A Visit to DBG

Verdins (yellow-headed one is an adult)

On another unseasonably cool day in Phoenix, we went back to the Desert Botanical Garden. Here are some of the sights.

Cholla with Fruit

Cardons (native to northwestern Mexico)

Gila Woodpecker, male

Artichokes

See the bee, above?

Gaillardias

Cactus Wren (Arizona State Bird)

Crested Saguaro

Prickly Pear blooms

Saguaro blooms (Arizona State Flower)

Mourning Dove juveniles

Look what we saw! If it hadn’t been cloudy, the photos would have been much better but it’s the first time I ever got one without branches in front of it. It was also very windy that day!

Great Horned Owl

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One Day, Five Lifers

Townsend’s Warbler

Isn’t he beautiful? It’s warbler season here as they (and other migrants) pass through heading to their winter areas. I went to the Desert Botanical Garden yesterday morning and added 5 lifers to my list! That was my biggest day ever. Why I’m not out again today I’m not sure.

Wilson’s Warbler

Warblers are fast little critters so it’s hard to get an unobstructed shot of them. Good thing most of them have some yellow on them or I’d never see them.

Pacific-Slope Flycatcher

So here are the bad shots of the 2 remaining lifers:

MacGillivray’s Warbler

That was my one and only shot of this warbler and it was only when looking at my photos at home later that I noticed the white eye-arcs indicative of MacGillivray’s. I confirmed it with my birding group. Wish I had gotten a better look at him.

The following photo is of a Great Horned Owl. While this is technically not a lifer because I’ve seen them before~and, in fact, I’ve seen this one before, I think, as he’s always in the same cottonwood tree at the DBG~I’ve not counted them on my list because I didn’t have a photo. This photo is bad, he was way up in the tree, in a dark, wooded area, and there were leaves blocking my view but it’s a diagnostic shot anyway. So he was my 5th lifer of the day.

I saw a ton of other birds and critters at the DBG that were not lifers and they will be in my next post. Here’s one of them, a little Verdin, a bird I see everywhere, even in my own yard, frequently, but they’re so cute that I’m always glad to see one. This guy looks a little rough. We had a horrible storm the night before so maybe that accounts for his messy feathers or maybe he’s just molting.