I find my self in the position of having some carried over vacation time that I have been told I have to use before the end of March or lose. With my schedule the way it is, it really only leaves the last week of February / first week of March so I am throwing around some ideas for a birding and photography trip at that time. My initial thought was to head to south Texas but a I've since found out that the annual NANPA summit is being held there in McAllen in the second week of March and that there will likely be crowds of people around for some pre-NANPA shooting and that really isn't going to be my scene...

I have since been tossing around a trip to southern Arizona (i.e. fly into Tucson and drive from there) but I don't know much in the way of specifics about the area. I've heard lots of great things about places like Madera Canyon, and I've found a few websites the identify some other popular areas but they haven't gotten into specific details about timing.

A few questions:

What can I expect this time of year in the way of "southern Arizona speciality species"?
Will I be too early for desert blooms?
Any recommendations on reasonably priced accomodations in the area?
Any specific recommendations on specific area birding spots?

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.