The Saguaro National Park

   Today we visited the Saguaro National Park. Saguaros are the 30 foot tall cactus that look like a tall green pole with arms. This park is dedicated to preserving what Arizona looked like before people started developing it. They talk about the Saguaro National Park as being a gigantic cactus garden. We identified the large Saguaro cactus and the short Prickly Pear Cactus and the Fishhook Cactus, whose barbs are hooked like fishhooks. There are several other kinds of cactus here, just waiting for a budding young botanist to explore.

   We followed the paved road through the park. Going slow and letting other cars pass by. We saw a pair of squawking Curve Billed Thrashers (Toxostoma curvirostre) singing “quit-quit” on top of one of the saguaro cacti.

   The national wildlife people are re-introducing the Desert Bighorn Sheep in the mountainous areas near here. Signs already warn of the presence of Mountain Lions around here. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. Lets get ready to rumble.

   There are huge aircraft graveyards in Arizona. We saw one with disassembled planes from several eras. Lots of prop planes. Some bombers. Some helicopters. All missing a tail, or having a hole in its fusilage. This is like some elephant graveyard for tired old planes.

   Lunch at the cutest little french bistro. A warmed spinach salad and caper butter chicken with artichokes for Robert; a tuna sandwich with cheddar cheese for Berry. We saw two females making a sweater at the table next to ours. Berry explained the difference between knitting and crochet.

   Tucson is suffering from record temperatures. Robert is taking a medicine which induces him to lose moisture and become dehydrated. These record temps are somewhat dangerous. At 12:30pm the dashboard of our rental car registered 104 °F. The Fahrenheit scale was invented in 1724 by the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit. The Fahrenheit scale is now only used in the United States, Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, and Palau. All other countries in the world now use the Celsius scale. 104°F = 40°C. It is hot.

   The Saint Louis Cardinals clenched their division with a victory over Pittsburg. We watched the game during dinner on MLB Gameday on Robert’s IPhone.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Sweetwater and Catalina

   Tucson is rightly proud of its wastewater treatment project which claims to make use of a natural process of treating human ordures. We have traveled to a lot of different cities to look at birds. Surrounded by arid desert full of cactus and empty dry river beds, the Sweetwater Wetlands Park is truly an oasis in the desert.

   The treatment plant and its tailing ponds consist of more than 125 acres of really attractive wetlands. We walked several of the trails. The variety of birds we saw there was amazing. In the undergrowth along the path, we spotted the yellow and olive colored Olive Warbler (Peucedramus Taeniatus).

   We watched a female Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis Sinuatus) taking a bath in the heat; she stooped in the water and flapped her wings, giving herself a splashy shower. This bird is also known as the Western Cardinal.

   There was a Black-Chinned Sparrow (Spizella Atrogularis) in the dark undergrowth near the path in the back of the park.

   We could not help but hear a beautiful female Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle Americana) who chattered loudly as she swooped from tree to tree above the largest of the tailing ponds.

   Further along the path, Berry pointed up in a tree. I looked up. There were two woodpeckers, making goo-goo eyes at each other. We witnessed today the mating dance of the Red-Naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus Nuchalis). Very impressive.

   One of the most colorful birds we spotted at Sweetwater Wetlands Park was the bright red Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus Rubinus). Most flycatchers we have seen were gray and light gray and a darker shade of gray. The male Vermilion Flycatcher we saw today was a striking exception. He was so brightly red that it was impossible to miss him, as he flew across a small cove of water and into a nearby tree.

Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus Rubinus)

   Arizona in late summer is a hot, dry place. Yesterday, Tucson tied its all time high temperature. After walking the birding trails in the Park all morning, we decided to leave and find a cool place, put our feet up, and have something wet to drink. We drove to a local coffee shop (today is National Coffee Day, so we celebrated…) and had a cup of coffee. While there, we also worked a crossword puzzle.

   While at the coffee shop, we decided suddenly to get some Fried Chicken and drive to Catalina State Park to eat a picnic lunch. This is one of our favorite things to do. The authorities of the Catalina State Park think there is evidence that this area has been continuously occupied since about 5000 BCE by the Hohokam people. The Romero Ruin located in the park still contains pueblos built of rock and adobe, as well as a cool Meso-American ballcourt. All very cool.

