Early February in North America
Merry Christmas fellow mammalwatchers!
next early February I will be visiting Las Vegas for work and I’m thinking adding ~4d for mammals. Thinking about some good weather escape, and chances at mountain lions, I was eying SE Arizona flying to Tucson and driving south. Reading some reports, people tend to go there later in the year, though.
I could also easily fly through California or Vancouver, if that time of the year would be better for some special mammal (whales?).
in any case, I’m open to suggestions 😊
best
Francesco
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9 Comments
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charleswhood
To add to that, I assume you know this, but if you have a hire car, do not park in San Francisco, Berkeley, or Oakland and leave anything visible in the car. Break-ins are fewer than a year ago but still, via photography forums, one hears many, many horror stories. Once out of the urban area and into what is called North Bay (Marin and Sonoma counties), risk is significantly less. So wait until there to get your groceries, for example. Rented cars usually have a small bar code on the window, so thieves know to break into those vehicles first.
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charleswhood
If you go to Tucson, current (Dec 2024) success rate on bobcats at Sweetwater Treatment Plant seems to be about 50%, so long as you remember that usually one morning a week they open late due to mosquito abatement. If there before main preserve opens, look across the street (N side) to the new area, since bobcats hunt there too. This is more of birding site than mammal one. On your way to Cave Creek, Madera Canyon is always worth a night, for ringtail, raccoon, skunks, and the 1% chance of a puma. All of these areas are very very well covered by previous trip reports. To clarify, the SF city area is not a post-apocalyptic wasteland of crime and zombies, but I do think one needs to be aware of the greater odds of break-in there, and to plan accordingly. Even the Oakland In-and-Out hamburger depot has closed down due to crime. Yet with an equal amount of effort, in winter I think you would see more mammals overall (and see more taxonomic diversity) at Point Reyes than you would in Arizona. If this is your first visit to Arizona, know too that it is an open-carry state, meaning exposed handguns are legal for the average person (or at least the average white male) to wear on a belt or keep in a car. Yee-haw, let’s all pretend to be cowboys.
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Francesco Cuzzola
Thank you, Charles. I’ve been to SF in 2016 – that time we had 5d in the city, 1d in Monterey and 2w in GYE. So Point Reyes sounds good. I’ve never been to Arizona and I thought it could be interesting for mammals and for hiking, given the weather. I also remember that Doug Peacock used to winter in Az before spending time with the grizzlies in Montana, so it sounds promising.
What about Nevada per se? Anything reachable from Vegas that could yield some interesting mammal?
thank you once more!
Francesco -
charleswhood
From Las Vegas, the Charleston Peaks area will have piney wood hiking, including snow cover in winter. Not sure if you can find a Palmer Chipmunk in winter there or not. Bighorn sheep possible near Boulder City — I’ve not been there lately, but I assume a google search will reveal which city park they are seen in? For general hiking another area is called Red Rocks — this is a popular climbing area, very scenic. Kangaroo rats probably not out in Feb though.
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vnsankar
Charles has given you lots of great info already, but I’ll add a few things. I’ve never visited Portal in winter, but would expect to see far fewer mammals there compared to the summer trip reports. Specialties like Banner-tailed Kangaroo Rat, Mexican Long-tongued Bat, etc will likely be very difficult for example though cats will always be around if unpredictable. Unlike lowlands in AZ, the weather there will not necessarily be nice and you may get sub-freezing temps at night or even a bit of snow. I do agree that SE AZ is probably the best place in the states for puma, but be aware that your chances on any given trip are low (<5%). The other good place I know is Humboldt County in NW CA, but that's not a winter destination and the chances are probably slightly lower. In the US it just takes a lot of time in the field.
I'd agree that at this time of year, your nearest bet for very productive mammal watching would be Pt. Reyes. Good chances for badger and river otter at Abbott's Lagoon, in addition to the species Charles mentions. Basically zero chance for puma though (which are few & mostly in less accessible forested habitats on the higher ridges there). Winter weather here is unpredictable and you could get rained out, but living near SF I go to Pt. Reyes a lot in Dec-Mar and unless you're very unlucky I think if you spend a few days there, you should get some decent weather in the field and plenty of sightings. Given the high diversity of species & habitats in Pt. Reyes & to give yourself a buffer for adverse weather, I'd probably go for spending the entire 4 days there rather than driving the 3+ hours south (through traffic) for short visits to Monterey or Pinnacles. 3 winter days in Pt. Reyes would essentially guarantee a daytime Bobcat sighting & if you also want to see a badger for example, that may take a few attempts. I love Pinnacles (Condors, Townsend's Big-eared Bat in Balconies cave, phenomenal rodent & bat diversity in summer, and Bobcat on nearby ranch roads), but it's not as good for larger mammals. Winter whale watching out of Monterey in my experience can be a bit slow, and my boat-based Gray Whale sightings weren't much better than what I've seen from shore in Pt. Reyes (lighthouse), Mendocino, Trinidad etc. Feel free to send me an email (listed in reports) if you want more details on any place here!
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charleswhood
Most airlines service Las Vegas but one that tries to avoid aggregate sites like Expedia is Southwest. To see their options you usually have to go directly to their own website. One location to think about is Point Reyes via hire car out of SFO (San Francisco) or Oakland (what is called East Bay, as a region). That could be good for bobcat, coyote, gray fox, striped skunk, sonoma chipmunk, tule elk, elephant seal, gray whale. If you really want to emphasize puma, there are no guaranteed sites, but the Cave Creek Canyon area of Southeastern Arizona is best, and in winter, sometimes there is a habituated spotted skunk at Cave Creek Ranch. If flying into Tucson, it is worth checking Sabino Canyon at dusk, especially if you have a thermal scope, since I heard a second-hand report of a puma there about a month ago. Rain in February at Pt Reyes is possible; for a “La Nina” year, Northern California has had a LOT of storms. (Southern California has had almost none.) The storms this year have been atmospheric rivers, which lead to road closures due to flooding and fallen trees; the Point Reyes Christmas bird count was hindered by that this year. Not to be too discouraging, but as a very wild guess, you have a 20% chance of being “weathered out” on Pt Reyes in February? Maybe a bit less than that… 10%? It is though the “rainy” part of the year, and it’s usually a pretty heavy rain, not a British drizzle. Or it might be warm and dry, with blue skies and no wind. No way to be certain, this far in advance. / Charles Hood