Tiger Beetles and Shorebirds, Willcox Saturday, 19 July 2008
With a broadening interest in organisms, we will plan a combined field
trip that involves a collaboration of NABA butterfly clubs from
Phoenix
and
Tucson and the Maricopa
Audubon Society. This field trip will
accommodate those with an eye for shorebirds and tiger beetles. Willcox and
the Sulphur Springs Valley are among the best places in
Arizona for
fall migrating shorebirds, and with 18 species of tiger beetles, it has
one of the highest diversities of tiger beetle species in North America,
including several endemic species and subspecies- a veritable
paradise!
Depending on the monsoon rains and extent of moist conditions, we will
spend Saturday exploring ponds, grasslands, and the Willcox Dry Lake
Bed for its feathered and chitinized denizens. You are likely to see
parts of the Sulphur Springs Valley you have never birded or insected
before (there are great herps here, too).
From
Phoenix, the drive is about 2-3 hours to Willcox, and if you
prefer to drive down the night before (Friday, 18 July), we will meet
everyone at 8 am in
Willcox Saturday morning at
the lake of the Twin Lakes
Golf Course. Turn s.e. (right) onto Hi. #186 at the stop light on S.
Haskell Ave, go over the train tracks and in a 1/4 mile turn south (right
)at the Twin Lakes Golf Course sign. Drive past the golf course
restaurant and pro shop and enter the parking area at the entrance to Lake
Circle Drive and wait there.
We will visit the permanent lake shore, temporary ponds hidden away in
the grasslands, and drive out onto the playa. Bring your binoculars,
spotting scope, camera, hat, bag lunch, water bottle, and bird and tiger
beetle* fieldguides. There will be very little shade the entire day,
but as we are at 4,500 ft elevation, the temperatures, while warm, will
not be at
Tucson or Phoenix levels. We will probably finish about 2 pm
or so. Start dreaming and studying about Cochise and Ocellated Tiger
Beetles, Baird's Sandpipers and Red-necked Phalaropes. Please car pool.
In
Tucson contact The Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association (SEABA):
http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabasa/home.html
In Phoenix contact The Central Arizona Butterfly Association (CAZBA):
In Phoenix contact Maricopa Audubon:
http://www.maricopaaudubon.org/
*"A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and
Canada",
Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, Pearson, Knisley and Kazilek
more information about tiger beetles and Dr. Pearson see the website below:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.cfm?med_id=52047&from=mmg