Here is the promised “part 2” for birding the Marana, Arizona region. As noted in Part 1, this area has the Santa Cruz River (with water actually within), the Tucson Water Treatment Plant, and irrigated farmland. The combination of water plus food in the desert equates to a magical elixir for birds. Marana is only about 20 miles via Interstate 10 from Tucson. My first image will be of a map I created (see below). The traffic on these back roads is light, and on this Sunday morning almost non existent. Just do circuits of these roads, and then repeat. The birds constantly change from both northern migrants to desert southwest birds. Just across the Santa Cruz River (region 4) there actually is a small undeveloped park (one picnic shaded shelter) from where you make walk along the river!

Anyhow … the birds of Mirana … with comments.

Okay, people love owls. This region has Burrowing Owls. Anyone who wishes to find the owls and will agree to NEVER posting the location online is welcome to contact me for instructions (owls can get loved to death). See my comment earlier in this blog post about how I will share this location.

Burrowing Owls (These images are of five unique owls)

Blackbirds Taking a Bath (Yellow-Headed and Red-Winged)(flock of over 1,000 blackbirds)

Great Blue Heron (In a field w/o water hunting insects and lizards??)

Great-Tailed Grackle (Female)

Northern Harrier (Male and female)

Pocket Gophers (Found a city of pocket gophers!)

Roadrunner (Meep, meep! Found two couples)

Red-Tailed Hawk

Western Meadowlark (Amazingly close … listen to the video / song)

Airplane Graveyard (Some birds will fly no more!)

Bee Hive without the Hive … Just the Honeycombs (Watch the movie!) I was scanning the cavities for owls!

Oh my, did I have an amazing morning. I decided to focus on the rural country near Marana, Arizona. This region has the Santa Cruz River (with water actually within), the Tucson Water Treatment Plant, and irrigated farmland. I could not  believe all the birds I saw, and even managed to get close to same. Water and with it food is truly the magical elixir in the desert. There will be multiple posts (and I suspect birding trips to this location) given all the wonderful images I captured this morning.

However, for now I MUST start with these two American Kestrels. Anyone who birds knows how difficult it is to get close to kestrels. They spook so very easily. I’m not certain why these two allowed me to get close … rivals for love? mates in love? Whatever, it was fun.

Here is my favorite photograph …

And the American Kestrel images in proper sequence.

What does someone from northern Minnesota do on vacation? Head to the American Southwest to photograph a once in a decade snowstorm in the desert.
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Actually it was just dumb luck, and the snow melted by 1 pm. Our AirBnB hosts told us this was only the third snow event they had  seen in 20 years! My location for the photos was a bit north of Tucson. It was truly crazy weather last night … first a downpour and 40+ mph winds. The rain then turned to snow and dead calm conditions. Upon waking up this morning the scene was truly magical. I quickly headed out at sunrise (behind clouds), but found a “Kodak Location” for later (around 9 am) when I there was a 30 minute window of blue skies. (video links for email subscribers: One | Two)