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WILLCOX — The 15th Annual Wings Over Willcox Birding and Nature Festival is showing some new feathers this year.
The festival begins Thursday and runs through next Sunday, and it has added new events and features a birding expert as its banquet speaker.
Tours have filled up quickly, with about half of the 36 already sold out as of Thursday.
New tours include “Ghost Towns,” “Geology and History of the Sulphur Springs Valley,” “Sunset Sandhill Crane,” and an overnight trip to Muleshoe Ranch.
 Anne Peyton, a volunteer with Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation Center based in Scottsdale, holds onto "Pawnee," the Ferruginous hawk, at the Willcox Community Center (Courtesy of the Arizona Range News) |
This year’s Muleshoe tour will provide an opportunity to spend Wednesday evening and Thursday exploring the sights and sounds of the Muleshoe Ecosystem. The tour meets at the Willcox Community Center on Stewart Street at 1:50 p.m. on Wednesday.
Attendees will be housed in private casitas at Muleshoe Ranch. Wednesday evening includes a presentation on the habitat and species found within the Muleshoe ecosystem with an emphasis on aquatic and riparian habitats. Following dinner, guests are on their own to explore the ranch headquarters and look for nocturnal creatures such as western screech owls, ringtail cats and coatimundis.
On Thursday morning, after breakfast guests will explore the Hot Springs/Bass Canyon Loop of the Muleshoe Ranch, where a variety of wildlife species, including birds, mammals, reptiles and aquatic species, may be encountered. Participants will be returned to the community center in Willcox by 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The tour requires about three miles of difficult hiking, some of it uphill or across wet rocks, and several wet creek crossings. Good hiking shoes are recommended. Bring your own walking stick if you typically use one for trail hiking.
The tour includes dinner, breakfast, lunch, drinks, and rest stops.
Arrangements for lodging must be made with the Muleshoe Ranch directly at muleshoe@tnc.org or by calling (520) 507-5229.
Participants in the new “Ghost Town” tour will visit three nearby ghost towns and learn about the influence of gold, silver and copper mining on the development of Cochise County.
Tour leader Jim Burnett, a lifelong resident, will discuss early life in these ghost towns and the boom and bust nature of early mining. Attendees will tour a restored general merchandise store dating from the late 1800s and inspect other buildings that still remain.
The tour requires less than a half-mile of easy walking, and no prior knowledge of history is needed. Lunch and drinks are included.
Another new tour this year is the “Geology and History of the Sulphur Springs Valley,” lead by Larry Fellows and Don Hammer.
Farming and ranching lured large numbers of wintering sandhill cranes to the Sulphur Springs Valley. Tour participants will observe and discuss the geological character and history of the valley, with emphasis on the impact of the Willcox Playa on wildlife, transportation, agriculture, groundwater supply and development.
No prior knowledge of geology is needed, and attendees are encouraged to participate in discussions. Considered a beginner-level tour, it requires less than a half-mile of easy walking on flat ground. Lunch and drinks will be provided.
The new “Sunset Sandhill Crane” tour will start with a circuit of Lake Cochise for late afternoon arrivals of waterfowl. Next stop will be at a known roosting site as dusk begins to fall, with sandhill cranes coming in from the fields to spend the night.
The tour requires about three quarters of a mile of walking along an unpaved, sandy road. It is considered a beginner-level tour. Attendees should be prepared for cold temperatures as the sun sets, and should bring a flashlight for the return walk to the vehicle. The tour includes rest stops. Trip leaders are Erika Wilson and Alan Blixt.
A featured event during the annual festival is the banquet on Saturday at the Willcox Elks Lodge, 247 E. Stewart St.
The keynote speaker will be Rick Wright, founder of Aimophilia Adventures, a Tucson-based guiding and tour service for birders. He is also a department editor at Birding magazine and the editor of the American Birding Association’s “Winging It.”
During the lecture, Wright plans to present his own personal top 10 misidentifications and shows how you can avoid making his mistakes. Each blunder illustrates an important principle that will make you a better birder.
Registration for the banquet is required due to limited seating, and there is a choice of chicken, steak or vegetarian lasagna. The evening begins with a silent auction and social hour at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., followed by Wright’s presentation at 8 p.m.
The Wings Over Willcox festival also includes a free Nature Expo from Thursday through next Sunday at the community center in Willcox. The expo will include exhibits with live animals, nature information, nature-related products for sale and more.
Free seminars covering topics on birding, astronomy, solar energy, Native American history and more will be offered at the community center.
Event chairman Homer Hansen helped the Arizona Game & Fish Department conduct their annual crane count on early Tuesday morning.
At Crane Lake, they counted 8,078 sandhill cranes. The AEPCO viewing area had 1,727 cranes, Cochise Lake had an estimated 500 cranes, and Whitewater Draw came in the highest with 22,364, he said.
Adding these key roosting locations with other outlying areas, the total number of sandhill cranes was 36,418, which Hansen said is a new record by nearly 5,000 cranes.
The highest the count has been is about 31,000.
WHERE TO CALL
• Register for Wings Over Willcox tours via the Web site www.wingsoverwillcox.com, or by calling 1-800-200-2272 or (520) 384-2272.
WHERE TO GO
• For information about the event of Willcox, contact the Willcox Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, 1500 N. Circle I Road, or visit the event Web site.
