but many are easily scared off. We don’t have the large San Pedro House birding enthusiasts being at the location on a daily basis. These birds were different and appeared to accept people being near the feeders.  That made photographing them much easier.

The Common Ground Dove can be confused with the Mourning Dove. The spots and the tail are the give away.

After Angie had made her purchases, we got our water and were ready to set out on the trail to the river to find more adventure and to explore the trails and the river. It had been more than 8 years since I have been down to the San Pedro House birding and I was interested to see what we could find. My next blog will tell you what we found down on the river. But if you are interested in seeing the areas, check out Down By The River B and B,  The Lodging Hub of Cochise County.

Two male Black-chinned Hummingbirds were at the feeder together.

Southeast Arizona Stargazing – The amazing dark skies will enthrall you.

The bright stars of Sagittarius contains nebula and the Milky Way is a back drop.

Southeast Arizona stargazing is magnificent because of the dark night skies. There are many large telescopes in Pima, Cochise and Gila Counties. Because of the limited light pollution, amateur astronomers come to Southeast Arizona just to take advantage of the stargazing. There are astronomy clubs that have viewings during the darker nights of the month around the time of the new moon.

Down By The River B and B is located in Saint David, an area that is away from city lights. There are few neighbors in the country setting that provide back lighting from their homes. Little traffic is on the roads to add glare to the surrounding area. We also have a telescope that can be used to view the night sky. We have also had guests that bring their own equipment to use at the b and b during the time they spend here doing Southeast Arizona stargazing.

Our Stargazing B and B has a 13″ mirror Dobsonian Telescope

We have had some guests that have stayed here for a longer period of time and have showed us some tricks to use when viewing the dark skies. We have also had a couple of guests that were into astral photography but both used a different device and techniques to take their pictures. Interestingly both were from Canada.

David set his camera up on a tripod and programmed the camera to take pictures at set intervals and had the lens open for specific exposure lengths. He would take up to 100 photographs this way and then use a program that he has to layer each photo on top of each other. The software would then fill in the lines and give a star track view of the sky. Sometimes he would also have a meteor show up on the film.

The picture is focused on the north star and shows that Polaris is not really due north but is offset slightly. Taken By David

Our other guest John had an electronic device that would track stars. The equipment would be mounted on the camera tripod with the camera attached to it. Then the tracker would be aligned with the North Star, After that, he would aim the camera at an object to photograph and take the picture for the time duration he wanted. John does have a special camera that was modified to enhance the pictures using this method but a normal DSLR camera will work. Angie saw my enthusiasm and bought the equipment for me to use.

I have tried it and it takes some work to get the lens focused properly but I am getting better the more I try. I have photographed the moon, and the alignment of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury. My first attempt with the tracking equipment actually worked well enough for me to have a picture of Jupiter with one moon showing. I have tried to photograph Orion with a little success and finally the Pleiades. But alignment and focusing are the key elements for success.

This is the first attempt at photographing Jupiter. The picture shows the moon to the right side close to the planet.

For others that do not have or know how to use the equipment but would like to view the stars, San Pedro Valley Observatory is within 30 minutes drive and they will show you the stars. Appointments are needed to do the viewing. So next time you want to do some Southeast Arizona Stargazing come to Cochise County and stay at Down By The River B and B. The stars are amazing – See for yourself.

The Constellation of Orion is one of the more well known star formations and the sword has the Orion Nebula in it.