Arizona in August?! - YouLookFab Forum

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Arizona in August?!

JAileen

Veteran

We spent a week in SE Arizona, on a birding tour. I don’t have any pictures of my outfits. Everyday I wore Columbia everyday nylon hiking pants, Salomon hiking shoes, a Tilley hat, and then various tees. It was ostensibly a hummingbird tour, but you’ll notice I have practically no pictures of them. Those little devils are fast! They had had a tremendous monsoon season. The B&B owner told us the rushing creek by our room had been dry for three years. The wildflowers were gorgeous. We got as high as 8400 feet in elevation, and it reminded me of the Rockies. After suffocating in wildfire smoke for the past few weeks, the clean air was delightful.

1 Black chinned hummingbird
2 Acorn woodpecker
3 Great horned owl, possibly juvenile
4 Acorn woodpecker and his work
5 Roadrunner
6 possibly a broad tailed hummingbird
7 Northern beardless Tyrannulet
8 wildflowers
9 wildflowers
10 wildflowers
11 rain in the distance
12 Lilian’s meadowlark - subset of eastern meadowlark
13 Varied bunting
14 cactus in the desert
15 Cloudless sulphur butterflies
16 rainbow
17 we went to the desert for a gilded flicker - hot hot hot
18 tarantula
19 Cactus wren
20 Mohave rattlesnake
21 wildflowers
22 wildflowers
23 wildflowers
24 Cardinal
25 border with Mexico
26 lichen
27 Montezuma Pass in Coronado Nat’l Monument - 6500 feet in elevation
28 Montezuma Pass
29 Montezuma Pass
30 Figeater beetle
31 looking, looking, looking

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38 replies

Latest reply was from JAileen

Sloper

Veteran

Thank you for sharing these - really beautiful. Sounds (and looks) like a successful trip (except for the hummingbirds).

But how close were you to that rattlesnake????

JAileen

Veteran

Sloper, thank you. I was about four feet from the snake. I thought he had been run over, but he was just sunning himself. He really startled me when he started to lift his head.

Joy

Veteran

We have black chinned hummingbirds and have seen broad tailed. It is the fall migration of the Tarantulas in Colorado. They head to Oklahoma to look for mates. Creepy to see a mass of them crossing the road. Audubon featured the gilded flicker today on Facebook. We see both red and yellow shafted at winter feeders. Now I will pay more attention to the markings.
It looks like you had a successful birding trip. Any elk ?

rachylou

Veteran

Fantastic photos! I love monsoon season in Az. It’s wild.

JAileen

Veteran

Joy, we did not see any elk. We did see lots of deer. The white tailed deer there are a subset that is physically smaller. We also saw a ringtail. I’d never seen one of them before. And bats!!! At night, they swarm the hummingbird feeders and empty all of them.

Rachy, thank you. We were lucky to be there during a good monsoon. There were probably more birds and certainly more wildflowers than otherwise. On the other hand, I washed my nylon pants out and they took two days to dry!

Joy

Veteran

Wow, two days for nylon pants to dry! To compare I washed out nylon pants in Ireland in early spring with lots of rain and they dried at. OST, over night.

We used to see lots of deer(white tailed) in Kansas, even whole families in our yard. The closest large park allowed hunting them to keep the population healthy and managable. There were lots of car/deer accidents even drivers killed when a deer came through the windshield and kicked a lot. We rarely see deer in Colorado but did see them in Wyoming. You are much more likely to have to stop for mountain goats or elk or big horned sheep or bison crossing the road. At higher altitudes there are marmots. We have even had to stop for wild turkeys.
deer can be the most dangerous when cornered.

JamC

Veteran

Lucky you! Sounds like a fantastic trip! I love those outdoor trips in beautiful locations. I really enjoyed your close-up photos of birds, flowers, insects and rattlesnake! I admire your ability to find and photograph birds…I can’t follow birds or find them when I hear their calls…
Thank you for sharing with us.

JAileen

Veteran

Joy, it felt incredibly humid to me. But a woman in our group from Maryland didn’t think it was that bad. I hang sheets on the line here, and they’re dry in under an hour.

JamC, thank you. We saw around 140 different species of birds, including twelve different hummingbirds. My husband is a diehard birder and he saw 26 new birds. I’m a baby photographer. That is, I’ve just started. You should have seen how many blurry pictures I had!

Runcarla

Veteran

#15 - the butterflies looks like an art shot! Sounds (and looks) like a fabulous get-away. Thanks for sharing your adventure!

