FOR THE BIRDS By Jeffrey Cooper, naturalist and resident of Patagonia for 15 years and executive director of La Semilla Community Stewardship Organization

I hear them calling before I see them circling high over the forest of cottonwood trees growing along Sonoita Creek. The gray hawks welcome you to this valley if you are listening. Caught in winds high above they float off leaving the leaves rustling in the late afternoon light when Red Mountain glows. Old volcanic rocks remembering their origins.

The Sonoita Creek Valley is a naturalist’s paradise. From the top of Mt. Wrightson to the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, the watershed is a showcase of natural history and a profound expression of biological diversity. Caught in a kind of ecological crossroads, the valley harbors a diverse and unique array of species.

Southeastern Arizona is among the most biologically diverse regions on the continent. The birds may bring you here but you find them connected to this incredible landscape full of hidden places with secret dwellers sheltered from the harsh forces or aridity. From the ancient limestone springs to remnant cienaga wetlands, riparian forests and oak woodlands, hundreds of species find habitats to call home.

So there are the birds aplenty. Then there are the plants of much variety and diversity of origin. Wildflowers come and go. The butterflies are extraordinary…as rich and abundant as the birdlife. Nourished by the summer rains the butterflies, many with tropical origins to the south, flourish in the wet weeks of the summer. Rattlesnakes and tree lizards. Coyotes. Always coyotes. But then there are the lions and the bobcats, coatimundi, and javelina. But then you will discover the bats and the unexpected flash of wandering lightning bugs. Nighthawks and poorwills.

But the birds steal the show: rose-throated becards, green kingfishers, violet-crowned hummingbirds, zone-tail hawks and summer tanagers, blue grosbeaks and dusky-capped flycatchers, yellow-billed cuckoos and thick-billed kingbirds. Then there are the eastern bluebirds and the eastern meadowlarks just to add a twist to the regional mix of species caught in the web of life spinning out into the canyons and valleys.

Walking in a small canyon along the Sonoita, I find another pool of deep water, filled with fish and tadpoles. It is the native fish that I truly admire. Gila topminnow and speckled dace. Then I noticed the gray canyon tree frogs with yellow feet holding on upside down. A small group of black-bellied whistling ducks flew overhead. The great horned owl sits deep in a cleft in the cliff.