On to California

Greetings from Escondido, CA. The plan was to go to San Diego, but being the holiday weekend as it is, I couldn't find a motel in San Diego. Holidays don't mean a lot to me these days. Actually they're kind of a pain. Prices go up and things get crouded... You can feel free to enjoy them if you want to. I'm sure I will too someday.

Escondido is nice. It's pretty artsy and there are a lot of interesting shops and thing. Right now it's about 11:30 and I just got out of church at Emanuel Faith Church. They have a singles ministry and they are going out to eat at 1:00 but I don't think I want to wait that long. besides, I'm getting a little tired of meeting people and saying good bye on the same day. I'll see how I feel when I'm done here.

I've got a lot of photos in this post but not a lot of subjects. I did a lot of traveling and I only stopped at a few places but a couple of those places gave me a ton of good photos.

I stopped overnight at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I got a few photos there including this one of a Red-tailed Hawk taking off from the top of a Saguaro. There were a lot more Saguaros there than Organ Pipe Cactus. That surprised me.

The six photos below were made at Imperial Dunes which is sort of southeast of the Salton Sea.

The interesting thing about this photo is the little, barely visible speck on the upper left dune crest apears to be a Red-tailed Hawk. With this little version you'll have to take my word for it. I didn't even know it was there until I looked at the photo later.

These two are simple dune sceens. I had to restrain myself to keep from putting too many of these is post.

Here you can see the Chocolate Mountains in the background.

If you found the Bobcat in the last post you'll have no trouble finding the Coyote in this one. Or will you?

This is a Fringed-toed Lizard. In the full sized version you can actually see the fringes on it's toes. They are specialized sand dwellers. The fringes help them scoot along on top of the dunes and they sometimes hide by burring themselves in the sand.

The first day I chased these guys around in vain. I only got one very distant shot. I would see one scooting along like a little dune buggy, complete with a little sand rooster-tail, and then they would disapear behind a bush or down a hole. Pretty frustrating. The next day I got there earlier, just as the sun came up. That was too early for the lizards, but it made for some great dune photos. Later, when the little guys started moving, I was ready.

The cooler morning tempratures seemed to do the trick. They wouldn't run quite as fast or as far as they did before, and then they would sometimes stop where I could find them. I think my eyes got better at picking them out too. That was very satisfying.

My other good photo place was called Laguna Mountain or something like that. They had a lot of wildflowers. Some of which were very attractive to humming birds.

Costa's Hummingbirds, like the ones above, were the most common ones there. It's amazing how different there throats look depending on the angle you see them from.

This is an Anna's Hummingbird. The throat is red instead of purple.

I'm tempted to just call this one an Allen's Hummingbird, but I guess it could also be a Rufus Hummingbird. An Allen's would be a lifer for me but to call this one an Allen's would compromise my "birding integrity". I'll just have to look for an Allen's some other place and some other time.

I had a great time with these guys. I had to restrain myself here too. I've got dozens of good shots of them.

I haven't mentioned it for a while but my truck is still making some noises that make me worry. I think I'll have to have someone look at it again. Probablly this week. Pray for me on that, and for safety, and for good weather, and for low gas prices... Thanks for looking.

Steve

More Arizona

I'm now back in Tucson after spending the week in SE Arizona. I did a lot of birding, which is still the thing to do when you're in this area, and I got some other hiking and photography in as well.


I Spent a couple nights on Mt Lemon which is right outside of Tucson. This is a shot of Tucson from the road to my Campsite.


One morning I got this shot of a Bobcat. He isn't very large in this photo and his camouflage was working quite well that morning. Can you find it?



Here's a Saguaro Cactus in bloom. I was lucky enough to be here at the right time for that.


These cactus are huge and they only bloom at the top of there "arms". You can imagine how painful it was to shimmy up one of those devils to get this shot! OK, just kidding. I found an arm that had bent down near a hillside so I could get the shot without making a pincushion out of myself.


At Saguaro National Park I found this guy. It's a Gila Monster, the only venomous lizard in the US.

From there I went down to Madera Canyon. I saw a lot of great birds down there including a Flame-colored Tanager. It's likely that it's the only one north of Mexico. I didn't get many good shots there though. It's always a big question for me. Should I carry my big lens or shouldn't I. I didn't carry it a lot when I was there, or I might have more bird shots. I guess I just needed a break.


This was taken at Patagonia Lake State Park. It's the only place I had to pay to camp this week but it's also the only place I got a shower.


These Spotted Owls were at Sheelite Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains. They tell me they've been roasting in this same general area for years now.


