Monday, June 17, 2013

June Birding

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.

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! 

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.

Summer Tanager male
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."