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| Broad Billed Hummingbird |
One of the things I try to be while I blog is honest. It's important to be truthful about the experience and I gotta tell you all......today was just meh! Oh I'm sure the photos will do, but I try to push myself on every outing....and on every outing, I've always come home happy. But today....on this very hot hot day.....I didn't get anything new. (Written on June 2nd)
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| Magnificent Hummingbird |
To make matters worse, my allergies were terrible. There was a huge fire coming coming in from New Mexico that created this terrible haze. I don't know how I will bird in this heat. I made time for it and could only sqeeze in a couple hours looking for the Lucifer Hummingbird! He eludes me still.
It's not to say that I didn't see a lot of wildlife because I did achieve this objective. But I missed the Blue Grosbeak which would have been a first for me and this blog. Ugh!!! I saw it but wasn't quick enough with my camera!
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| Acorn Woodpecker |
I think what I need most is a break from the desert heat until monsoon comes. It really isn't nice at all to do. Hats off to the people who get up super early to snap shots of all those amazing birds. I'll do more of it when July hits again. The humidity is of course terrible during that time but there is always hope for much needed rain everyday.
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| Black Chinned Hummingbird |
Maybe it's frustration I want to convey on this post. People always wonder what we desert rats do during the summer and the answer is.....stay indoors during the afternoon like people do during the winter in the colder regions. Evenings are great, but I'm out watering plants. Mornings are great but I'm usually sleeping:)
But you also gotta feel for the birds around the area. Our hummingbird feeders are attacked regularly by the large and heavy woodpeckers. They are very awkward looking as they hang and swing from the feeders. Let me just say that they spill lots!!! Their "tongue" is similiar to that of a hummingbird and therefore love to visit our feeders as well. Today in the canyon it was 98 degrees!!! I had plenty of water but still.....
I wore my hat and hid in the shade as much as I could. There is a lot to see if you can withstand the temps. It reminded me of Panama last summer but with all the humidity involved!!! So much wildlife out and about at all times of the days around the canyon areas. In the desert, you'll find it very very quiet during the afternoon unless you are looking for lizards.
So it's great to go to cooler locals if it's possible. The problem is that some of them are 45 minutes to an hour away. For example, heading up to Mt. Lemmon is ideal, but the trip will take you an 1 and some minutes to rise the 20 some odd miles to the top. Or if you are heading to Carr Canyon, the dirt roads can be difficult to navigate if you have a regular car like I do. Good tires are the key:) More tomorrow...
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| Gerbera Daisy |
Posts
Now that first photo is super beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI was accidental and I was lucky:) It flew very close to me and the camera was ready to shoot. And it definitely was the highlight of the pictures:)
DeleteDas sind Raphael und YvonneJune 26, 2012 at 1:33 AM
Great pictures!
ReplyDeleteThe first picture is absolutely fantastic!
Have a nice week!
Yvonne & Raphael
Thank you!!! Love your post on the leopards. Incredible find!!!
DeleteI know how you feel, Chris. One day I stopped at a small-town zoo and felt like I got a lot of good pictures. I was so disappointed when looking at them. Out of 185 I thought maybe 5 were usable. It was one of those days that the lighting was just all wrong! Also I need to learn my camera better. I just have a fast-on-the-draw shutter finger, going click-click-click without taking much time to analyze the conditions of my environment. Then in the edit process I usually always find a few more usable ones than I had first envisioned and occasionally one that really blossoms with a little bit of help! So hang in there and hope for cooler days soon. We're suffering with this heat here in East Texas too but we have the humidity! When I lived in Phoenix I used to wish for monsoon season just to get a little moisture in the air and cool those temps down. My friends thought I was nuts. Perhaps I was!
ReplyDeleteI use the fast feature as well....especially with the hummingbird and wildlife shots! Thanks for the well wishes. We actually got rain tonight!!! Pretty exciting so thank you for the rain dance. I think it's the lighting sometimes. I, like you, get so excited for the pictures taken but once I get home and put them in the editing/review phase, I get a little disappointed:) And then there are days, as you will see, when everything goes well. You just never know:) Thanks for you well wishes.
DeleteI have been hearing about the fire, it sounds awful. I hope it is under control and put out soon. Some rain would help a lot, right now. Lucky you, I would love to see the Acorn Woodie, even at my hummingbird feeder. One of my hummer feeders disappeared overnight, I think it was that nasty raccoon. The Gerbera daisy is one of my favorites, very pretty. Stay cool and have a great day!
