The amazing view of Cave Creek as you head into the tiny but beautiful town of Portal Arizona. The rock formations are quite large and dramatic but unfortunately they are composed of poor quality volcanic rock so they are essentially unclimbable :-(
Our friend Steve has recently retired in Portal so it was great to be able to base out of his home to go birding in the area. A high percentage of folks who live in Portal are very avid birders, and rightly so as the area is rich with birds!
Gotta love this sign in bustling "downtown" Portal! I think there are about 80 full time residents in town, so "congested" is all relative I suppose :-)
The classic post office in 'downtown' Portal.
One of the many birder friendly yards in Portal. The people here are super nice and most are willing to share their properties with avid birders which is really nice!
One of my favorite birds common to the Portal area is the Acorn Woodpecker. These guys are full of personality and sound and watching them manage their stashes of acorns will amaze any inventory control specialist!
The Curve-billed Thrasher is pretty common in the Portal area and can frequently be seen foraging on the ground or munching a snack on a snag branch.
A Black-chinned Hummingbird 'hanging around'...
The Portal store offers very basic groceries, a decent beer and wine selection and has a very nice indoor/outdoor cafe that sports some pretty darn good food!
Another 'sign' of a very bird and birder friendly town.
One morning we stopped for breakfast in nearby Rodeo NMex on our way to a birding spot right near the border. The Rodeo Cafe has really tasty food, is very clean and the staff is super friendly - who could ask for more in the middle of almost nowhere? They have this very cool mural of route 80 on the wall as well :-)
A pretty unusual road sign by my experience... Luckily, we didn't see any of these!
On our way to look for a Barn Owl at a site Steve had scoped, he also showed me a series of interesting rock wall 'art' structures that were built by a British transplant to the area some years ago - an incredible amount of work!
I found this nice fixer-upper cabin nearby ;-)
Here is the dilapidated old Pullman railroad car (how the hell did this thing get here??) where Steve had seen a Barn Owl recently. It didn't seem the owl was here until we were basically ready to walk away and it emerged from a dark cavity at the top of the pullman car. Of course we were totally surprised and didn't get any pictures :-(
Below the car is an extensive 'graveyard' of remains of many Owl meals over time. It looked like possibly hundreds of small rodents had been consumed by the Barn Owl over time.
Another view of the spiral rock wall art southwest of Rodeo NMex.
This was one of the strangest products I have seen, so I couldn't resist the photo opp at a very rural general store east of Rodeo NMex.
A Loggerhead Shrike just off the dirt roads we took outside of Rodeo NMex.
Apparently way back when in the Cave Creek area, there were some mining efforts. I came across this old munitions hut along a trail that parallels Cave Creek.
A Western Screech Owl makes his home in a Sycamore hollow in 'downtown' Portal AZ. This was right at dusk and the Owl was becoming active, indicating he was about ready to head out on his nightly hunt.
Here he is again, just about to fly off for the nightly hunt. It's always so cool to find and watch an owl as they are frequently very difficult to locate, but my friend Steve knew exactly where this one called home :-)
My friend Steve's backyard in Portal. An amazing view and lots of birds makes for a great place to hang out on the porch! Thanks for the hospitality Steve!
A Black-throated Sparrow in Portal. These strikingly featured birds are one of my favorites in the desert with a very cool song.
A Green-tailed Towhee enjoys the morning sun in a mesquite bush.
A Pine Siskin hanging out on a dead bloom. These cute little birds will soon continue their migration north to places like Colorado :-)
A male Pyrrhuloxia. A fairly common but beautiful desert bird that is closely related to the Cardinal.
An immature White-crowned Sparrow. These birds are quite common in desert areas, but the brown striping on the head of this juvenile is very different than the white stripes of an adult.
A Hooded Oriole checks out a bloom on an Ocatillo Cactus. I love to see Orioles, especially close to eye level for a decent picture!
Here is a Swainson's Hawk hanging out on a Yucca stump outside of Portal. I've never seen one of these hawks so low, but there really weren't many tall plants/trees in this area, so there you go!
Here's my friend Steve on the front porch of his house in Portal. I headed out this morning to bird near Sierra Vista, then to Tucson to visit a friend and do more birding and hiking on Mt. Lemmon. Thanks again Steve!
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