After breakfast we drove perhaps 30 mins to the National Park - it was actually 7 miles into the park that we found the visitor’s center – that made sense, after all, how could the entrance to an enormous cave be right there on the main highway? We had to have booked our tickets – they were all sold out for anyone who just showed up. 8:30 was our time, although you could actually arrive as late as an hour after. Did we want to take the elevator down the 80 stories and then walk the 1.2 miles, or walk down the 20% grade for over a mile? What do you think? Of course we had to do it all. And we were told it would be worth it – and it was! Evidently it took ... read more

As usual we were up and out reasonably early, knowing that we had to do laundry and pack up later today. There was a complete paucity of birds on the South Fork hiking trail we had done already twice with good results. Our Advent church choir has done an anthem in the past about Holy Week – “And no bird sang.” It seemed true today. The weather was hotter than before too, although the slight breeze made it pleasant. After about 2 hours on the South Fork Trail we visited another area that supposed had Red-faced warblers, which we had seen fleetingly before but didn’t photograph. Nice campgrounds and waterfall and lots of yellow-rumped warblers but that’s it. Visited both feeding stations in Portal, and did get a better photo of a Calliope hummingbird – recognizable ... read more

It was a perfect day weatherwise – warmer than yesterday but still only about 38 when we set out on the hike – it was so sunny and no wind, so I started in my vest and wind-coat, gloves and knitted hat, but I soon stripped down to just the vest (and long sleeves and warm yoga pants and boots of course). We just repeated the South Fork canyon walk with its 5 stream crossings to get to the “bath tub” deeper pool, and then 2 more after that before turning back. We went further than yesterday but took just about as long – we are birders after all, not hikers! After the hike we stopped at the Research center to watch the humming birds again, and to check out their souvenirs (not much). We stopped ... read more

A long day driving new roads over hills and dales. We decided to take advantage of the Chiricahua National Monument, supposedly 1-1/2 hours away. Ha! It was only 20 miles over the Pinery Canyon pass road, but much of it was like a washboard, and some even washed away, with trickles of the creeks running over the road. Only one car passed us going up to Rustler’s Campground, where we stopped to do a little birding at a higher elevation. It was FREEZING up there, so windy and about 47 degrees. Good thing we had our New Zealand windbreakers on. And what did we find at the campground? Besides not one camper. Robins! On the way down we did meet a walking party of 5 with a birding guide and we captured a photo of the ... read more

Palm Sunday - And check out day. (this should have been sent last night but there seems to have been a glitch. Let's try again - although Monday's adventures awai!) We were up and at’em long before 8 am, sad to leave our lovely little house. We had selected a church to worship in, a nondenominational church called Pantano Christian. The usual band and 3 songs (again, ones we didn’t know), communion, and a very good message. As is also usual in such a large church (much bigger than last weeks – in fact, they had 2 side rooms that could either be flat (like set up with round tables and serving breakfast before and between services!) or filled with bleacher seating but with padded proper chairs – as is usual, no one welcomed us, just ... read more