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
Been waiting for this...hope y'all picked up the trash next to the 5th cactus picture....what is the temp???Hope y'all go up Mt.Mitchell at Tucson.My grandmother and my mother lived in Tucson for a period of time. Grandmother was my father's mother not Momma's. It is a beautiful state...enjoy.Anne
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anne. We go birding early in the morning; it is not hot at all till about 11am. We head to get coffee or to eat lunch. If there is any birding after that, the temps get to 98 degrees or even higher. It is a dry heat, which is very different from Memphis.
ReplyDeleteThe people are nice. There are huge cacti everywhere, so we took these photos. Hope you like our blog.
Robert