Sulphur Bellied Flycatcher

Dear blogger friends,  today is the last of the Ramsey canyon adventure.  But I'm sure we'll be visiting again soon considering this is a hummingbird magnet....and is VERY VERY cool compared to the Madera Canyon craziness.   But I think this post sums up why I bird.  Today I discovered a new bird to add to my list.  It's a lifer and I hope I've captured the magic of this event.  This is what Las Aventuras is all about.  Today I present to you all the Sulphur Bellied Flycatcher!

A rare bird to find in the US but one of the signature birds of Ramsey Canyon.  It's one of the very few places you can spot this fascinating bird.  AND it's as unique as the Elegant Trogon.  So today we have found ourselves with a jewel of a post.  I would click on the pics to make them bigger. The ears picked up on something and then my eyes caught yellow splashes up in the large Sycamore trees. I had noticed some weird flight pattern going on.   We stopped to watch and as we did I was shocked by what these adults were doing from their nest. 

Every two minutes, the parents would enter this nest high up.  As they did, they would feed their kiddos and then "shoot" like a cannonball out of the hole.  Drop down.   And fly off.  The photography was tricky so I observed their flight patterns several times to track and guess how and when they'd shoot out of the nest.

The most distinguishing characteristics of this flycatcher are the heavy streaking of its plumage, and its pale yellow belly. The bird also shows a rusty brown tail, and a black eyestripe. Its call sounds like noises made by children's or pet's 'squeaky-toys'.  And this is the important part of identifying the bird on a trail.....listening for a squeaky toy.  That's what caught my attention in the first place and helped me close in on the activity.

In and out they went.....

....in a very graceful pattern......

.....and then they'd "shoot" out of their "canon" and drop down.....

.....and fly to a tree while the other parent went to check them out.  A minute would pass and the younglings would call out and the parents would return....repeating the routine.

Our Wisconsin adventures begin tomorrow:)

My Private Little Walk

Welcome to the most perfect day to hike.  It's the reason why we all live here.  Last month, the State Park System of Arizona had a no charge entrance day.....and I went!  Today's hike is in Sabino Canyon.

As you can imagine, there were A LOT of people walking around the park.  And if you're doing photography, you don't want people around you.  So I took the path least followed, and you'll be surprised at what I saw!

I finally got a great stock photo of the Desert Mistletoe.  But a curious thing happened.  During my studies on Desert Mistletoe, I remember a bird in the same pic next to this parasitic plant.  In fact this bird is very territorial and will protect a patch of Desert Mistletoe from others of its' kind.  This bird is called the Phainopepla.

Phainopepla

It will stand on a perch overlooking areas.  The more I moved up the dirt trail, the more I noticed the peculiar habit of this bird.  And the more I walked; the more I noticed a different bird for each "sector" of desert land. The darker colors indicate the male while the greyer tones indicate female.  And what's interesting is that both of these living organisms need each other to survive.  The bird eats the berries and the berries move through the bird's digestive tract eventually being deposited onto other trees.  In December, I wrote about the Cecropia tree and how it also has a symbiotic relationship in nature with the sloth and ants that live in the tree.

So I kept moving......and I noticed a slight movement.  I almost missed it.....

.....and discovered that someone was looking at me.  She was beautiful.  Mule deer live in our Tucson desert.  That may be shocking for some:)

But what was shocking for me was that after the doe moved out of the way, a buck stood up in the same area.  Talk about exciting!

I slowly moved around the deer and enjoyed these creatures surrounded by cactus and other plants native to the Sonoran desert.  Had I been on the road, I would have never seen any of this.  Had I been talking, I wouldn't have seen any of this.  Lesson.  You can go your own way:)  It's better.

It was around 74 degrees that day and a much needed break from the cold temps of Wisconsin.  I love National Park Day.  This film shoot was actually done on January 7th of this year.

How do cactus grow like this?  This Saguaro barely has any root surface!

This is also where I snapped my Desert Cardinal Shots.  I didn't put this one in yesterday so I'll put it in today.

Have you ever prayed to the Gods of the Weirwood? (Game of Thrones reference) Well really, it's an Arizona Sycamore:)

I love free State Park Day. Until next time.....

Madera Canyon

A random road trip 45 minutes south of Tucson led us to the magical park of Madera Canyon.  Christmas music playing in the background during a cloudy and cold day made this Sunday feel like the holiday season. Here are some pics to show off our "fall color" during the holiday season:)

I love this park for the branch structure.  It's a truly unique place to find some really different kinds of trees.

Several bed and breakfast are located along the road.

For more information, click:  http://www.friendsofmaderacanyon.org/

Happy Holiday!!!