Just this morning I took a hike up to Carr Peak. I did this same hike when I was here over ten years ago now. At that time there were a lot little saplings starting up. Now there are a lot of young trees. The town of Sierra Vista has grown a lot too. You could see the difference from up there. This shot was taken half way up the "road". Road is in quotes because it was really rough. Earlier a guy from New York State told me that roads like that would be called stream beds back home. The last time I was here it was bad but nothing like now. They saw it's due to budget cuts.


The hike produced this little surprise for me. It's an Olive Warbler. They like high elevations and I worked pretty hard to find one in the Chiricahuas. I didn't have my big lens with me on this hike but this guy was so close it didn't matter much.


I found this Spiny Lizard on the way down. I think it's a Clark's Spiny Lizard. It was very beautiful especially in the sun.

I haven't decided exactly where I'm going to go tomorrow afternoon, but in the morning I plan to go to Casas Church like I did last week. They have a great singles ministry and I met some nice people there. After church I went out to eat with Mike, Katie, and Denise. They have lunch on the schedule for this week too. It's awfully nice to be able to do that.

Tune in next week to see where Steve wanders next. At least I hope I'll be able to get another post out next week. Don't worry if I don't. I'll get one out eventually. Take care till then.

Steve

Texas to Tucson

Yes I'm still alive and well. I just never an internet connection at a time when I could use it. Keep in mind that it takes me a couple hours or more to do one of these posts. I'm trying to do some of the work on the photos as I go along. That should help.


From the Lower Rio Grande I headed for Big Bend NP. On the way I stopped at the Amistad National Recreation Area. That's where I found a lot of these Scaled Quail. This one stayed put nicely for me.

Further up the road I crossed the Pecos River. This is supposed to be the old edge of the "wild west". Just up the road from here they have a little museum where Judge Roy Bean had his saloon/court. Yes there really was a Judge Roy Bean.


I was almost totally unprepared for Big Bend. What an awesome place. It's huge and there's so much to see. I didn't know it was such a good Birding place either. I met a lot of birders there.


This is the bird most birders go to the park for. This shot is cropped down from a much larger image. It would have been better to have had my big lens with me but I didn't want to carry the thing that far. It's the Colima Warbler and In the US it's only found at Big Bend and there only in the high in the mountains. I found it on a 13 mile hike I took. I didn't have to hike quite that far to see one and I had planned to take a shorter route but a couple I met on the trail talked me into taking the long way. They said it was the best hike in the park. They even gave me some of their water so I could make it. They took the shorter route. Maybe I should have paid attention to that fact :)


They were right about the beauty of that trail. What a spectacular view! I was pretty wiped when I got back, and I drank the last of the water as I came down the home stretch, but I'm glad I did it.


Desert surrounds the mountains of the park. I spent a fair amount of time down there too. This is an Earless lizard. I usually only saw a lizard-like blur as they shot across the trail in front of me but this guy stood nice and tall for me on this little rock.


This one I found at Guadalupe National Park. It's a Round-tailed Horned Lizard and he would just as soon we all think he's a rock. I never would have found him except that I saw him scamper out of the way as my foot came down on the trail. I only made a brief stop at the park but it's also very unique and beautiful.





Speaking of unique and beautiful places... I made another brief stop at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. It rained a little while I was there but not enough to spoil the trip. The clouds actually made the dunes all the more interesting. As you can see it made for some pretty surreal looking images.


From there I headed for Cave Creek in the Chiricahua Mountains, near Portal, AZ. It's also a beautiful place but it is known mostly for it's birds.




I had a great time there chasing birds like Elegant Trogons...




And Red-faced Warblers. Also Painted Redstarts, Olive Warblers and many others. There's sort of a birding community there. Some of the houses had a lot of feeders set up and they would invite anyone to sit and see what comes in. Bird watchers are the nicest people.


This is a Bull Snake. It was not far from the Portal Post Office. Not far from the tree the Elf Owls were nesting in. People would gather there at dusk to see them come out.



On the other side of the Chiricahuas is the Chiricahua National Monument. I never knew there was such a place until I saw it on a map. I stopped there on the way to the Tucson area and decided to stay the night. It had a lot of interesting rock formations like these tall stone pillars, and balancing stones. The birding wasn't bad either.


I'm now in a hotel room in Tucson. I got here last night and I spent this morning at the Sonora Desert Museum. I went on a little bird walk, not so much to see the birds, but to pick the brain of the leader. I got some good info that I'll be following up on over the next week or so. It's getting late again so I bid you all a good night. Keep Praying.


Steve