Spent a few days in a Phoenix suburb and found lot’s of Gambel’s quail. There was both a greater number than I’d ever seen before and they were not as skittish. Nesting appears to be on the agenda.
There are some beautiful areas around Phoenix. One I drove through had the desert landscape, especially palo verde trees, heavy enough to pretty much hide business and shopping areas from the road.
A female phainopepla.
Below, a verdin and a cactus wren. Just starting to see ocotillo plants blooming.
Stayed in the Tucson area for a couple of weeks. Nice to see that grass front yards are 98% gone. Many people have used creative ways to continue the desert landscape around homes and business’. Saw a lot of dead palm trees and eucalyptus trees in the area.
Above is the eastern unit of the Saguaro National Park looking towards the Catalina Mountains.
Drove the Catalina Highway to the top of Mt. Lemmon. It rises 4,000 feet in around 25 miles—it’s all uphill. Lots of bicyclists were making the grueling ride to the top. It would be a beautiful place to see a sunset or escape the summer heat at 7,000 feet elevation.
Curved billed thrashers seen in an urban area.
Birds, and critter, seen at Catalina State Park in the campground: a canyon towhee with a malformed bill, a gila woodpecker, a Cooper’s hawk, and a ground squirrel. The Cooper’s hawk flew to the ground, perhaps to catch one of the many ground squirrels. Later saw it hiding in a bush stalking birds and squirrels.
Visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time. Above is Angels Window. The Colorado River can be seen through the window. The tiny specks on top are people. There is a paved pathway out to the viewpoint.
The view here is towards the Navajo Indian Reservation.
View from the Visitor Center and lodge.
I was really impressed more by the forest here than the canyon views. The South Rim, at 7,000 feet elevation, has a forest of ponderosa pine and junipers. The North Rim, at between 8,200 and 9,200 feet elevation, is made up of quaking aspen, blue spruce, and white and Douglas fir trees.
Aspen trees thrive after a fire because of their extensive root system. Their roots send out new shoots within weeks of a fire. In the second picture above, the aspen trees are providing protection for young spruce trees.
Arizona 67 passes through meadows on the Kaibab Plateau on it’s way to the Canyon. There are holes that retain water from rain and snow in the meadows that draw animals and birds out from the surrounding forest, mainly in the early morning or evening. I saw a fox one time, but it was too fast in getting back into the woods, so I didn’t get a picture.
Crane Lake has a fence around it to keep cows from accessing it. It is really just a marshy pond at this time of the year. Saw a number of birds come out from the woods in flocks to get water including: Clark’s nutcrackers, Northern flickers (shown below), and robins. Black necked stilts and ducks were also in the pond.
This area is one of the few places where there are still California condors in the wild. Lead bullets that hunters use has been keeping the condor population down.
Spent four days at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. Had forgotten their Twin Peaks Campground doesn’t have hookups. Had not used my generator for a long time, probably last summer. A camp host helped me start it up. After that there was no problem. Promptly at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., all the generators in the generator section of the campground started up for the allotted two hours. It was cold at night, and my furnace draws a lot of power. Otherwise, I could go two days before needing a generator. Glad to know it works. It is good to have the option to stay places that don’t have hookups and are often free.
Also had a problem with my hitch jack, the fuse blew. I asked another Airstream camper to look at it and he was able to diagnose the problem. Really lucky he was there.
Could not get an internet connection at the park. Really missed it, to say the least. I don’t watch tv. The internet is my main connection to what is going on.
Cactus wrens
Gambel’s quail
Both the cactus wrens and the Gambel’s quail usually run from bush to bush so as to not be seen by predators, like the red-tailed hawk above.
This curve-billed thrasher really sang it’s heart out one morning.
House finch
Gila woodpecker. None of the birds seemed to have a problem standing on a cactus or other thorny plants.
Below, road to the park and the Mexican border.
Drove from Riverside to Cave Creek Regional Park above Phoenix, Arizona. When I got to Blythe it seemed to early to stop, so I continued on to the campground. It’s a very nice park with lots of birds. The weather was in the 90′s during the day, however, so I just stayed the one night.
Phainopepla
A black-throated sparrow
Blue-gray-gnatcatcher
Cactus wren
From Phoenix I went on to Cottonwood, Arizona and Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Cottonwood is around 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix. The park is very popular and people are coming and going all the time. It is not just a weekend park.
It is just the second time I’ve driven on the I-17 that connects the I-8 and I-40. It has a significant grade, but it’s worth it to get away from the heat of Southern Arizona.
Gambel’s quail
Canyon wren
A brown creeper
Stayed a couple of days at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Seemed 10 degrees cooler than the Buenos Aires Refuge area. The rv campground is beautiful. You park on a level concrete surface and are surrounded by native plants. Glad this beautiful area is being protected.
Cactus wren
Gambel’s quail
Teddybear cholla set amoung ocotillo and organ pipe cactus.
Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is the only refuge I have come across that has campsites where you can boondock (free) for up to 14 days. I stayed there for 4 days and was the only camper I was aware of. It was very quiet. Hunting season just ended, so maybe hunters scared all the wildlife away. The weather was perfect. It was in the 70′s during the day, did not have to use my fans, and at night it was in the 50′s, so the furnace was not needed.
