HIKE OF THE MONTH

{hike of the month} Brooding Vultures and Vermilion Flutters Enliven Wildlife Refuge Hike

The vermilion flycatcher, below, joins more than 280 other documented birds at San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Arizona. Endangered fish, including the Yaqui chub and Yaqui topminnow, swim in the Slaughter Ranch pond, opposite page, near the start of the Black Draw Trail.

“SEE THAT?” asks photographer Marty Cordano. I glimpse a streak of vivid red darting from a mesquite tree. “That’s a vermilion flycatcher.” Like the flycatcher, we’re visiting San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Arizona in spring. Blessed by reliable surface water on a songbird migration route that connects the tropics with all of North America, the area draws a wildlife bounty. The Black Draw Trail offers a saunter along dirt roads and passes artesian ponds and open cienegas.

At the Slaughter Ranch, near Douglas, we pay $5 each, leave our vehicles, grab a map and start the 2.5-mile stroll in the adjoining refuge. Spotting a great blue heron and a western kingbird, we know we've picked a good day to sample the refuge's 280 bird species.

Thick desert vegetation walls us in until suddenly the trail opens into a cienega and Double PhD Pond. A desert anomaly with artesian wells and ponds, this region comprises the headwaters of the Rio Yaqui Basin. Willows, Fremont cottonwoods and cattails furnish nesting areas for birds.

Wetlands covered the area when the famous Western lawman and rancher John Slaughter arrived in 1884. His wife, Viola, wrote, “As we came out of the Sulphur Springs Valley and came into a pass in the Silver Creek range, we looked east and south to the Guadalupes in New Mexico and into the distant blue of Old Mexico. Two streams watered the valley. It was beautiful and it was ours.” Farming, ranching, drought and an 1887 earthquake all altered the water tables, leaving only occasional springs. The trail reaches the barbed-wire boundary fence between Mexico and Arizona where a 12-foot-high monument explains that 1882 and 1889 treaties fixed the current border.

Following the fence east, we drop into Robertson Cienega, where a fenced enclosure protects threatened Chiricahua and lowland leopard frogs. Clumps of sacaton grass are reminders of when Viola Slaughter described the San Bernardino Valley as a “luxuriant meadow some eight or ten miles long and a mile wide.” Tree-lined Black Draw holds a small pool. Bullfrogs croak at our intrusion, but the fragrant Texas mulberry blossoms are welcoming.

Gila woodpeckers appear as we follow Black Draw north then re-cross the draw at the first trail on the left. The black-and-white striped woodpecker with his jaunty red cap is one of the most important desert birds, since their nest cavities shelter deadbeat renters like kestrels, elf owls, screech owls, flycatchers, cactus wrens and warblers. They live mostly on insects, with the occasional delicacy of saguaro fruit or even mistletoe berries, which are poisonous to many other species. Great, ugly, migratory turkey vultures soar overhead on their 6-foot wingspans at heights up to 5,000 feet. They can digest the most putrid of dead critters, and remain the bane of bird biologists due to their tendency to throw up on anything they perceive as a threat.

At Twin Pond, 4-inch heron tracks resemble miniature dinosaur tracks in the mud, grumpy coots squawk from the cattails and a pair of Mexican mallard ducks spatters across the surface. Endangered Yaqui chubs, Yaqui catfish, beautiful shiners and Yaqui topminnows live in the pond.

Our trail loops back through desert vegetation to Double PhD Pond and the Slaughter Ranch. Suddenly, Cordano excitedly points. “Look at that white-faced ibis.” Nearly exterminated by the effects of pesticides, the ibis with its curved bill has a narrow border of feathers around a solemn, wizened, featherless face. A bird that can set the heart of a birder going pitter-patter, the ibis makes a fitting end for our springtime walk along the Black Draw Trail.

And it's way more fun than a vomiting vulture. All When LOCATION: San Bernardino yougo Wildlife Refuge, 16.5 miles east of Douglas. The trailhead is accessible from Slaughter Ranch, 2.5 miles west of the refuge. GETTING THERE: From Douglas, drive east on 15th Street, which turns into Geronimo Trail. Go 15 miles, then follow Slaughter Ranch Road to the right. You will see the gate with a large “Z” (Slaughter’s brand) on the front. The Black Draw Trail starts at the Slaughter Ranch parking area and goes into San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge. To reach refuge headquarters from Douglas, follow U.S. Route 191 north to .33 mile past Marker 11, then turn left (west) for 1 mile to refuge office. HOURS: Slaughter Ranch, Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 A.M. to 3 P.Μ.; refuge open daily during daylight hours. FEES: Slaughter Ranch, $5 adults; free, children 14 and under; refuge entrance is free. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Slaughter Ranch Museum, (520) 558-2474; San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge, (520) 3642104 or www.fws.gov/southwest/ refuges/arizona/sanb.html.