Folks,
While staying at the Sierra Suites hotel in Sierra Vista, AZ, I had several
items of clothing, mostly hiking clothes-a major inconvenience, stolen from my
laundry bag in my hotel room, likely by hotel cleaning staff. Our tour group
leader said this had never happened on any of his tours before, but, I reminded
him that thefts from laundry bags may not be noticed till after returning home
or after several hotel changes, as does occur in birding tours. I would
recommend NOT leaving out a laundry bag in your hotel room...as I did to remind
myself that things needed to be hand-washed after that day's birding field
trip. Most of the time, and in other hotels, my laundry bag would be stuffed
in my closed luggage. I did file a report with the general manager of the
Sierra Suites hotel; she questioned the staff, and, of course, got denials. I
am also filing a report with the Sierra Vista, AZ, police department and the
city 'chamber of commerce.' Have any of the rest of you had hotel room thefts
at the Sierra Suites of Sierra Vista, AZ, or at other hotels/resorts in SE AZ?
And, I certainly do not blame Wings, Inc., or our leader Jon Dunn for this
loss. I have taken a lot of Wings tours with Jon Dunn (a surely blithe spirit
of the birding world.) Wings, Inc., has used the Sierra Suites hotel for many
years, but it is not part of any national chain and has changed owners over
those years. Otherwise, it is a comfortable hotel with a very good 6AM daily
continental breakfast included.

Birdwatching is a BIG business in SE AZ. Recently, a bed and breakfast owner
grossed over $25,000 from outside visitors to her yard feeders to see a
Plain-capped Star-throat hummingbird (gone before our visit.) Our tour had its
own wonderful sightings of feathered, furry, scaled and fluttery creatures,
including many SE AZ summer specialties. Within a few weeks, Jon Dunn should
post a trip list and report on the Wings, Inc., website. This is the 'Second
Spring' July trip to SE Arizona, offered most every year. It's a very birdy
tour set during the beginning of the summer monsoons in the SE AZ Sonoran
Desert. Desert is green and birds are everywhere. Yes, we did have a major
adventure in the California Gulch area with excessive and persistent deluges of
rain and mind-boggling flash floods. Our tour van became stuck in a stream
bed, partly in the water, and partly on mostly soft sand on the edges. After
many hours of trying to get ourselves out, and with rain increasing again, Jon
hiked out to try to find help; he said he had never seen, in his over 25 years
of leading this trip, such excess of rain and such gigantic flash floods as we
saw on this tour. The "cavalry" in the form of the US Border Patrol came to
our rescue and pulled our van out of the sink hole. They also helped us find
our way out of the gulch area to paved roads, testing the many flooded water
crossings for safety. What great guys!!!, and they do a lot more than catch
illegal immigrants. Their job is surely hazardous, having to deal with drug
smugglers and poachers of endangered plants and animals. Our Wings tour group
dilemma was likely an amusing breath of fresh air with our profound
appreciation for their help and their competence. And, it was a sobering
learning experience in how these wonderful, but remote, AZ birding sites can be
treacherous with freaky weather, canyon tsunamis, and armed criminals plus a
few critters not to be trifled with, either.

Check on the Wings, Inc., website over the next few weeks for Jon Dunn's
account of our exciting tour, sure to be fun reading, and with a great bird
list. My next Wings trip is tentatively planned for 2011, the Crane
Creek/Point Pelee spring migration tour. Off to Elderhostel Hawaiian birding tour in October on quick notice, barely beating non-affordable airline fares to get there! Go while you can.

Cheers, indeed, me2
****************************************
Maureen Ellis, PhD, Research Scientist
Woods Lab, Toxicology Group at Roos 1, Box 354695
Lab/Office phone: 206-685-1938 Email: mj2ephd at u.washington.edu
DEOHS, SPHCM, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
****************************************
"The highway of life is full of flat squirrels that couldn't make up their
minds." ____unknown

"To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities
as you do at conclusions." ____Ben Franklin

"Be the change you want to see in the world." ____Ghandi