Magic Canyon

Among the many wonders to be found in southeastern Arizona is Aravaipa Canyon.   The heart of this isolated canyon shadows Aravaipa Creek, with about 12 miles of it being included in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness.  It’s a lush canyon, with permanent water, and home to a huge variety of wildlife.   I’ve visited and written about the canyon before.  This time, Lang Elliott and I visited for a week in late April/early May, just as spring was really getting going.

We stayed on the east side of the wilderness, near The Nature Conservancy’s Aravaipa Canyon Preserve.  In addition to seeing a bear (and tracking some others), and fresh tracks of a mountain lion and kittens, we also saw a troop of coatis!

Unfortunately, the canyon is pretty close to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport, resulting in near non-stop aircraft noise for most of the day and into the evening.  But late evening into the dawn are pretty good times to record, and brief moments of quiet from aircraft noise can be found throughout the day.  The close canyon walls block a lot of wind and bring the birds and other critters are quite close, resulting in some really great recordings.  And we were lucky enough this trip to catch a thunderstorm in the middle of the canyon, which sent beautiful, deep rumbles bouncing off the canyon walls.  We quickly set up our mics, as the ever-present bird song was replaced with the patter of rain drops.  The rain increased until I finally no longer trusted my makeshift rain cover (a towel thrown over the mics), and had to pull my mics into the car.

Shortly after the thunderstorm passed, dozens of small waterfalls started cascading over the canyon rim.  Lang and I kept ourselves busy trying to photograph and record the little cascades (difficult through the vegetation).

In addition to the dozens of small birds that arrive in Aravaipa to breed, it was also breeding season for wild turkeys.  They were a little shy at first, but day by day became bolder, and soon it seemed they were everywhere.  Lang was on a “hunt” for good turkey sounds, and put extra effort into locating a turkey roost.  He finally found one, in a patch of large cottonwoods near the mouth of the canyon.

After obtaining permission from The Nature Conservancy for access, he made a great overnight recording at the roost, including a great roster of turkey calls.  He was so excited about it, he dragged me out there the next night (it wasn’t hard), which was our last night in Aravaipa.  We picked up our mics on our way out of the canyon.  Although, according to Lang, the second morning wasn’t as good as the first, I was still elated to pick up these intimate sounds of the turkeys, with our mics set very close to the roost trees.  Listen for the yelps of hens, and the gobbles and low-pitched “chump-hum” of the gobblers, and the tremendous sounds of their feathers as they flap and soar away from the roost.  And even though it was a much drier portion of the canyon, the trees were alive with birds, many joining the turkeys in greeting the dawn.

Although a desert canyon may seem like an odd place for wild turkeys, the subspecies here is the Gould’s Turkey, whose range is primarily in Mexico.  Extirpated from Aravaipa by overhunting many years ago, they were reintroduced in 2012 and seem to be doing well.

Critter of the Month

September’ Critter of the Month is the white-nosed coati!  These members of the raccoon family are found primarily in Central America and Mexico, and just make it into the US in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.  They are highly social, with females and youngsters living in groups of 10-30 (occasionally more), and males generally solitary outside of the breeding season.  Coatis like thick, forested or shrubby habitats, which provide cover to protect them from predators like mountain lions as well as their primary foods of insects and fruits.  They are active during the day, so they are more visible than the other members of the raccoon family.  They are also highly vocal, and communicate with a variety of chirps and grunts.  Their vocalizations even extend into the ultrasonic range.  I’ve been studying their behavior and vocalizations for a number of years, and will do a blog post about my studies in the near future.  And if you want to learn more about white-nosed and other species of coatis, please pick up my book, Nosey Beast, natural history of the coatis.