CO-NM-AZ Trip ~ May 5, 2009

We awoke to find this Cactus Wren singing outside our motel room in Tuscon, Arizona.

We began the day by visiting the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum located outside Tucson. Despite several trips to southeast Arizona, we never took the time to go there, but this time we did and the exhibits were well worth it. There, I was able to photograph this Anna's Hummingbird.

One look at this male Broad-billed Hummingbird and you can understand why it is one of my favorite hummingbirds. The colors on the male are eye-opening.

After leaving the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, I made several quick stops to photograph the Saguaro Cactus along Kinney Road.

Tucson Mountain Park holds a high density of Saguaro Cacti.

This Saguaro Cactus has several long arms, making it a very old plant. It normally takes 50-70 years for a Saguaro to grow arms. The one pictured here is likely to be well over 100 years old! An adult saguaro may weigh 6 tons or more and be as tall as 50 feet. The average life span of a saguaro is probably 150 - 175 years of age! Note the flowers blossoming atop each of its arms.

Here, Prickly Pear cactus stands in the forefront with saguaros growing behind on the hillside.

We drove from Tucson to Patagonia by way of Sonoita and stopped at the Patons' residence.
The Patons' is one of the best places in the country to see the Violet-crowned Hummingbird.

Although not the best photo, I managed to capture this Violet-crowned Hummingbird in flight.

This Gila Woodpecker was just one of the many birds seen feeding there.

Numbers of Lazuli Buntings dropped in to feed at the Patons'.

This Lark Sparrow also stopped to feed there.

Other birds spotted from there included Gambel’s Quail, Black Vulture, Cooper’s Hawk, Gray Hawk, Inca Dove, Broad-billed, Black-chinned, and Anna’s Hummingbird, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Bewick’s Wren, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, Abert’s Towhee, White-crowned Sparrow, Black-headed Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Pine Siskin, and Lesser Goldfinch.

We continued over to the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Sanctuary where we saw this Vermilion Flycatcher.

I was able to get a nice photo of this Gray Hawk perched in one of the large cottonwoods found in the sanctuary.

Thanks to a tip from some other birders, we were able to see this Zone-tailed Hawk on its nest.

Additional birds seen at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Sanctuary were Great Blue Herons on a nest, Black Phoebe, and Cassin’s Kingbird.

We spent the next two nights at the Motel 6 in Sierra Vista.

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