After a night in cute Bisbee and a day of fabulous birding in the San Pedro valley shadowed by the Huachuca Mountains, we arrived at Patagonia Lake State Park and reconnected with good friends, Jim and Laura Flet. We followed much of their itinerary and weren’t disappointed. What was disappointing were the “improvements” made to the park—what used to be rolled granite was now paved, and hookups were added. Those amenities really boosted the price of an overnight, and were it not for the wonderful kayak adventures we experienced, we may have left a day earlier.
That said, we glided into a tiny cove inaccessible to the bass boats plying the shoreline and found ourselves in another world. While munching on an orange, we caught sight of a black hawk terribly concerned with our presence that turned out to be directly beneath its nest. After a while, the stunning bird apparently dismissed us as casual observers and we kept it in our binoculars as s/he circled its territory in search of munchies.