JAileen

Veteran

Carla, thanks. We saw several types of butterflies doing this. I think they were drinking water because the ground was damp.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You lead a full birding life, and it's a treat for us to bird watch with you. Glad you had a wonderful trip

JAileen

Veteran

Angie, thank you. I usually try to add pictures of the gear I used, but we had very long days (5AM to 8PM, for example) and I barely had enough energy to fling myself into bed after a quick shower.

Bonnie

Veteran

I love AZ and these photos remind me of my time there. It's a beautiful, diverse place with an unique ecosystem. The monsoons are great to watch and it's cool for a couple of hours after. Too bad it's so hot much of the year. We still visit there for a couple of weeks in late Feb. when the temp is usually lovely.

JAileen

Veteran

Bonnie, it was amazingly diverse. My favorite place was at 8400 feet, in Rustler Park, in the Chiracahuas. It was so cool and dry. I think it was the only place I wanted to be in the sun.

Bonnie

Veteran

We've camped in the Chiracahuas and that is an amazing place. I miss the seeing the birds, both the local and the ones migrating through. We did do a bit of birding there, nothing like what you are involved in, and it was great fun.

JAileen

Veteran

Bonnie, I know you’ve moved, to the coast, is that right? Don’t you get birds migrating through there? We’re starting to get migrants here. I should mention that my husband is the diehard birder. I’m just birder lite.

Anonymous

Thanks for sharing the pics! Love the majestic great horned owl I see some birders on my walks, staring up at trees and telling me a string of names. Also, there are bald eagle searchers.

Cardiff girl

Veteran

What fabulous photos,it’s a real treat to share in your birding experiences.Not keen on the tarantula though!

Bonnie

Veteran

We did move to the coast and now we see shorebirds. They are not as colorful as AZ birds but so interesting. My favorite is the kingfisher. We do see migrant birds especially when there are storms in the ocean. I have enjoyed your birding adventures. It must be interesting being married to a real birder.

JAileen

Veteran

Nikki, thank you. I absolutely love owls, and I’m glad you appreciate them, too. We saw another owl, a whiskered screech owl, which is a very small one. It was after dark, so no photo.

Cardiff girl, thank you. I actually loved seeing the tarantula. It was the second one I’ve seen in the wild. The first one was local, found by our Scottie. He’s all muscle, and it took everything I had to keep him from getting it!

Bonnie, the kingfisher is a favorite of mine. We have one we see in a local park, going up and down the river. Re birding: I was very concerned when my husband retired that he would be hanging around the house all the time, getting in my way, telling me how to do things I’ve been doing for years. But he is out birding 4-5 hours nearly everyday. It’s working out very well. I mostly don’t go because he spends so much time taking photographs.

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

These are beautiful photos. I just got back from Labor Day weekend in Tucson, and was amazed by the plant life following monsoon season. I didn’t see any such amazing birds but there was a near plague of butterflies on on of my hikes.

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JAileen

Veteran

UmmLila, thank you. Did you go to Saguaro Nat’l Park? Your lovely pictures look like they could be from there. We went through Tucson a few years ago, and went to the eastern unit in the late afternoon. It was just stunning. Here at home I see one butterfly at a time. But where we were in SE AZ, we saw several dozen at a time, together. It must be because of water.

Anonymous

Amazing JAileen, what a great trip and thank you so much for sharing your pictures. If these were my photos I would have to print at least my favorites and hang them up.

JAileen

Veteran

Phoebe, thank you. I’ve never printed out any pictures, but I do send a picture of the day to my mother and a few friends when we’re on a trip.

Echo

Veteran

Wow, I adore birds, and your photos are just beautiful. I envy you your trip, although I don't think I would be cut out for such an adventure! I find it amazing how places can be so dry and then have such an explosion of life when the rains come; it must be amazing to see. I haven't been to the desert southwest yet, but your pictures make me want to pay a visit!

Sally

Veteran

Those are beautiful photos and beautiful birds. Thank you for sharing. Its great to look at difference landscapes and wildlife.

kkards

Veteran

Gorgeous

JAileen

Veteran

Echo, thank you. As we drove around, I noticed places that had had washouts. So they did get lots of water. We got rain on one day, but it was threatening nearly the whole week. One time, the lightening was getting closer and closer, and we eventually left due to safety.

Sally, thank you. Of the more than 140 species we saw, there were a few tropical/Mexican species that could only be seen in that tiny part of the US. My favorite bird of the trip was the Mexican chickadee. It is very similar to the Mountain chickadee which we have in our area. I couldn’t get a picture of him because he was way up in some tall pines.

Kkards, thank you. I hope you noticed the roadrunner. I thought of you when we saw him.

ETA: the butterflies are apparently getting salts and minerals when they gather on sand. Learn something everyday!

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

These pictures are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

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