ReplyDeleteSeveral fires continue to burn but they're not as bad as the one that hit New Mexico several weeks ago. It made for really bad weather. Sorry about the feeder...I had to laugh, but I know what a frustration it can be:)
DeleteBeautiful birds and flowers here, Chris.
ReplyDeleteMy sympathies for the summer heat you endure. Summers heat and humidity has arrived here in south Florida also.
I dislike staying indoors immensely!
That's the killer part for me. I get antsy and want out....but the minute I go out, I know it's a bad idea! So I know that the best answer is do laundry.....but I don't want to:) I'd rather be digging around bushes and finding things:)
DeleteI'm heading south for the next few days and not looking forward to the heat. Keep on staying cool in the afternoon AC.
ReplyDeleteThat's all I ever do now:( Tonight we had rain and although I am exhausted from teaching summer school, I had to get out on the trails. After the rain, I grabbed my camera. Didn't take many pictures, but I sure enjoyed the rain cool air!:)
Deletefirst things first...take care of yourself......the birds will be there.....
ReplyDeleteYes mam!:) I only go out during early morning or late evening OR after it rains.....hopefully we'll have some more rain coming our way. Crossing my fingers:)
DeleteHoping your allergies have disappeared...
ReplyDeleteYour first picture is a dream!
Allergies have cleared up!!! And life is good again. The weather is still terrible. I'm sure you are not missing that part of Arizona:) I imagine Chandler got hot!
Deleteit is true for texas, too. we live indoors during july and august, hoping for a break in temps. yesterday was 103 here - same expected today and tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteYou cross your fingers and I'll cross mine. Temp predictions are really bad for the next two days....how about 111 degrees?
DeleteHi Chris, It's been very hot (hot for us) here too this week... AND--they say it's just going to get hotter... We are also very dry --and desperately need some rain... The heat and drought are hard on our garden/yard...
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures today... We finally saw a little hummer in our yard yesterday---first one we have seen so far this summer...
Betsy
You have to put a feeder out!! I bet they'll come back with all your beautiful flowers:)
DeleteI admire you for even trying to get out in that heat! I'll take our MN. winters over those temps any day. Stay cool!
ReplyDeleteWinter sounds like paradise right now! And it shouldn't:)
DeleteI can so relate to this post...well at least my dislike of the summer heat. I can't say I'm anywhere nearly as ambitious and dedicated as you are at getting out. Hats off to you! Pat yourself on the back, you deserve it. You're being too hard on yourself. Your shots are wonderful and at least you saw the Blue Grosbeak. That required getting out there and you are. A trip to Mt. Lemon does sound nice.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the encouragement. I'm mustering all I got for these trips. I've had some successful trips since that day but I remember how angry I was about going on this hike and not seeing anything around.....and I knew it the minute I walked on the hike....it was dead silent...maybe from the smoke or heat...I'm not sure....but I was a tad angry. But the good news is that the following two days rocked my world. So it just proves, that every hike is different. So more fun and new material is coming up:)
DeleteStill, good shots. All the hummers this year here is a nice sight. Fortunately Abq is >10F cooler than you most days, so mornings not as bad for some watering as per our friend Daphne's recommendation last year.
ReplyDeleteOh...the watering. The plants are doing well. I have an extra hand to help keep the gardens in shape. The mornings are a no go because I am teaching summer school so I have to do the chore at night. I'm ready for July to happen. Hopefully today we get some rain.
DeleteYou're right Chris, the shots do still do!
ReplyDeleteI definitely know the feeling though...sometimes there's just not much going on, and you get that feelings soon into the outing too. You can just tell that everything is subdued that day. Well, it gives one a chance to recalibrate, maybe scout out a new area for next time, and return extra invigorated with the next opportunity!
I have to say that this day was very difficult. I had driven through the heat and spent all this time getting to the canyon and when I got there, it was like you said....you just knew that the everyone was hiding out:) But my next outing would prove to be an amazing one and made up for this day. Those pics are coming up. But I will say that I am happy with the first hummingbird shot....that was the highlight of the pics.
DeleteI'm liking your hikes that you've taken. Keep going! They're fun to read about:)
You have the opposite problem to us Chris, its so cool, wet and windy here that trying to find the wildlife, ( such as Butterflies and Dragonflies) is nigh impossible, we need to swap weather for a week! :-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a deal!!! Let's swap our weather!!! Arizonans and the Southwest would love you for it!:)
DeleteHi Chris, Well, there is no need at all to be displeased with this post, it is delightful and I enjoyed all the photos! The woodpecker looks so ungainly hanging on the side of that dainty feeder :-) So sorry to read of your allergies I suffer badly myself with them and can't stand high temperatures at all especially when it is humid too. I think your temperatures would finish me off!!
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed your last post, the 12 Spotted Skimmer was a handsome creature.
Try to keep cool and drink plenty of water...and spare a thought for us in the UK, it has rained for much of the day and I think we could count the number of nice, sunny days this year on the fingers of two hands!
It's water water water....and a sunscreen and a hat. We have opposite weather issues. Both lock us up inside the house:)
DeleteAren't the woodpeckers funny? They drive me nuts with their constant emptying of the feeder but they are fun to watch. They kind of remind me of the squirrels elsewhere....except that they're birds as well:)
Great post.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos, I especially love the Hummingbird.
Woodpeckers are on my list of bird I'd love to see and
photograph.
The fire sounds awful.
Hope you're feeling better.
Take care, Chris.
Mette
Thanks Mette!! Definitely feeling better again. If you ever come to Arizona, we should go birding. We have many woodpeckers and sapsuckers down here and they are all quite beautiful! I sometimes take them for granted, but I always stop to watch them wherever they are.....just like the hummingbirds.
DeleteChyba nie mogłabym w takim klimacie żyć, bo za gorąco nawet Tobie. Mimo wszystko zrobiłeś wspaniałe zdjęcia, a szczególnie pierwsze. Pozdrawiam i przesyłam trochę naszego chłodu.
ReplyDeleteI do not think I could live in such a climate, even too hot for you. After all, you did great pictures, especially the first. I greet and send some of our cold.
Sounds like a deal!:) We'd love some of your cold weather....and we'll give you the extra heat to add on to your own temps....just for awhile:)
DeleteWonderful shots - particularly the first one.
ReplyDeleteAllergies and heat = not a good mix. I don't know how I would cope with that kind of heat. It totally drains you doesn't it? Hope it cools down a bit for you.
Oh it sure does! That heat is nasty business. I am working summer school right now and after my drive I crash and fall asleep. Very tiring! We had a little rain tonight which helped bring the temps down. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteHey, I hear you are getting some lightning and thunder down there today. Let's hope rain soon follows!
ReplyDeleteWe did WE DID!!!! It was awesome! Plus my car got washed....now it's several days of SUPER hot temps. We're expecting highs of 111....which means Phoenix??......Oh goodness....hate to think of the temps there! But then rain is back in the forecast next week....it couldn't happen soon enough!:)
DeleteYou still managed to take some great photos Chris - adore the first one of the hummingbird. Sorry to hear about the fire and your allergies - hope you are feeling better now. I must admit I would find your heat and humidity impossible - I like the sun but twenty degrees centigrade is enough for me!! Its still cool and rainy over here in the UK at the moment. I wish I could send you some cooler weather and rain in return for just a bit of sun :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words. The heat is hard for anyone. But our rain season is about to start up and we are all hopeful that we'll get a lot of it in July and August. Everything really perks up from the rain. June is one of those months where you just lock yourself up in the house and keep the curtains closed:) If only we could exchange weather with each other just for a week.....:)
DeleteI'm feeling your pain this week--literally. We've had temps near 110 since Sunday. I just came in from watering (trying to keep my plants alive). Looking forward to more of cooler Wisconsin!
ReplyDeleteDo you know I was working out in the garden last week and almost passed out? I forgot to drink water and ran for the hose and started drinking like a madman. I don't know how the plants manage to do it....but they are:) I also have peaches on all of the trees right now:) I can't wait to try them! 3 varieties! YOu stay cool and hope your plants are okay! I know the Morning Glory will love the heat.....they like it here....VERY MUCH:)
DeleteBeautiful pictures, but that is too hot for me too, glad I live in a more temperate region at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteNice picture of the hummer with wings open and that acorn woodpecker is cute as can be! Still waiting for it to rain by my house...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Pictures, I really enjoy the hummingbirds. Hot here too and no rain in sight.
ReplyDeletesame here as far as venturing outdoors in the summer, and it doesn't help being a sweater! i only have to be out in the heat for a few minutes...and i've lost too much water! ugh. i know, too much information! ha! you stay cool...and take care of yourself!
ReplyDeleteas always...your pictures are amazing! i find it REALLY hard to get good hummer shots...and the woodpecker on the feeder is awesome! OH, beautiful cheery daisy too!!