It seems the world has changed in the last few weeks but we sure had fun before that happened. We tried our best to cram in all the places we hadn’t been this year and wanted to go to. Here are some thoughts and pictures of better times.
As I may have mentioned, Carolyn liked the frog I painted on the left side of her panels and wanted one on the right side. This is what I did:
One of the places I hadn’t been was Mt. Lemmon. This has a steep winding road on the side of the mountain that Denny won’t go on, so while he was working at Annie’s Lillian, Judy Webster and I decided to bird there. It was a little early for migratory birds there but we did manage to see a few things. We stopped at about every possible stop as we went up the mountain. A few interesting birds were seen like the Steller’s Jay, all three Nuthatches–White, Red-breasted and Pygmy, and Mountain Chickadee and Spotted and Canyon Towhee. I didn’t have the good camera so no bird pictures but here are a few of the mountain and views from it.
The first two are driving up the road, then a picture from Incinerator Rd. Then Judy on left and Lillian on right looking out from Incinerator Rd.
One of the really interesting things to me that we stopped for was the Gordon Hirabayashi campground. We had never stopped there before. This was a former prison camp during the war and was so named because one of the prisoners was a Japanese American student at the U. of Washington who refused to be interned during the war and was sent here. There is a long story about this that is very interesting. You can read a short version of it if you go to the link. In 1987 his case was overturned and he received reparations. The people in the camp were the ones who build the road up Mt. Lemmon.
The next day we went up to Green Valley to see a Tucson Audubon program about Hummingbirds which was very interesting although there was a program in the next room that made it hard to hear.
On Sunday we went with Judy and Lillian up to the agricultural fields northwest of Tucson as there were quite a few rare birds reported. It was somewhat disappointing but we did see some– White-fronted Geese, Horned Lark, Mountain Plover and Lewis’s Woodpecker and a few gophers.
Here are a few views of the fields and Picacho Peak.
As we came home late that day the sky was really amazing:
The next day Judy Webster and Lillian went with us to Whitewater Draw. This is an area that is about two hours away from us. It had rained the night before and the dirt road was so muddy that it had been closed. We managed to slowly get there but the car was quite a mess and the trails were very muddy.
We arrived around 10:30 and watched thousands of Sandhill Cranes arrive in large flocks. We estimated about 13,000!
There were also over 100 Snow Geese.
The barn had a Great Horned Owl on the nest with a chick but it was all roped off so we didn’t get a good picture of it. We did see lots of ducks though..
Cinnamon Teal, Northern Pintail
The biggest show though was from the about 500 Yellow-headed Blackbirds that were in the reeds.
When we left Whitewater we drove north to Willcox and Golf Club ponds which are famous for their birds. There were a few thousand Sandhill Cranes there along with lots and lots of waterfowl and other birds.
Eared Grebe, Loggerhead Shrike
We also saw two Jackrabbits being chased by a couple of dogs. Boy, they are big and fast. The dogs didn’t have a chance. As we walked around one of the ponds we noticed a pink snake in the reeds next to us. It wasn’t moving and I stupidly didn’t take it’s picture before Lillian threw a clod of dirt at it to see if it was alive and it was gone! We looked it up and believe it was a Red Coachwhip Snake. They vary in color but the one we saw was quite pink.
Since leaving Whitewater Draw our car alarm was pinging at us frequently saying our radar alert wasn’t working. This was because of all the mud that was under the car. We stopped on the way home at the car wash in Willcox and rinsed it off for about 5 minutes. This seemed to stopped the pinging but we continued to hear large clods of dirt fall off when we went over bumps or rough road. This went on for 2 days until we went back to the car wash and finally got it all out. What a mess!
While at Whitewater I went on line to get tickets to a couple of the programs they were offering at the Tucson Book Festival. I scored tickets to two events that we wanted and was very pleased for about five minutes when I saw that the Festival was canceled. We had reservations for Saturday to Monday at an Airbnb in Tucson to be next to the festival and Monday night a motel near the airport. Now we had to decide what to do.
When we got back I called to cancel the Airbnb and was told I’d lose all but $30. We were busy all day Tuesday so didn’t deal with it until Wednesday at which time they were saying we might be eligible for ‘extenuating circumstances’ which would give us a full refund which could take up to 15 days. We are waiting. But with more and more news about cancelations we decided to go home earlier than planned while we still could. I spent all morning on the phone and on line and ended up with a flight going home two days earlier and going up to Tucson to a motel by the airport on Saturday.
Before all this on Tuesday we went on our last bird walk in Tubac. There were 44 people and we divided into 3 groups. Our group was able to see one of the first Common Black Hawks migrating through. Since then more and more have come through the March Hawk watch that takes place there every year. Then we had our last visit with the group at the Deli. This was all before we were told to stay six feet away from everyone.
Our friends and neighbors, Cyndie and Andy, were in Tucson for a few days visiting Andy’s brother and sister-in-law on their way to a geological tour of New Mexico. We went up to Ventana Canyon Lodge where they were staying to have lunch and go for a hike with them. The lodge and resort was in a beautiful setting that we learned had been created to have as little impact on the environment as possible. They didn’t remove one saguaro cactus to build it. We had a delicious lunch and hiked up to a waterfall.
Saguaros, pond, koi, bougainvillea
Andy and Cyndie
Approaching the waterfall
The four of us in front of the waterfall
Our last day in Tubac we wanted to go one more time to Madera Canyon and we asked Lillian and Judy Ellyson to join us. Lillian went with us and Judy joined us later after her new puppy, Celtie, had her first training. It was a beautiful day but we didn’t see any new birds. The most interesting were a Townsend’s Warbler and two Rufous-crowned Sparrows but we had a nice picnic and hike down the trail from the picnic area to Proctor and it was nice to spend time with our friends once more.
Our casita in Tubac was across from a very colorful cemetery.
Our casita with Mexican poppies in front.
The cemetery
We are now in the CVE and everything has changed. Cyndie and Andy made it to El Paso to start their tour only to find it canceled. We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and practicing social distancing. We will come through this eventually. Stay well.
One last thing. While I sit here writing this blog I looked out the window at our Holly bush that was filled with about 15 Cedar Waxwings feasting on the berries.
Happy Spring!