S.E.Arizona (8) - Mount Lemmon

It took us 2 hours from Green Valley to Mount Lemmon leaving at dawn. The first viewpoint was called Babad Do'og, which is native Indian for Frog Mountain. Here's the early morning view over the Tucson Basin...

A Canyon Towhee showed very well at the viewpoint...

As did the far commoner Gnatcatcher...the rather dapper Black-tailed...

We continued to climb the massive bulk which peaks at over 9,000 ft. We took one more viewpoint in...

I heard some voices from below. Below? I looked over the barrier...

The view back down the always impressive mountain road was on this occasion spectacular...

While my chauffeur approached the higher regions I spotted a shape way off to the south...

Luckily we could pull off the road. A closer view...

Then amazingly the Peregrine came right in over my head and landed on the rock above to eat it's prey!

We did have a concern. We were low on petrol! "We'll be OK" I said confidently, "everywhere has petrol in the States"  We reached the village of Summerhaven which is at 8,200 ft and had some lunch...after we'd discovered there was NO petrol station!! A conversation with a young lad re-assured us somewhat. "Just put it in neutral and free wheel down, I've done it on more than one occasion! It wasn't going to spoil our afternoon, so we just got on with it. The weather was kind with no afternoon thunderstorm...thankfully.

The first high altitude species brought back memories of one of my worst British dips. This particular individual popped out of the undergrowth briefly to pump it's tail...

Hermit Thrush

Unfortunately/fortunately we passed a rather nice cafe that just happened to have Apple Cobbler and Dairy Ice Cream...

Yellow-eyed Junco is the mountain "sparrow". A common bird at high altitude but I really like this image...

...and this one even more...

Really pleased to pick out this Pine Siskin...

A stunning American Robin struck a pose against a trunk...

As did a Stellar's Jay...

The latter part of the afternoon was spent on the first half mile of the road to the Ski area (we didn't drive up there for obvious reasons! This worked out well luckily as it was very birdy. I managed to connect with both Virginia...

and Olive Warblers...just!

Incredibly active birds staying mainly high in the conifers. I finally got a brief but conclusive view of a Zone-tailed Hawk. I was determined to be sure...hence no pic.

Final noteworthy species was this Pygmy Nuthatch...

It was now crunch time. Could we make it back down the mountain? We did! We even stopped off to enjoy the evening light...

No Thunderstorm!

Another great day out.