Birding Mount Lemmon

Mount Lemmon provides some great birding opportunities. Though rarely rare birds, it provides first time birders to Arizona opportunities for "Lifers." Arizona birds like Oliver Warblers, Red-faced Warblers, Painted Redstarts are relatively easy to find. Western birds like Acorn Woodpeckers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Mountain Chickadees, Spotted Towhees, and Western Tanagers are also relatively easy to find. 

Acorn Woodpecker

Black-headed Grosbeak

Hermit Thrush

Mountain Chickadee

Olive Warbler

Painted Redstart

Red-faced Warbler

Spotted Towhee

Western Tanager

Wild Turkey

Abert's Squirrel

Thrushes

Continuing with my new photo book, Thrushes:

American Robin

Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush Singing

Rufous Backed Robin

Swainson's Thrush

Varied Thrush

Birding Mount Lemmon - Part V

And, a few more recent photos from birding Mount Lemmon:

American Robin

Hermit Thrush

Young Yellow Eyed Junco waiting to be fed

Mountain Chickadee

Pygmy Nuthatch

More Birds from Mount Lemmon

In addition to the warblers in the last post, here are some non-warbler birds taken on Mount Lemmon this past week:

American Robin

Hermit Thrush

Yellow Eyed Junco

House Wren

Red Tailed Hawk

Spotted Towhee

Western Bluebird

White Breasted Nuthatch

Wild Turkey

Birding Mount Lemmon

The best months for birding Mount Lemmon are April through the beginning of September. By October many of the migrants have moved on to their winter homes. Most of what remains are the birds that live in the Catalinas year round.

So I was somewhat surprised to see a Hermit Warbler the beginning of October:

Hermit Warbler

 The Olive Warbler is one of the few warblers that are year round residents:

Olive Warbler

Townsend's Warblers can usually be found year round though with much lower numbers in June and July (not a very good photo but just to confirm its presence).

Townsend's Warbler

Hermit Thrushes, Acorn Woodpeckers, Mountain Chickadees, Pygmy Nuthatches, and Western Bluebirds are year round residents so no surprise to find them on Mount Lemmon in October:

Hermit Thrush

Acorn Woodpecker

Mountain Chickadee

Pygmy Nuthatch

Western Bluebird

Birding Mount Lemmon: Part II Others

Some other photos from my morning on Incinerator Ridge on Mount Lemmon:

Mountain Chickadee

Acorn Woodpecker

Hermit Thrush

Pygmy Nuthatch

Mountain Bluebird

It wasn't only birds though:

Ivyleaf Morningglory

White Tailed Deer

Mount Lemmon after the Fire - Part II

Mount Lemmon is still closed to camp fires, although that should change soon because we are now in our Monsoon Season and it is getting plenty of rain.

Christine and I came across a singing Hermit Thrush. It was a lovely serenade that lasted several minutes. Here are a couple of those Hermit Thrush photos I took:

Incinerator Ridge, Mount Lemmon

Since Mount Lemmon is right out our back door, it is where I go when I don't have a lot of time. So yesterday, I made a quick trip up to Incinerator Ridge wondering what I might find this early in the season.  It was a bit windy and cold (49 degrees). No real flocks of birds yet, but with a little patience a few nice birds did present themselves:

American Robin

Hermit Thrush

Red Faced Warbler

Raven

Spotted Towhee

Stellar Jay

Western Bluebird