Un-Birdy

Potter Wasp on Lavender

No birds in this post!!!! I’m trying to clean photos off my desktop as I keep taking more and more almost everyday. The birds will be back in my next post, some decked out in holiday style. Meanwhile…

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Variegated Meadowhawk

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Fiery Skippers

Sparkling Sap in our Pine Tree

Salvia (Sage)

Tree Lizard Geometry

A few weeks ago

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Cotton!

All photos were taken in our yard except the cotton. I saw that when I was hunting for a particular bird that I never saw…

Ferguson excited about his Thanksgiving dinner

One day when I was sitting in the yard watching birds, this little visitor dropped by…and picked a good place to pose.

Stay safe!

Escape to Gilbert

Mexican Amberwing on Amaranth

I escaped my quarantine the other day, in the late afternoon, for a couple of hours. I went to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve where I go about once a year. I should really go more often as there is an extreme diversity of all sorts of birds…water birds, songbirds, raptors, and always a rarity or 2. I went in pursuit of a rarity this time. I had seen literally hundreds of photos of a Roseate Spoonbill that has been there for a few weeks in my Facebook birding group. Most of the photos were so pretty, up close, so you could see its pink feathered fluffiness in detail. Well, I didn’t get there until about 4pm and I heard it had left for the day so I walked around looking, to no avail, but saw a lot of other birds. About 6pm, as it was getting dark, disappointed, I headed back to my car and saw it in a different pond than those it usually frequents! It was out quite a ways and it was getting dark so I didn’t get those pretty, detailed photos that I had seen from other people. But I saw it and it was awesome and it was a new life bird (lifer)! And I have proof:

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It has giant black feet! This is not a bird that you find in Arizona normally. It likes Florida and Texas and other Gulf coasts. Actually, right now there are also 3 more of them at Glendale Recharge Ponds, too, on the completely opposite side of town. I would love to go see them and if it ever cools off here before they leave, I am going to go look for them, too.

But here are a few more of the birds I saw before finding it…

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Great Egrets

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Great Blue Herons

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Green Heron

Snowy Egret

This beautiful red amaranth was all over; I had never seen it there before.

Mallard in Amaranth

Now for some songbirds…

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Yellow-rumped Warblers (last photo indicates source of name)

Say’s Phoebe

White-crowned Sparrow

Vermilion Flycatcher, immature male, SO CUTE!

Orange-crowned Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

Different than my yard birds! This makes me want to get back out there birding after this intense heat we have had, much longer than usual, and this horrible quarantine we’re in!!!! It was nice to have a change of scenery…

My First

Ugh, after living in Arizona for 45 years and going out in the wild fairly often, I finally saw my very first tarantula lumbering along a path we were on at Seven Springs. Interesting yet creepy to this arachnophobe. Of course, we did not get in its way.

One of my friends said she saw her first tarantula in the wild at the same place several years ago. Just a little earlier, I had mentioned to Tony that I thought the area seemed “tarantula-y.”

Red-tailed Hawk

Not a very birdy day.

Variegated Meadowhawks

Trees of Phainopeplas

Previous Seven Springs’ posts (1, 2, 3).

Mount Lemmon

Geology Vista Point

Okay, as of right now, beautiful Mount Lemmon in Tucson is now my favorite Arizona destination. There is only an ugly 2 hour drive on I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson and then an annoying drive through Tucson between it and me.

Both Tony and I had been to Mt. Lemmon decades ago, separately, yet neither one of us really remembered it. If I had, it would not have taken so long to go back. It is awesomely beautiful and goes through several life zones before reaching the 9,000+ foot peak by an extremely nice 2 lane highway.

Hoodoos abound.

Pipevine Swallowtail

Neither of us even knew there was a lake up there…Rose Canyon Lake. Small yet gorgeous. Here are a few panoramas. If you want to see them larger, click here: 1, 2, 3.

Seriously sublime!

I got my one and only lifer here.

Yellow-eyed Junco

We actually saw several. Normally getting only one lifer when I knew so many others had to be there would have saddened me…not up here because it was just so awesome!

Dull Firetip Skipper

Chipping Sparrow

Onward and upward we went through a beautiful census designated place (CDP) called Summerhaven, full of beautiful chalet-type summer homes. Yes, I want to live there now.

Abert’s Squirrel

The ski run was closed but this was the view from Ski Valley. This is the southernmost ski resort in the U.S. The temperature up here was a refreshing 75° while it was a toasty 113° in Phoenix.

This place was phenomenal!

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Butcher Jones Trail

We went looking for birds and stuff on Butcher Jones Trail at Saguaro Lake last week. It was supposed to be birdy. As usual, it wasn’t but it was nice anyway.

Osprey

We saw more butterflies than I’ve ever seen in one place, many groups of several.

Southern Dogface (open wings) and other Sulphurs 

Empress Leilia (a first)

Queen

Clark’s Grebe (lifer)

We saw this well-known guy with one foot in exactly the same place we saw him last November.

Great Blue Heron

More of the trail:

Saguaro Detail

Mesquite Bosque

We briefly stopped at Coon Bluff Recreation Area on the Lower Salt River on the way back, hoping to see some eagles, wild horses, something, but no luck. It was a pretty view, though, and the fall colors were beginning so it was worth the stop.

And now we’re on to December…