Blogs from Tucson, Arizona, United States, North America

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North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson December 28th 2023

Happy New Year Everyone! Here is the link, again, to our holiday blog, this time with photos as the website fixed the issue: http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=1081902 - Happy Holidays and 2023 Recap in Photos In this divided world we are living in, perhaps we could endeavor to make 2024 less decisive and more inclusive. Try to see the humanity in our fellow man instead of labeling him/them as ‘other.’ Try not to tolerate or perpetuate ethnic, racial or lifestyle discrimination in mind and deed. As Göran Persson wrote: “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: We will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” ... read more

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson December 23rd 2023

YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT - RECOMMENDED - THEN GO BACK TO THE BLOG OR GO THROUGH THE 46 PHOTOS IN THAT ENLARGED FORMAT - CLICK ON 'NEXT' OR 'PREVIOUS' OR ON A NUMBER BENEATH THE PHOTOS. I PUT LOTS OF INFORMATION IN THE PHOTO CAPTIONS SO YOU CAN SKIP THE NARRATIVE, JUST LOOK AT THE ENLARGED PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS AND YOU'LL STILL GET MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU EVER WANTED. TO RETURN TO THE BLOG ENTRY, CLICK YOUR BACK BUTTON OR ON THE NAME OF THE BLOG - BELOW THE NUMBERS ON THE LEFT. As you have probably figured out, these travel blogs are a way for Bernard and me to keep track of our adventures. I can't tell you how many times we've referred to one of our over 80 travel ... read more
Meow Wolf
San Diego
Sister Donna, et al.

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson December 23rd 2023

Friends, For some reason photos are not showing on my recent Holiday travelblog. Please set it aside for now and try again later as Travelblog.org is working to fix this glitch. Thank you, Kathy... read more

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson January 25th 2023

Time to pack up and head north. We checked out of our very-comfy-bedded place S. of Tucson and headed for the Sweetwater Wetlands to try our luck again. Not as many birds as before, but plenty of birders! The unspotted "spotted sandpiper" was making most of them quite excited. We also saw a very healthy looking coyote. We found a lake across from there that had many ducks. Nothing new, but it’s fun to realize when we can identify them without checking the book every time. Then on a tip of one of aforementioned birders, drove about 15 mins to a bridge over the Santa Cruz river to find a barn owl nesting under the bridge in a pipe. Believe it or not, we found the bridge and the pipe and an owl, but it was ... read more
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North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson January 24th 2023

Wow, the days are beginning to blur…. But guess what – it was all birding today AND we got one new bird!! So we are up to 8 new lifers from this trip. 605 life list plus the red-naped sapsucker we cannot count ☹because only Jean saw it, and David didn’t get the photo. So, we started off early, scraping the car yet again from the hard frost, and got to a walking birding tour at 9 in Tubac, a small town south of here. There were 27 of us! And we saw about that many birds. Yvonne had recommended it, and she made it too. The guide was incredibly knowledgeable indeed. We hiked for two hours, but not over many miles, and the find of the walk were the 2 hanging nests of the rosy ... read more
2 Great Horned Owl
3 nests of the Rose Breasted Becard
4 cute little Bewick's Wren

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson January 23rd 2023

What a cold day. No hard frost, but it was overcast and damp and windy, and it was about 38 when we met Yvonne at 9 am for her guided birding. We did very well indeed – Yvonne tracks the different species and I think she said 25. TWO NEW FOR US BIRDS: the Lawrence’s goldfinch (which when Yvonne posts it, the eBird administrators question it, as it’s not supposed to be here – so when we send her David’s photo she can send it in as proof for sure), which were out in numbers, and the GRAY FLYCATCHER – not such an obvious bird as many flycatchers look the same but our #7 new bird on this trip. We also saw 2 more roadrunners, one sitting still (nesting?), which was very strange, and gorgeous vermilion ... read more
2 Wee time
3 Vermilion flycatcher
4 Vermilion flycatcher on the wing

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson January 22nd 2023

Well, we were up and at ‘em around 8 am, but David had to scrape the HARD FROST off the car – see photo. We also took a photo of our “landmark” in finding this AirBnB – it’s the huge palm tree. We drove to Madera Canyon again, found the berry bush, but not the trogon that new friend Yvonne Parrott had told us about. Oh well, met Clare (a very well educated birder who works at a park in TN) and her college friend Tina, and got to show them where the birdfeeders were at the Santa Rita Inn. It was cold in the shade! Thanks to Clare we identified new bird # 5, a Townsend’s solitaire – a relative of a robin. We saw many of the other expected birds, busily eating and flying ... read more
our tree
WOODPECKER ACORN MALE
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North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson January 21st 2023

After a hard-working morning linked onto a Zoom meeting for Lutheran Marriage Encounter (yes, all you married couples SHOULD attend, what a blessing), we had cheesy scrambled eggs and ½ an English muffin (see, Rosemary, this IS our go-to fast meal), and drove 35 minutes or so to Madera Canyon, a famous birding place we had visited before. First we stopped at the entrance area, paid our fee, and walked a short way at the suggestion of a local couple to a little waterfall (about 20’). It was running freely. Then we drove the mile or 2 up the canyon to the Lodge, where people hang humming bird feeders, put out corn, seeds of all sorts, and have piles of sticks to attract birds. And they were there in profusion. And there were about 12 of ... read more
2 Mexican jay
3 Townsend warbler
4 Darkeyed Junco western style

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson December 19th 2022

Our next stop was Tombstone Territories RV Resort located southeast of Tucson. We visited nearby Tombstone- walkiing the boardwalk streets and watching a re-enactment of the Shoot-out at the OK Corral. Mike found a new belt buckle in one of the Tombstone gift shops. Lois picked up postcards and we bought some pecans and pistachios at a farm in Benson. The next day we drove into Saguaro National Park East. The Visitor Center movie was interesting and worth sitting through. We drove the 8-mile one-way loop with great overlooks and stopped to hike part of the Mica & Cactus Forest Trails. It was like being on another planet.... read more
Rincon Mountains
Rincon Mountains
Tombstone

North America » United States » Arizona » Tucson April 9th 2022

Today was another incredible hot bright sunny blue sky sort of day. We drove to the East half of the Saguaro National Park, again getting there before it opened. It was CROWDED with bike-riders! Guess they try to get it in before the heat of the day. We did a 1 miles hike out to a lime kiln ruin and a mile back, and saw just one black-throated sparrow and 2 small unidentified birds, possibly gray vireos. All in all we preferred the other half of the National park. We are very grateful for our senior's free pass to the parks too. The mountains nearby were pretty, and the saguaro cactus varied. We learned to recognize a few types, including the “fish hook” cactus. We shall have to research if the Native Americans used the thorns ... read more
Cactus Wren nest
Cinnamon Teal
even rabbits are dry here




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