Hummingbirds of Southern Arizona: Broad Billed Hummingbird

This beautiful little red billed hummer is another hummer pretty much restricted to Southeastern Arizona with occasional reports out of Texas and New Mexico. We see them here at The Azure Gate most days.

Broad Billed Hummingbird

Hummingbirds of Southern Arizona: Blue Throated Hummingbird

The Blue Throated Hummingbird is one of the largest of the Hummers that come to the US. And, although there have been rare sightings in several southwestern states, it is essentially only found in the southeastern part of Arizona. In particular if you wanted to find one, Portal in the Chiricahua Mountains is the most reliable spot -- even year round. Other than the Chiricahuas, Beatty's Orchard in Miller Canyon seems to attract a few every year.

Blue Throated Hummingbird

Hummingbirds of Southern Arizona: Black Chinned Hummingbird

The Black Chinned Hummingbird's normal range in the summer is essentially the Western United States excluding Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. It winters along the Mexican and Central American west coast. 

The Black Chinned is abundant in its range. So you find one, you find many.

Black Chinned Hummingbird

Hummingbirds of Southern Arizona: Berylline Hummingbird

Next up the very rare Berylline Hummingbird. This is not seen -- or at least reported every year. I've come across them in Miller Canyon and Madera Canyon. There have been a few reports over the years from Texas, but it's most likely spot in the US is the Huachuca and Santa Rita Mountains of Southern Arizona.

Female Berylline Hummingbird

Hummingbirds of Southern Arizona: Anna's Hummingbird

The Anna's Hummingbird is found along the West Coast of Oregon and California, but seems to like the interior part of Southern Arizona as well. We have Anna's year round. They nest here between October and April. It is our most common hummingbird at The Azure Gate.

Anna's Hummingbird

Hummingbirds of Southern Arizona: Allen's

The hummingbird season is pretty much over, still a few strays, but most just our year round hummers (Anna's and Broad Billed).

So I though for the next 15 days, I'd show one of the 15 hummingbird species that with luck and persistence can be found here during the Hummingbird Season.

Starting with Allen's. Allen's very closely resembles Rufous, especially the females. Normally it is found on West Coast of California during the summer and winters in south central Mexico. But for a brief period in late summer Allen's can be found in Southern Arizona.

The Male Allen's has a green head and back as seen in the following photo:

Allen's Hummingbird

Bobcat Fast Asleep

I was looking through some of my old photos and came across this little series of a Bobcat that I found fast asleep in our Flower BED, four years ago.

This all took place in the courtyard of our Catalina Guest House. I was up and wandering around our five acres early one morning and happened to look into the courtyard of the Catalina. This is what I saw:

Being excited as always when I see a Bobcat, I went and got my camera, took the above photo, then went to the other side of the courtyard for a different angle. There he was, still fast asleep in the Flower Bed. What better place? An actual bed. I took several photos.

Using my 100-400 zoom allowed me to get closeups too:

It was a nice little experience, captured in photos.