Birding Molino Basin in the Catalina Mountains

Molino Basin Campground is an excellent birding spot. There usually is flowing water which has created a nice riparian habitat in an otherwise scrub desert. It's only about 15 minutes from our B&B so Christine and I like to hike there when we don't have a lot of time. We did so a couple of days ago, and while not abundantly birdie (it was mid day), we did come across a couple of nice photo ops:

Canyon Towhee

Red Naped Sapsucker

Sweetwater Wetlands: other birds

NOTE: I would like to welcome visitors from Iran, the 136th country to visit our Blog. Just today there have been visitors from:   United States, Canada, Netherlands, Iran, Japan, Brazil, France, Thailand, Ukraine, Ireland, South Korea, and Romania. Regardless of politics or religion, we all seem to have a common interest in Wildlife. Thank you.

Continuing my birding at Sweetwater Wetlands:

Though I was really concentrating on those rare warblers, there were lots of other birds interested in getting a photo:

Cardinal

Cooper's Hawk

Gilded Flicker

Green Heron

Red Naped Sapsucker

Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Verdin building her nest

Pena Blanca Lake: Other Birds

Among the other birds, Pena Blanca Lake offers a wide variety of raptors, warblers, woodpeckers, grosbeaks, buntings, and of course sparrows.

Here are just a few photos from last week's trip:

Bewick's Wren

Cooper's Hawk

Lazuli Bunting

Lincoln's Sparrow

Nashville Warbler

Orange Crowned Warbler

Red Naped Sapsucker

Red Naped Sapsucker

Red Naped Sapsucker taken at Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona:

Red Naped Sapsucker

Ramsey Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona

Today, another picnic and hike. This time Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains of Southeastern Arizona. We started out around 8:30 and went up the canyon along the creek taking both side loops. Then, took Hamburg Trail and its switchbacks up the mountain. It was another great hike. Here are some photos from the hike:

White Tail Deer

Younger White Tail Deer in Ramsey Canyon Creek

The Endangered Ramsey Canyon Spotted Leopard Frog

Red Naped Sapsucker

One of about ten Wild Turkeys foraging around on the side of the Canyon

Another of the Wild Turkeys

Muleshoe Ranch, Galiuro Mountains, Arizona - Part II

In addition to the Long Eared Owl, there were a variety of other photo ops:

This Sacred Datura nestled among weeds and grasses.

A  Pipevine Swallowtail was one of hundreds of butterflies fluttering around Hot Springs Wash.

And, here in a dry part of the wash, a White Tail Doe with her fawn.

Finally, a Red Naped Sapsucker seemed insistent on drilling in this cottonwood tree along the wash.

Back to Woodpeckers one more Day

To finish up with Woodpeckers, we go first to Turkey Creek on the East Side of the Rincon Mountains in Southern Arizona for the Red Naped Sapsucker. I have also found and photographed the Red Naped Sapsucker in Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Washington; the Galiuro Mountains in Southern Arizona, and in Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains of Southern Arizona. The Red Naped Sapsucker is found in the Western US and Mexico, wintering in Mexico with summers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and the northwest. They are very similar in appearance to the Yelow-bellied Sapsucker of the east except they have a little more red and a little less white in their plumage. They typically nest in dead trees in mixed forests. They bore holes in living trees to get sap and any insects that may be present.

Red Naped Sapsucker: Turkey Creek, Arizona

The Pileated Woodpecker is the largest of the woodpeckers at 16.5 inches. It is found primarily east of the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers swinging over to Western Canada and back down into Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. It lives in mature forests feeding primarily on carpenter ants, wood boring beetle larvae, fruit, and nuts.

Pileated Woodpecker: Colorado State Forest

Turkey Creek

Yesterday, Christine and I went for a nice hike in Turkey Creek -- East side of the Rincon Mountains here is Arizona. I have to start by saying that fate shows it's hand -- sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good, but at a time that although was not expected, maybe should have been. I remember looking for Moose in Alberta and not having any luck. I went to the Maligne Lake where I had usually been successful but nothing. At the end of Maligne Lake there is a little sign that says "Moose Lake Trailhead." So, I decided that I would give it a try. After all, it was Moose Lake. So, the short 1 1/2 mile hike lead me to Moose Lake where there was a Moose foraging along the lakeside. On another occasion, Christine and I were hiking in the Chiricahua Mountains in Southeast Arizona. To make a loop out of the hike you go out 1.9 miles on Echo Canyon Trail, and then back to the trailhead on Hailstone Trail (another 1.9 miles). Seriously folks, within 30 seconds of being on Hailstone Trail it started Hailing like we had never seen. Then, as not-so-good fate would have it, pouring rain the entire way back. By the time we reached the Jeep we were as wet as physically possible. So, yesterday as soon as we pulled in to the Turkey Creek Trailhead we were greeted by --- yes, five Wild Turkeys. Today, photos of the Turkeys, plus the Acorn Woodpeckers, and the Red Naped Sapsucker we came across on the hike: