This post is for the last stop on our trip to SE Arizona: the town of Portal. Portal is a small town in the Chiricahua Mountains that is popular for its birding, among other things. It was about a 1.5 hour drive from our motel in Safford. We got there at 9:30am, and stopped in the visitors center. They told us that the Elegant Trogon hadn’t arrived yet, and that it typically arrives in mid April. We saw it last year when we were there in May.
We went to the South Fork Trail. The creek was running strong where it crossed the trail, due to recent rains, and prevented us hiking further along the trail, and to the spot where we saw the trogon last year. So, we hiked down the road to the bridge and beyond. We didn’t see much, but I got a nice shot of a Bridled Titmouse.
There are 4 different feeder locations around ‘downtown’ Portal. Three of them are in people’s backyards that they open to the public. We went to Dave Jasper’s backyard (it’s called the Jasper/Moisan hotspot on ebird). The feeders there attract an incredible variety of birds into the small backyard (for example, in March and April of this year, 101 species were reported there).
We left at 3pm for the 4 hour drive back home.
