Chiricahua Mountains - A Few Others Birds

Finally the last post from my recent trip to the Chiricahua Mountains. As I mentioned Cave Creek is one of the premier birding spots in the US. The fire and flooding have, no doubt, taken its toll -- for the time being. But, there have been fires before and will be again. And, no doubt, this area will bounce back as good as ever. What seemed lacking the most were the small forest birds -- warblers in particular. Although I saw an Elegant Trogon this time (as I have many times with great photos) not close enough this time. However, I didn't go away without some nice bird photos: 

Black Headed Grosbeak Male

Gilded Flicker Female

Lesser Goldfinch Male

Northern Cardinal Male

Acorn Woodpecker Male

Chiricahua Mountains - Hummingbirds

While there are hummingbird feeders at the lodge and some private residences in the little town of Portal, Cave Creek Ranch (just outside of town) is clearly the premier feeding site. The treat while I was there last week was the Blue Throated Hummingbird. Most of my other Blue Throats were from Miller Canyon in the Huachuca's. Also present were a large number of Rufous Hummingbirds. There was a hummingbird feeder somewhat isolated from the others that was under the domain of a male Rufous. He spent 90% of his time chasing other hummers away from "his" feeder; 5% of the time feeding; and the other 5% of the time resting from the chase, no doubt. Here are a few photos:

Blue Throated Hummingbird Female

Blue Throated Hummingbird Male

Blue Throated Hummingbird Female

Blue Throated Hummingbird Male

Rufous Hummingbird Protecting His Feeder

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Coatimundi in the Chiricahuas: Part II

A coatimundi came by Cave Creek Ranch next day too. Again, by luck I happened to be there photographing some of the hummingbirds. This time the Coati walked over to a Century Plant that had a hummingbird feeder hung on its stalk.   The Coati climbed up the stalk and drank from the feeder, came back down, took a look at me, then off he went into the forest.  You can see from the first photo how long his tail is. Here's the sequence:

Coatimundi in the Chiricahuas

I went to the Chiricahua's hoping to find Black Bears and Coatimundi. I scored on both counts. I have been very lucky finding Coati's in the Galliuro Mountains (75 miles northwest of the Chiricahua's), but this was the first time finding them in the Chiricahua's. And, luckily it was pretty easy -- one came to me. I was staying at Cave Creek Ranch where the Owner Reed has strategically placed several hummingbird and seed feeders. (It is the best place for hummingbirds in the Chiricahua's.) As I was photographing some of the birds a Coati came "strolling" through:

Here he is climbing a tree to get suet from one of the feeders.

He kept his eye on me, but was pretty intent on that suet.

A nice Close UP

Then down the tree to the ground.

And, another look at me before disappearing into the nearby forest.

Chiricahua Mountains The Flooding

As I mentioned earlier, by noon the first day (Tuesday) it was raining as hard as you can imagine. This continued for two to three hours. Once stopped, I headed back out to find that Cave Creek was 50 to 100 feet wide instead of ten feet wide. The water was rushing through at speeds equal to Niagara Falls. Oh, and the water was black!  As bad as damage is from the fires, it seems worse from the subsequent floods. I have also mentioned before that I am not a landscape photographer. It seems so overwhelming that I don't know where to begin. I'll always remember a Richard Harris song from the early 70's entitled, "Slides". It is an interesting song about his travels which is half spoken and half sung. One of his lines is: "Oh, the Grand Canyon, it is un-photographable at any given point, tis so vast." That is essentially how I feel about landscapes. Anyway, now that I have apologized for my "flood photos," here they are: 

This part of the creek is normally less than 10 feet wide. It appears to be about 100 feet wide.

Here I have arrived after most of the flooding had receded from the road that was part of the creek for a while.

Here the road crew was on a bridge over Cave Creek assessing damage.

This photo was taken from that bridge. The gray on either side of the "white caps" is ash colored water gushing down the creek.

The following two photos are an attempt to show a before and after sequence;

Here is a photo of the Coues White Tail Deer along side Cave Creek the morning before the flood.

Here is the same place after the flood. The grass is gone; the leaves are gone, even the rocks are gone. What is left is ash colored mud.

Black Bears in the Chiricahuas - Part IV

Bear #4: Later on Wednesday afternoon, I decided to go back out and give it another try. I was rewarded with another Cinnamon Black Bear. This one was younger, maybe a two year old. And he was more interested in grubs, insects, bugs, etc. as you can see from the first two photos. Every once in a while he would look at me as he is in the next couple of photos. 

Here because of the angle, and because he is turned on himself he looks much smaller -- almost like a cub. But, you can see from his face he is beyond the cub stage.

Finally, I think he said "no more photos", so I said "good-bye" and left him there to finish eating.

Black Bears in the Chiricahuas - Part III

Bear #3: While in the Chiricahua's I stayed at Cave Creek Ranch (highly recommended). Cave Creek Ranch is the premier hummingbird site in the Chiricahua's. (hummingbird photos to come in a few days). Anyway, I got up early Wednesday morning to hike South Fork Cave Creek. By this time the flood had come and gone. It was heartbreaking to see the damage to this incredibly bio-diverse wilderness. The day before it was fire damage, but this day it was the flood damage that seemed most apparent.  About the only birds I saw were Mexican Jays and Acorn Woodpeckers. However, continuing my exploration of the Chiricahua's I came across a Cinnamon Black Bear. This on was also determined to eat the leaves from the small saplings near the road. Therefore I was able to spend quite some time with him taking photos. Here then are photos of Bear #3: