This year we already attended a bird festival in Texas so we decide to also attend the closer one in Tucson. Specifically there are a few birds that we weren’t able to see previously so why not try now? We decide to stay at the festival hotel which is reasonably nice and even gives us free cookies, nice!
The first stop after checking in is at the conference registration, we get our badges and goodies. Then we explore the different tables and check the species checklist for this year, unfortunately our target birds were not found yet in the tours that already went out.
The first tour is early in the morning, we are going to Box Canyon to possibly see a few lifers or at least first time for Arizona birds. What we find on the way is scarier, it is a ghost or at least that is what we see in the photographs. The Velvetpod Mimosas flowers are more special and look less scary though so we focus on them and ignore the ghosts.
Our first stop in Box Canyon is on the side of the canyon where we listen carefully for any special birds but none are forthcoming. So the guide decides to walk on the road for a while so we can continue listening and looking for interesting birds.
We walk a short while with eyes and ears wide open before finding our first major bird, a Lucifer hummingbird. As a bonus it is also sitting on a nest over the road so it is quite scenic and easy to photograph.
The Box Canyon itself is quite scenic and in some sections there is some trickle of water flowing far below us, likely that is what is attracting the birds as water can be quite at a premium in the desert.
Next interesting bird is a Zone-tailed hawk doing his best impersonation of a Turkey Vulture but not being able to fool sooo many birders at once. On the ground a Bullock’s Oriole is keeping a watchful eye also so it doesn’t seem anyone is fooled really.
We continue exploring finding cows and deer, quite a few cows but only a few deer though.
We continue on to another stop where we find a few butterflies, mostly Arizona Checkerspots on the many flowers that are blooming during the monsoon.
There are also rock squirrels and rock wrens on the many rocks in the canyon but nothing that exciting otherwise.
We really like the desert in bloom and enjoy the many flowers and the fact that everything is green all around us. It is something rare and therefore quite special.
And then we find one of the targets of this trip, a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, a relatively rare, for Arizona, small flycatcher. Next to it is a black throated sparrow a very common sparrow in Arizona but a lifer for many birders coming from the northern states. Not for us though.
And then it is time to return back to base where we buy some McDonald and relax for a while as we have one more trip planned later in the day.
