Grosbeaks

Continuing now with Grosbeaks:

Black Headed Grosbeak Male

Black Headed Grosbeak Female

Blue Grosbeak Male

Blue Grosbeak Female

Birding Mount Lemmon - Part I

The Southern Arizona Mountain Ranges are collectively called the Madrean Sky Islands. The Santa Catalina Mountains, or more commonly the Catalina Mountains or even Mount Lemmon, are the largest of these mountain ranges. Mount Lemmon is its highest peak at 9,157 feet. It receives 180 inches of snow each year. It is 18 miles long and 14 miles wide.

There are so many great birding spots on the way up Mount Lemmon that it is literally impossible to stop at all of them in a day.

Here are some of the "hot spots":

Molino Basin Lookout

Molino Basin Campground

Cypress, Middle Bear, and Chihuahua Picnic areas

General Hitchcock Campground

Rose Canyon Lake

Incinerator Ridge

Bear Wallow Road and Trail to Sunset Trail

Sykes Knob Road

Inspiration Point Picnic Area

Alder Picnic Area

Loma Linda Picnic Area

E. Turkey Run Road and Upper Sabino Canyon Trail

Summerhaven to Marshall Gulch

Ski Valley to Mt. Lemmon Sky Center Observatory

Experienced birders will no doubt have their favorites (as do I) and some will have spots not even on this list.

Mount Lemmon is essentially a Spring, Summer, and Fall birding site. Warblers abound in the Spring and Fall; though still quite decent in the Summer.

Over the next few days I'll show some of my latest photos from "birding Mt. Lemmon.:

Anna's Hummingbird

Ash Throated Flycatcher

Black Headed Grosbeak

Birding the San Pedro River

The San Pedro River offers wonderful year round birding. Springtime brings migrants - the orioles and tanagers are always photographable. Yet it offers a wide variety of other birds as well:

black chinned sparrow singing away at 6:00 am

black headed grosbeak

common ground dove

green tailed towhee

lark sparrow

the seemingly always present western screech owl

white crowned sparrow

and the occasional white tailed deer

Ash Canyon B&B

It's always fun to stop at Mary Jo's Ash Canyon B&B whenever I am in the Huachucas. The other day was no different. Here are a few of those photos from Ash Canyon:

Acorn Woodpecker

Bewick's Wren

Black Headed Grosbeak

Cassin's Kingbird

Pine Siskins everywhere

Western Tanager

White Breasted Nuthatch

Birds on a Wire: Black Headed Grosbeak

Sitting on a wire gives birds a great view and a perch to bolt out and catch an insect flying by. But it also provides a perch to just rest. 

The Black Headed Grosbeak is more often engaged in trees looking for seeds and hard bodied insects. Yet, occasionally it too finds a wire to perch on -- sometimes resting and sometimes waiting for a butterfly to pass by.

Black Headed Grosbeak

Florida Canyon Birding

Madera Canyon is well known, well birded, well hiked, and well picnicked. Just prior to getting to Madera Canyon there is turn-off on to a dirt road that goes about three miles into Florida Canyon. Florida canyon, though not as big, not as many trails often gets birds that Madera Canyon doesn't -- or at least not on a regular basis. Rufous Capped Warblers live year round in Florida Canyon but have never been reported in Madera Canyon which is less than a mile away as the crow (or warble) flies. Black Capped Gnatcatchers are also often present in Florida Canyon.

A trip through Box Canyon to both Florida Canyon and Madera Canyon produced some nice results last week:

Black Headed Grosbeak Male

Blue Grosbeak Male

Scott's Oriole Female

Varied Bunting

Western Meadowlark

Northern Shrike

White Tailed Deer

Empire Gulch -- next on the List

Empire Gulch is usually quite birdie given the spring that keeps water in the Gulch for about 200 yards. There were some nice finds to:

Hooded Skunk

Black Head Grosbeak Male

Summer Tanager Male

Western Tanager Female

Tanque Verde Wash: Western Tanager and Black Headed Grosbeak

Another trip over to Tanque Verde Wash looking for the Prothonotary Warbler provided nice photos of male Western Tanagers and Black Headed Grosbeaks:

Black Headed Grosbeak

Western Tanager

Birding Mount Lemmon - III

More from the last two weeks of birding Mount Lemmon:

Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird

Gilded Flicker

Band Tailed Pigeon

Black Headed Grosbeak

Birding Mount Lemmon - I

Over the past two weeks I've been trying to focus on Birding Mount Lemmon. First, because it is just "up the hill" from where we live; Second, because I have only had three hours or so each day; Third, because the birding is quite good; and Fourth, because it is 30 degrees cooler than our 100 degree days down below.

Here are what I think are the best birding spots (in order of ascending the mountain):

Molino Canyon Vista
Molino Basin Campground
Cypress and Middle Bear Picnic Areas
Rose Canyon Lake
Incinerator Ridge
Bear Wallow Trail
Sykes Road and Inspiration Rock
Alder Picnic Area
Summerhaven to Marshall Gulch Road
Sky Center to the Observatory


So over the next few days I'll show you some of the photos I've taken during that time.

Tree Swallow

Dusky Flycatcher

Black Headed Grosbeak Female

Black Headed Grosbeak Male

Pine Siskin

Birding Mount Lemmon Again and Again

Some more photos from a quick trip up Mount Lemmon this morning:

Abert's Squirrel

Stellar Jay

Common Raven

Black Headed Grosbeak

Cliff Chipmunk

Red Tailed Hawk