Sunday, May 25, 1975 Dear Gale: You had the fresh report of our wonderful weekend of Arizona birding on the telephone a couple of weeks ago, and I've just now re-written by typewriter all [illegible] the fond memories. The trips with you and with Murray were great! I ended up with 196 species for the trip, plus three unknowns which we'll get into in a minute or two. Five life-listers brings my total to 1316 Ten North American listers bring that total to 637 (where I was before lopping eleven earlier listers off because of re-do of the AOU checklist! Twenty-seven Arizona listers, bringing my state total to 288. Not too bad for a foreigner, but a long way from you totals, I'm sure! The trogons were more than cooperative, but we had to chase a turkey out of [illegible] the road so we could get to the trogons! Was especially amazed at the height of the tail-flipping of the female! Much more than seen done by Trinidad species. Saw male just into Garden canyon beyond picnic grounds (Murray has the distance) and then a pair below Sawmill camp-picnic ground. Buff-breasted Flycatchers at Sawmill seen only in pure yellowpine stands, parklike-with little or no brush below. She "knew their call", but the notes we heard from them were different ones altogether. She can fill you on that, and on their steady habit of alighting at the top base of limbs right up against the tree trunks, with wings and tail often quivering. This is fairly well detailed in Bent's LH's, but was a new habit for flycatchers to me! The flammulated owl came to calls and right into your lantern light, like the Whiskered for you and me, but actually more easily. On road to the dam above the rsch. sta a few miles. I hope you get the lantern back in time for Mexico. And how was that trip??! The next morning I'd swear on a stack of bibles I heard a Nutcracker calling high on the cliffs to the NW of the jct. of the two roads at Cave Creek. No see-um, tho. Turns out the Mexican Jay student said flocks wintered at Spoffords, too. Forgot to tell you, John Gottschalk and others got to see a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak at Mile Hi, where he stayed overnight. Peabody's had rumor of a yellow (trying to outdo Monson) vagtail along stream below their place. They had not see, and Murray and I could not find. The last morning, May 12 was unbelievable at Patagonia. Swallows nesting in the newly constructed part of the Stage Stop motel, and we had hardly got to the sycamore tree across from the rest stop and there was a female becard hi in the tree, and in a few more minutes, after chasing the tanager species out of the way, I had short glimpses of the thick-billed KB. Still questionable, but later varified at 11 a.m. beyond a doubt when one landed near us at the Patagonia end of the preserve, several miles from the sycamore tree. There is no way to confuse it with any other KB, even the eastern, and the call notes it gave for us are unique. I climbed the rocky, prickly slope and had dandy looks at the 5-striped sparrow, too, but three puzzlers that morning are worth your turning over this page to get the details. Before leaving the rest stop we met two your birders, Doug Stotz and Chuck Kangas. ?sp?? Kangas had just returned from a Guy McCaskie trip to San Diego. Avid birder, but how capable?? Couldn't even remember the common names of some of the species seen on the SD trip! Anyway, we alerted those two to watch for the mystery birds. Any word passed out from that yet? So - do turn the page and let me have the benefit of your highly skiller, unerring, technical analysis!!:::