After yesterday's marathon it was a leisurely start to the day at the Green Valley Best Western, a superb motel with excellent facilities...£50 a night with free breakfast...for 2!!
We drove down the I19 towards the Mexican border and then West along the 82 to Patagonia. I wanted to include Louise in some of the birding as she does have an interest. She likes to see things quickly or she gets the novel out! So, I decided to take her to the world famous Paton's Hummingbird Centre. The star bird here being Violet-crowned Hummingbird. It's a large distinctive bird which should be fiarly easy for us to pick out...it was...
Louise was impressed...so was I. This is the best site in the States to see this Mexican species...almost guaranteed with patience. I tried hard to find one in the vegetation (a quirk of mine) but I couldn't. Another cracking if common bird and a particular favourite of mine is the Curve-billed Thrasher. If you want to observe a bird with character, this is it...
Always doing something interesting and very inquisitive with those wonderful orange eyes. Great bird. After our late start it was gone midday now...and roasting hot (a recurring situation,,,the cactus's were a clue).
Time to say goodbye to the star turn with a bizarre but illustrative out of focus image...
After a nice lunch including some excellent apple cinnamon pie and ice cream we headed west to Sonoita then north along 83. I was determined to take things slower today, the heat of the afternoon helped to decide that. I noticed on my map (no sat/navs here) there was a road over the mountains (Hwy 62) from 83 that took us right back to Green Valley...result. What I didn't know was it's condition. After a chat we decided to go for it...we could always turn round. It turned out to be a great decision, the road was fine (as are nearly all the roads in the States) for our "ordinary" car and we travelled through some super farmland followed by some spectacular canyons.
The highlights of the farmland came in the form of a smart American Kestrel...
...and we watched an amazing display from a male Bronzed Cowbird...and eventual (brief) mating...
You had to be there really...I should have taken a video of it really...it was spectacular!
As we made our way over the Santa Ritas I (luckily) noticed a "creature" in the road! There are lots of creatures in Arizona. It remained motionless in the middle of the road...not recommended but great to see. It was nearly dark but the pic came out well.
A Texas Horned Lizard...in Arizona!
A relaxing day...
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