SPRING’S LAST GASP-SE ARIZONA FOR 5 DAYS IN MAY

It seemed only logical to take the week before the surgeons rearranged the digits on my right foot and head to SE Arizona for a few days of photography. Things went well: No foot pain; beautiful weather; and good numbers of birds. Flew into Tucson and rented a compact car to drive to Patagonia (near the border and Nogales). The Nature Conservancy has a reserve on Sonoita Creek and, although the drought has really dried up all the waterways, it seemed like the best bet for a beginning.

I arranged to rent a two-room apartment for 2 days. Called “Camel Parts” (????) it worked out well with a good bed and shower. Otherwise I was out looking for birds.

Camel Parts

The next two mornings along Sonoita Creek I found a lot of the birds I was targeting…

Vermillion Flycatcher

Gray Hawk

Pyrrhuloxia

Phainopepla

Curve-billed Thrasher

…and some of the more common ones

Gila Woodpecker

Gamble Quail…

The lonely males singing their hearts out!

…and a herd of javelina.

At a private residence in Patagonia with hummingbird and bird feeders I found

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Ground Dove

After 2 days it was time to head back to Tucson by way of Saguaro National Park-North Side. The weather was perfect for some nice scenic pictures and an unusual event…all the saguaros sporting masses of blooms.

Clark’s Spiny Lizard

Round-tailed Ground Squirrel

I’d forgotten how much I had loved working in the Arizona desert in the mid-1960’s.

Of course, that was before the nut-cases controlled the politics and before the houses came right up to the boundaries of the National Park.

I spent the next day at Sweetwater Wetlands in the City of Tucson, a really great wetlands developed for treated waste water and, although it was slow, scored a few good birds such as:

Common Yellowthroat