   One of the mammals we saw running lose today was a tremendously cute Round Tailed Ground Squirrel (Xerospermophilus Tereticaudus). Though this squirrel is considered a pest in local residential dwellings, the one we saw was sitting underneath a tree, minding his own business, staying out of the sun. Round Tailed Ground Squirrels look like tiny Prairie Dogs. Their fur is a uniform sandy color, which matches the sandy ground they burrow in. They are supremely adapted to desert life. They stay active even on the hottest of days. We saw this one scurrying around at high noon.

Round Tailed Ground Squirrel (Xerospermophilus Tereticaudus)

   Berry and I stood in the heat for quite a while, debating the finer points of ornithological investigation and came to the agreement that what we were loking at was a Townsend’s Warbler (Setophaga Townsendi) flitting in a bush. Perched in the upper branches of a leafless tree, there was a large Peregrine Falcon (Falco Peregrinus). We moved the car to get a better view of it. One of the cutest birds all day was the Says Phoebe (Sayornis Saya) with its peach colored rump. We spotted it at a crossroad of mountain paths. We kept walking around a long loop of the trail and spotted the same Says Phoebe again when we passed it a second time.

   So far, during our trip to Arizona, we have noted that all the rivers here are just dry, dusty, river beds. We were amused that this one, the Sutherland Wash, actually had some water in it. We both got our feet wet, but just barely. We took the picture below.

Sutherland Wash

   After a mile hike through the uplands of the park, we came back to our hotel room and had a well deserved siesta. We ate large juicy hamburgers at a five star burger joint in Tucson called the Monkey Burger. Their motto is “No monkeys were harmed in the making of our burgers”. I had something called the “Madness”. Very nice.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler

Birding Our Way to Tucson

   After a three and a half hour cross-country flight, we finally landed in Phoenix, Arizona, got a hotel room and ate dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant. The next morning, we got up at 5am, packed the car, grabbed breakfast at an all-night Ihop and drove east toward the Tonto National Forest. This large forest is almost three million acres of very rugged terrain. We saw hundreds of the very large Saguaro cacti along the dusty mountain road.

   At the Lost Dutchman State Park, we saw a small flock of Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla Gambelii). They were all very colorful and cute with their double “topknot”. We did not see any of them fly; they all ran on the ground and quickly scatter when approached. They seemed somewhat thinner than the quail we see back at home.

   Going further east on the mountain road, we were driving slowly to avoid damage to the rental car; the road was unpaved, with rocks and stones and gravel. The road had been grated, such that if Robert drove fast at all, the chassis of the vehicle would rattle. Suddenly we spotted a large hawk standing on top of one of the Saguaro cacti. Using our spotting scope we identified the Harris’s Hawk (Parabuteo Unicinctus). There were a pair of them. They are totally black with chestnut brown shoulders and long, yellow legs with a yellow beak.

   No trip out west would not be complete without a Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx Californianus). We saw one running across an empty parking lot near a boat ramp. Another bird we saw was the Ladder-Backed Woodpecker (Dryobates Scalaris) on a utility pole.

   We continued east through the Superstition Mountains. To our right we saw the large white “spot light” on the rump of a Gilded Flicker (Colaptes Chrysoides).

   We spotted the Arizona state bird, the Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus Brunneicapillus). The Cactus Wren is the largest of our wrens. It seemed to be less shy than most wrens. It has a large easily seen white supercilium eye stripe. Contrasted to the Carolina Wren, this one was easy to identify.

   After a wonderful morning of birding, we ate lunch in the very small town of Tortilla Flat, AZ. Berry enjoyed the prickly pear cactus gelato. Robert asked the cook for tips on cooking their famous Fried Mac and Cheese ( you freeze the mac-n-cheese first). The afternoon was spent driving to Tucson and studying the various species of cacti. Below are photos of some of the cacti we saw today.