The area is a semi-desert grassland with lots of mesquite trees. The refuge is trying to restore it to the way it was before cattle grazed here. They want to encourage masked bobwhite quail and pronghorns to return.
Airforce jets practice over the area. One day I had my back to the window, something made me turn and look out. Saw a Airforce jet coming right at me, I could see the pilot! By the time I ran to the door, it had done a 90 degree roll and was gone. It happened so fast. There were a lot of jets in the area the next day. Maybe the jet that flew over me was just checking out the area because of this.
This area is called “cocaine alley” because of all the drug smugglers that enter the United States through here. That may be why there is a helicopter landing pad on the refuge and a strong presence of border patrol. Also, I got the best internet connection I’ve had for a long time. A communications tower was nearby, out in the middle of nowhere.
Mule deer in a no hunting area of the refuge.
Saw what I think is a western harrier at Arivaca Cienega on the refuge.
Getting here
After leaving the Benson, Sierra Vista area, stopped at Patagonia State Park. There were a lot of pipevine swallowtails there (above). The park was crowded. You have to get there early in the day to get an electric spot. A lot of people were on a hunt to see an elegant trogon. Unfortunately, I never saw one.
Black phoebe.
While Big Bend and the Buenos Aires Refuge are trying to repair damage caused by cattle grazing, Patagonia State Park allows ranchers to graze cattle at the east end of the lake, near some marsh and the Sonoita Creek (prime birding area). People swim and catch fish in a lake that cattle go into. Along with going into the lake, the cattle eat and trample tree saplings. You would also not want to walk along the trail at night, with cow droppings all over the place.
Sleeping bull, with muddy feet.
Have been in southeast Arizona for about two weeks. Have never really explored the area south of the I-10 freeway. It has either been too hot or I was in a hurry to get to New Mexico or Texas. Boondocked a few days at the Escapee rv park in Benson (they were full). The top picture is of a cow pasture next to the park. It was watered late in the afternoon and it got to freezing during the night. The weather has been in the 70-80′s during the day, with intermittent freezing at night.
The second picture is a rock wren that lives in a wood pile in the park. It flies out 5 or 6 feet from the pile to search the ground for food, then quickly scoots back into the wood pile. At times it looks like it is doing deep knee bends on top of a piece of wood.
About 40 miles south of Benson, or 20 miles from Sierra Vista, Arizona, there is the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. This is the first spot in North America to be designated a Globally Important Bird Area. The first time I visited it there was hardly any one else there and there were birds everywhere. On a beautiful trail that goes along the river, I saw the above two birds. The first one is a white-breasted nuthatch. It was circling around the trunks of trees to get insects. The second bird is a cactus wren.
Found some wintering sandhill cranes at Whitwater Draw Wildlife Area, about 20 miles southeast of Tombstone, Arizona. They are starting to head north and are usually gone by March 15th. This is an unusual place, as it allows rv’s to camp (boondock) up to three days! There is room for maybe 7 or 8 rv’s. You can bet, if I travel through this area between October and February, I am going to try to stay here.
From San Diego I returned to Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside for a few days. It turned into a week because of the fierce winds that kicked up and perpetuated the Southern California fires.
Above, an adult night heron on top and a group of egrets and herons seen at Rancho Jurupa.
I finally made my way to Blythe. It was unseasonably hot there, so after two days, I decided to press on to New Mexico. I took the I-10 to Phoenix and then the I-17 to Flagstaff. Northern Arizona was at least 10 degrees cooler than Southern Arizona was my reasoning. I’ve never taken the I-17 before. It was a nice drive, but there is a pretty steep grade.
Below: A falcon seen at Cibola Wildlife Refuge in the Blythe area. There were a hundred or so sandhill cranes there.
On the I-40 in Arizona, I stopped at Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow, Arizona. Ended up staying two days because it was so nice. In the past, I’ve always hit severe winds coming through this area. It was calm and peaceful this time, with only a couple of other visitors in the park. It got down to freezing at night, but by mid-day, it warmed up.
My camp site is shown below. There are both pull-throughs and very wide back-ins.
After leaving Utah, drove through Las Vegas to pick up some mail and then on to Arizona, through Lake Havasu City and Parker. The farmland along the Colorado River from Parker to Ehrenberg is part of the Colorado River Indian Reservation. At about the halfway point between the two cities, passed an area that had land cleared on both sides of the river with a couple of picnic tables and trash cans set out. Saw some cattle egrets and decided to stop. Had hoped to stop somewhere during the day so I could drive through the desert to Riverside at night when it was cooler.
There were egret, and some ibis, nests throughout the marsh grass on both sides of about a two block length of the river. I could see eggs in many of the nests. The mother and father egrets would frequently trade off the duty of caring for the nest.
Two fishermen went by in a small boat and drove a lot of the egrets to higher ground.
Wish I could be there to see all the baby birds.
The subsequent drive through the desert was nice. Drove the #10 to #177 and then the #62 through Yucca Valley. Wanted to stop for the night at the California Welcome Center and go on to Riverside the next day. I’m getting pretty good at boondocking!
