After a morning of birding at the San Pedro river area outside of Sierra Vista AZ, I started heading north to Tucson. Along the way you pass by the now defunct open pit copper mine in Bisbee Arizona.
Bisbee AZ is a very interesting little town that sports very cool geography and an arty culture. The only bummer is that huge open pit mine just outside of town...
An early morning view of northeast Tucson from part way up the Mt. Lemmon highway. I was headed up to meet my friend Jefe for a day of birding on Mt. Lemmon.
Mt. Lemmon has a number of different campgrounds at different elevations along the road up the mountain. I camped at Molino Basin which is at about 4500' and boasts some really good bird life!
My nice quiet campsite :-)
Part of the view from the campsite.
I put out a dish of water for the birds and this Canyon Towhee quickly found the water and enjoyed a drink :-)
Bell's Vireos were fairly abundant around the campground and the males sing almost non-stop this time of year.
My friend Jefe and I enjoying a cold drink up high on Mt. Lemmon at the tiny town of Summerhaven after birding most of the day. We identified 38 species of birds during the day which was a pretty good selection of feathered friends!
One of my favorite desert birds is the Verdin. Here a parent bird has collected a bunch of gnarly looking green worms to bring to the babies in a nest I found not far from my campsite :-)
Here is the Verdin just after feeding the babies in the nest. Note how the nest entry hold faces down and out, somewhat unusual for a nest design in my experience but pretty cool.
The Verdin out and about again collecting insects for the hungry babies.
I went up to Windy Point on Mt. Lemmon one evening to do some sunset landscape photos. Here the light is just starting to get nice.
Another view, just slightly later. Note the couple in the far right of the picture - they were having some engagement shots taken by a photog in the nice evening light above Tucson.
Post sunset view from Windy Point down towards Tucson - really an amazing place to watch the sunset!
The sunset colors over the Catalina ridge line.
A long exposure post sunset shot from Windy Point - note the car headlight/tail lights in the lower left of the photo in this 20 second night time exposure.
The next morning on the way out of town, I did a short hike up the Bear Creek drainage in north central Tucson. It was nice to see some water flowing and there were quite a few birds around :-)
I came across another Verdin nest on my hike in Bear Creek. There were babies in this nest as well but I didn't see the parent during my brief watch...
The view up Sabino Canyon in Tucson on my last morning there. I was headed west through town on my way to visit my friends Greg & Felicia in Phoenix...
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