Hi Dan,
1. There's never a bad time to visit Arizona! Late April or early May should be pretty good for hummingbirds and raptors and owls.?Pima, Cochise, and Santa Cruz counties, which together comprise SE Arizona, are where you will want to focus your efforts. Here are the eBird bar graphs for those counties: http://ebird.org/ebird/GuideMe?step=saveChoices&getLocations=counties&parentState=US-AZ&bMonth=01&bYear=1900&eMonth=12&eYear=2016&reportType=location&counties=US-AZ-003&counties=US-AZ-019&counties=US-AZ-023&continue.x=46&continue.y=12
2. Depending on how much time you have, you would want to consider visiting the Tucson/Mt Lemmon area, the Portal/Chiricahua Mountains area, the Sierra Vista/Huachuca Mountains area, and the Madera Canyon/Santa Rita Mountains area. Also consider stopping by the Patagonia/Sonoita area.
3. In Tucson, WOW Arizona B&B has swarms of Costas Hummingbirds and resident Harris's Hawks.?Cave Creek Ranch in Portal is popular with birders and is a good spot for Blue-throated Hummingbirds. There are multiple options in the Huachuca Mountains area including the Ramsey Canyon Inn (adjacent to the Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve), Batiste's B&B (good for Elf Owl), Ash Canyon B&B (good for Lucifer Hummingbird and Scott's Oriole), Beatty's Guest Ranch (good for White-eared Hummingbird and Spotted Owl).? There are several places to stay in Madera Canyon including the Santa Rita Lodge (good for Magnificent Hummingbird and Broad-billed Hummingbird, and Elf Owl and Whiskered Screech Owl).?Stage Stop Inn or Spirit Tree Inn are nice in Patagonia and the nearby Patton Center for Hummingbirds should have Violet-crowned Hummingbird.
4. Laurens Halsey is a well regarded guide in SE Arizona.? You probably don't need a guide to find all the hummingbirds. But it might help with owls, he tends to know where the day roosts are.?There are also some more remote day trips you can make in the border ranges where having a guide with an AWD vehicle is a good idea, like the California Gulch area.
There are two good books about birding SE Arizona - one by Richard Taylor and the other by Tucson Audubon Society.?The latter is more up to date, and will have info on recent closures to certain canyons?in the Chiricahuas and Huachucas.
Hope that helps.
Todd SahlSeattle, WA

From: "notcalm at comcast.net" <notcalm at comcast.net>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 1:08 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Recommendations for places to look for birds in Arizona

Hello all,
My wife and I would like to visit Arizona in late April or early May.
She would enjoy seeing many different species of hummingbirds and I like all bird species especially owls and other raptors.
Questions:
1. Is this a good time of year to view birds in Arizona?
2. Recommendations on where in state to stay.
3. Specific palaces to stay at those locations.
4. I have not hired a guide before. If so, any recommendations?
Thanks,Dan ReiffMercer Island


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