Humming Bird Banding

5/21/2017

From mid-April to mid-September every other Sunday morning the Hummingbird Monitoring Network performs Hummingbird banding at the Southwest Research Station and the "Walker" house in Paradise, AZ. We went to the Research Station at about 9:00 am to observe.  Here's some pictures.

Capture station

Volunteer retrieves hummingbird after capture.

Captured birds are brought to banding station.

Hummingbird is checked for previous band.

Various measurements and data are collected.

Notice band on gray block.

Applying ID band

Weight is recorded.

They're given a good drink before release.

Random Photos from Cave Creek Canyon AZ

Broad Billed Hummingbird

Montezuma Quail.  According to a local exert, they like to
hide in plain site.  He's being a rock!

Whiskered Screech Owl

Great Horned Owl chicks

Sunset over Portal AZ

Moon rise over Cave Creek Canyon

Taking a break on the Silver Peak trail.

Panorama view from the Silver Peak trail.

Friday morning Farmers Market next to the Post Office in Portal AZ.

Silver Peak trail climbs the side of this mountain.

Javelinas visit our campsite most afternoons.

Rick on the Nature Trail, leaving Sunny Flats campground.

Explosives locker (on the Cave Creek Nature trail) built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30's.  The placement and design is interesting. Here's my interpretation. In the event of an accident, the natural bolder would protect the road and creek to the right.  The mountain on the left would dissipate the energy from the roof and left side of the locker.

Saturday night at the Portal Cafe...

The one man band (above) played rock and "Psychedelic" compositions while the mystery artist (below) painted based on the vib he felt from the music.

Silver Peak hike

5/11/2017

Hiked part of the Silver Peak trail yesterday.  From the valley to the summit is about a 3000 ft rise.  We made our goal, about 1500 ft., before turning back.  Being flatlanders, it took us about 7 hours, taking a LOT of breaks.  Maybe we'll make it to the top before we leave, ha ha.  Pictures are from our highest point down, the lighting was better in the afternoon...

Selfie at our highest point before turning back.

View from backside of the mountain.

On the way down

Can you tell who was happy we turned around!

Portal AZ in the valley below,
and our starting point.

Interesting vegetation

Finally away from the steep drops on the side of the
mountain to a descending plane.

Nearing the end.

A short distance from the trail head we heard a familiar rattle! We froze and looked all around for the source.  We found this guy about 5 feet off the trail.  Obviously, he was not coiled and facing the other way which was fine with us.  We moved ahead slowly and were very wary for the rest of the way.  At first I thought it was a Diamondback.  But after examining the picture, the consensus among us amateurs, is it was a Black Tailed Rattlesnake.  Our expert is out of town but we'll get a definitive answer when he returns.

We took a short cut from our campsite that joined the
trail a few hundred yards from the trail head.  Home again!

Our new home and The Great American Eclipse

5/1/ 2017

After dry camping in the parking lot for a week we moved to our new home, with full hookups and shade, Yay!

Mexican Jay from the camper window

Canyon Towhee

An interesting bug bathed in sun light, still unidentified

Javelinas walking past the camper

5/6/2017

Last night we attended a presentation on the Aug 21, 2017 eclipse by Fred Espenak, a local resident and retired expert on eclipses from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Have known we'd be in Oregon and in the "Path of Totality" for some time.  Although we knew the how and why of eclipses, he gave us a lot of insight on what to expect and "how" to watch an eclipse.

Here's a link to a map of the eclipse path
Here's a link to lots more info. about the Great American Eclipse.

Test shot of the sun using the Eclipse glasses

Other interesting pictures from the week...

In search of the elusive Elegant Trogon on the South Fork trail. More about them in later posts.

We did hear the call and see one but hopefully we get a better view of him in the near future.  We still have a month to find another.

"The Bath Tub" on the South Fork trail.

Black Headed Grosbeak

At the Chiricahua Desert Museum you can get
all your snake catching supplies!