   Many people do not know is that Berry was born in Tucson, Arizona. It is great to be home again.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia and rfowler

A Beautiful Late Summer Day of Birds

Robert and I wanted to go on a picnic. We bought some KFC chicken and put it in the icebox, next to the German mustard potato salad. Celery sticks with cream cheese and cold drinks. The sun was out and the temp was cool. The wind was heavy, due to the cool front which had come through recently. We birded around Arkabutla Lake, in northern Mississippi.

We saw several huge American Crows (Corvus Brachyrhynchos), perched on the railing on the dam. There were Red-wing Blackbirds (Agelaius Phoeniceus) in a tree beside the spillway. We saw a Mourning Dove on a powerline. There was a Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias), standing in the water next to several Great Egrets. We drove by a very large Turkey Vulture which was eating roadkill next to the road.

After driving through a couple of the picnic and camping areas, we saw a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus Colubris) battling the wind. He was fighting to move forward in the heavy wind and at times it looked like it was suspended in mid air. Sometimes we see hummingbirds hovering over our flowers at home.

From the spillway, we proceeded across the dam where we saw Double-Crested Cormormants (Phalacrocorax Auritus) sunning themselves on the bouys in the water. At a nearby campground, while Robert was looking up the Pine Warbler (Setophaga Pinus) he had seen in the Sibley’s Field Guide, Berry pointed out a beautiful White-Breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), walking upside down on the trunk of a tree. This Nuthatch turned out to be the bird of the day.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

The White-Breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) is a small songbird of the nuthatch family which breeds in old-growth woodland across much of temperate North America. It is a small, stocky bird, with a relatively large head, short tail, powerful bill, and strong claws. The White-Breasted Nuthatch forages for insects on the trunk and branches of large trees. Its feet are made so that it can walk head-first down the side of a tree without falling. We enjoyed this Nuthatch for several minutes as he went up and down the tree trunk.

Moving on, we stopped close to a boat ramp and saw a flock of large Canada Geese (Branta Canadensis) finding shelter from the wind in a cove. In among the geese, Robert saw a single Green Heron fishing from his perch on a half submerged limb in the water. In the trees above us, two Red-Headed Woodpeckers (Melanerpes Erythrocephalus) were “fussing” with each other, squawking loudly. Probably a territorial conflict, but who knows, really.

We went from the campground to Bayou Point, a special area for the two of us. At Bayou Point Robert proposed to me on Easter and I accepted. This small peninsula has special meaning for us. We spread out our picnic lunch and enjoyed ourselves, the cool wind, the delightful sunshine and the large stretch of lake water in front of us. At our picnic area, we watched a juvenile Red-Headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes Erythrocephalus) perched on a limb in a tree and a beautiful Mississippi Kite (Ictinia Mississippiensis) soaring above us in the wind.

After eating lunch we walked around the little peninsula. There was a large bee hive in an Oak Tree. There were bees tending to it. Robert took a picture of it with his IPhone. Look in the tree next to the trunk, about twenty feet high. It is the large beige basketball sized thing in the tree.

Bee Hive

It was fun to be out, away from work and computers. On the way to the expressway, we pasted a flock of around 75 Great Egrets (Ardea Alba) in the Coldwater River run-off. Below is the complete list of the birds we saw today.

• American Crow (Corvus Brachyrhynchos)
• Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius Phoeniceus)
• Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus Podiceps)
• Canada Geese (Branta Canadensis)
• Turkey Vulture (Cathartes Aura)
• Blue Jay (Cyanocitta Cristata)
• Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus Tyrannus)
• Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias)
• Mourning Dove (Zenaida Macroura)
• Great Egret (Ardea Alba)
• Bank Swallow (Riparia Riparia)
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus Colubris)
• Northern Mockingbird (Mimus Polyglottos)
• Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax Auritus)
• Pine Warbler (Setophaga Pinus)
• White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta Carolinensis)
• Green Heron (Butorides Virescens)
• Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes Erythrocephalus)
• Mississippi Kite (Ictinia Mississippiensis)
• American Kestrel (Falco Sparverius)

What a wonderful day!! We are ready fro our vacation to Arizona at the end of September.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia