San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge

San Bernardino NWR, Douglas, Arizona: In the arid landscape of San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, the many small streams and ponds provide welcome relief from the 100-degree-plus summer temperatures. The streams are fed by springs and artesian wells from an aquifer that developed following an 1887 earthquake. Thus you will find great blue herons, black-bellied whistling ducks, and occasional tundra swans in the desert. Here also are bright red vermilion flycatchers and cardinals, exotic-sounding pyrrhuloxias and phainopeplas, and various warblers and sparrows. Mammals include javelinas, ring-tailed cats, and coatimundis as well as more familiar white-tailed and mule deer. And the refuge was established to protect two rare fish found nowhere else: the Yaqui chub and coppery-colored Yaqui topminnow