As you know, June is generally a slow birding month. To make matters worse, it has been a scorcher so far this month here in Tucson. In fact, it's officially been the warmest first half of June EVER! It was 106 yesterday. Yuck, I can't wait for the monsoons.
The other morning I was up early and decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to see what birds were around. I found this cutie enjoying the burgundy desert willow.
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| Anna's Hummingbird |
For Father's Day I took Gaby and the girls to one of my favorite birding spots, Empire Gulch at Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. The giant cottonwoods in the riparian area are beautiful!
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| same spot my dad took me |
It's not the best place for photographing birds because the trees block out a lot of the sunlight. But one pair was cooperative and everyone had good looks.
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| Summer Tanager male |
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| Summer Tanager female |
Other cool birds we saw were Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Gray Hawk. I also heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, but never got eyes on it. That said, today wasn't really about the birds but spending time with la familia. It was a fantastic way to begin Father's Day. Gaby didn't even complain too much about the washboard dirt roads even though she's 8 months pregnant. And the girls were happy that our little nature exploration counted towards "outdoors time"
and "no electronics time."
