Arizona - January 2026 - Logistics and Itinerary

Southern Arizona, 15th - 19th January 2026

When I do a search of the full ABA list versus my own ABA list two areas tend to stand out, Alaska and Arizona. The former will hopefully be a 2027 adventure and requires a ton of planning. The latter however is much more straightforward. Looking at what I was missing there were two distinct periods I needed to go in - winter and early spring. This is the winter trip, planned in 2025 for my annual dose of leaving the UK weather behind. Once preliminary research had pointed me to Arizona I used eBird's target functionality to look for where in the State they had been seen historically in the winter period, and based my likely itinerary on that, grouping sites into days as per the below. 

I had a lot of fun, as I always do when executing on a planned trip, and of the 24 possible ticks a I managed to get 15 which I didn't feel was a bad return at all. This was a solo trip with a bit of family stuff at the end, so largely I was free to do whatever I felt like. And that being the case, as ever I tried to do too much. I'd initially planned two mornings at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico, a place I've wanted to visit just about forever, but in the end common sense prevailed. Not enough common sense to prevent me from crossing to New Mexico, a new State, but in the end it was only for a few hours and I concentrated my time in Arizona which is what allowed me to connect with so many of the birds on the list. The ones in green are the ones I saw, and where. The ones in red are the ones I didn't, and where I dipped them which in the event was pretty much everywhere that I had planned to try for them.... Hey ho, I will just have to go back.

Logistics

• A five day solo trip in mid January.

• Flights: Direct flight from London Heathrow to Phoenix Sky Harbor with British Airways. Straightforward, good timings, and no connections to worry about. Very unlike me!

• Car Hire: Rented a medium SUV from Avis. Most classes of hire car in America cost the same, so if I am expecting to go to slightly more challenging terrain I always get a 4x4. And it came in really really useful...
• Driving: Driving was generally very easy, with good roads and light traffic other than in Phoenix at rush hour. The only really difficult driving were the icy canyon roads in the Chiricahua mountains which don't even appear on Google maps as driveable!
• Weather: Chilly in the morning and at altitude, freezing in New Mexico. But beautiful weather throughout, blue skies and sunshine. An amazing climate. Why do I live in London?
• Accommodation: Cheap motels everywhere, other than for one night booked in advance on Booking.com which is simplicity itself. And really crap for the most part. I save my cash for nice hotels when travelling with Mrs L and generally slum it when travelling solo.
• Food: Mexican, mexican, mexican. It's cheap and it's genuinely good. One place had a flock of pet cockroaches, a fact I only found out after ordering. I just added extra hot sauce and all was well.
• Optics: I took my scope as well as a camera, as this was necessary for Whitewater Draw and some of the other sites.

• Literature: eBird! Merlin is great in the US but I didn't really need it as the habitat is such that you get good views of everything.

Day 1 – Started in Tucson at Danny Lopez Park before heading south into Madera Canyon (Proctor Road up to Whitehouse). Crossed the grasslands near Florida Wash, then continued down the Santa Cruz Valley to Canoa Ranch. Patagonia for the final few hours and finally east to Sierra Vista for the evening.

Day 2 – Started in the Huachuca foothills at Ramsey Canyon, before dropping down to the San Pedro River. Then south to Ash Canyon and the Mexican border at Naco before ending the day at Whitewater Draw which was spectacular. Overnight in New Mexico for the tick.

Day 3 – Poked around Lordsburg for a while before heading south west to into Arizona via Granite Gap and Portal. Worked my way up Cave Creek Canyon before wasting most of the afternoon in the Chiricahuas looking for non-existent Mexican Chickadees. Overnight in Nogales, all the way back west as it was the only place with hotels close to where I wanted to be in the morning.

Day 4 – Returned to Patagonia, birding the Paton Center, Harshaw Creek and Patagonia Lake. The a long northbound drive up to Phoenix where I hooked up with relatives and had a lovely family evening.

Day 5 – Spent the day moving between various birding and non-birding sites in the Phoenix area. A random golf course for Greater Pewee, and then Gilbert Water Ranch, Vista Canyon Park, Rio Vista Park, and the Glendale Recharge Ponds. Also lots of thrift stores armed with shopping lists from children.... Evening flight back to London, exhausted!