Dan and I had a few days for a quick vacation, so we headed out to one of our favorite destinations -- Tucson, Arizona. The first night, we stayed in Demming New Mexico in hopes of being close enough to Portal to stop by a private residence currently hosting a Plain-capped Starthroat. Lori and husband Mike actually had two visiting their feeders, a male and an immature. They were gracious enough to let us stop by, and we dipped on it in the early morning, but after a break, we returned and the immature showed up, just as we were about to leave. Yay -- Plain-capped Starthroat!
Plain-capped Starthroat
On to Tucson -- we stayed at the lovely La Ventana Resort. We would birdwatch in the mornings, either in Ramsey Canyon, or Madera Canyon, and Dan would golf in the afternoons, while I nature watched along the trails behind the hotel.
Also coming into their very fine backyard was this beautiful Pyrrhuloxia,
and this Curve-billed Thrasher.
This pair of Gambel's Quail hopped up on their wall and were kibitzing about the humans staring at them -- is it safe to feed right now, or not?
immature Broad-billed Hummingbird at Rodriguez's yard, just down the road from the Conrad's
Blue Grosbeak - Rodriguez's yard
one of the many duskywings in Portal, probably a Funereal, pronounced Fu-ner-e-al Duskywing. We have them back home as well.
Finally, we would make it to Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson. I walked the trails around the hotel every day butterflying.
Ceraunus Blue
This is actually on our trip home. We just passed through a huge grass fire between Sonora and Junction. Dan called a friend to see if anyone reported the cause. Seems someone saw an 18-wheeler with a bad axel dropping sparks everywhere. We saw patches of fire for about 20 miles caused by this truck.
