WILDLIFE WATCHING AT AND NEAR THE ESPLENDOR RESORT

There are few locations where wildlife watching can be enjoyed so easily as the Esplendor Resort. Bird watching is rich from the balcony of your room, on the nature trail, at the golf course, or at official wildlife sanctuaries within an easy half-hour drive.

The Esplendor Resort and Country Club is in the southernmost part of Arizona, with a variety of topography creating a rich environment for a wide variety of wildlife species. Mountains, desert and lush, riparian habitat makes it an ideal location for wildlife watching. Some, rare, beautiful, "exotic" and hard to find birds make their way into this area from Mexico, making it a birder's delight.

The sleeping rooms at the resort are surrounded by courtyards with beautiful, cultivated high- desert vegetation and mature trees. Guests are advised that this natural setting has brought an abundance of nesting birds including barn swallows which can be very prolific in the spring and summer and nest throughout the resort. ("Nuisance" may be what non-wildlife enthusiasts think of so much bird life!)

Bats are also known to roost on the grounds, and sightings on the resort grounds include javalina and coyote and of course the resident roadrunners, cactus wrens, hummingbirds and finches.

There are at least a dozen wildlife watching hot spots near the resort. Bird watchers in particular are drawn to the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve run by The Nature Conservancy. Other popular areas include Patagonia lake State Park and Sonoita Natural Area, all near the resort.

For more information on some of the key hot spots and what to expect visit http://www.sabo.org/birding/santa.htm