Early April is a great time to visit the Tucson area. It is not uncommon for the desert to bloom with all kinds of color. I asked a new friend with whom I birded a few days ago how long the desert would be green. The answer was by early May the flowers would be dead and the grasses brown. However, for the moment the desert is awash in color. This morning I bicycle over to Catalina State Park and arrived just as the sun peaked above the mountain ridge at 6:45 am.
My first stop of the morning was visiting two barn owls. Once again, although no photos I had great views. After that experience I split my time between birding and taking photos of the desert bloom. By 8:30 I called it quits as I wanted to get in more miles on my bicycle before the temperatures rose.
The Desert in Bloom (The yellow flowers are Mexican Poppys. The blue flowers are my friends from Texas … Bluebonnets. I have no ID for the purple and lavender flowers. Sorry)
Crissal Thrasher (lifer)
Vermilion Flycatcher
Broad-Billed Hummingbird (lifer this trip … pics from Madera Canyon)
Warning! This post is a condition which married folk may experience. Vacations can be dangerous, and there is no known cure for this disease. Once the special bird is found, another fine feathered friend will replace it in “the search”.
Scenario:
Happily married couple decides to take a hike in Madera Canyon.
Husband (i.e. me) agrees it is not a birding hike.
Wife agrees to location (i.e. Molly).
Husband agrees to NOT stop at the lodge’s birdfeeders
The hike is progressing nicely up the canyon subject to my one caveat. We had to stay near the stream. Although not technically a birding hike, wildlife loves water in the desert. I rationalized that if we were going to hike, the probability of seeing something interesting might as well be maximized. Molly reluctantly agreed. As we reached the summit of our hike … 3.4 miles and a 1,700 climb some magic words were mentioned by hikers descending the trail … Coppery-Tailed Trogon!
While I try to be a good husband and honor my promises, there is a limit. Finding a trogon near the summit where the bird had not yet been reported that year was like handing candy to a baby. The hike was now over. For the next hour I birded 1/2 mile of the Carrie Nation Mine Trail and struck gold. Elegant Trogon. Sorry Molly (not really).
Does your family have this problem? Learn about the hike from Molly’s perspective! She is a bonafide writer (has penned stories for many regional and national magazines). Her post on her blog today, Superior Footprints (as in Lake Superior), is called: Life with a Birder.
And Yours Truly in Action! Three people in this photograph are Arizona natives and one is not. Find the Minnesotan! My thanks to the couple I met up with on the trail and treated me to this birding experience. The other gentleman joined us after about 30 minutes. It took us 15 minutes to locate the Coppery-Tailed Trogon when I joined the first couple. Thankfully it would occasionally sing out. From that point on we watched the bird for over 45 minutes. The Trogon actually flew over and landed four feet away from where I was standing half way through our viewing session. I was flabbergasted and exhilarated by the experience. I could have reached out and touched the bird! Molly obviously took this photo. Huge thanks and love to my wife!
Even though I am down in the Tucson area, it’s time to talk about a couple of items in which folks may be interested. The first item is Wood Duck Cam! A friend of mine and fellow retiree from Honeywell lives in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He is an engineer and has amazing wood duck houses … including even infrared lights. For a number of years he has watched his local woodies through the course of each nesting season. This year Paul has decided to let the rest of us watch! If you like wood ducks, link and subscribe (or just watch live). As a reminder, here is what these great looking ducks look like (I took this image last summer)
The other item I want to call out is the birding festival in Ashland, Wisconsin (70 miles east of Duluth). For those of you who hang out in the Northwoods, northwestern Wisconsin sees more songbirds before northeastern Minnesota. The boreal forests out my own back door stays cold and warms later than the forests and farmlands of northwestern Wisconsin. Winds which come across Lake Superior cause this effect! Regardless, here are the details for the Chequamagon Birding Festival (thanks to Jeanette for the reminder). Thus, birding NW Wisconsin is a smart move for folks like me early in the spring season.
Oh yes, I also had a fantastic birding morning. Tim DeJonghe, who is very active with the Tucson Audubon Society, let me hang along on a birding expedition. We saw not one, but two barn owls! No photos, but this was an amazing “lifer” experience. Barn Owls are never found in the cold north of Minnesota!
