Marty September 4th, 2009
It seems that things can be too good to be true, and such was the case for our rental for the week. I mentioned yesterday that it was a bit small, and while that was not such a huge deal, some other … characteristics were a bit more off-putting. Continue Reading »
Marty September 2nd, 2009
After a long year and lots of hard work, Shari needed a vacation and I loved the idea of a week at the beach. She did the research, since it can be tough to find a dog-friendly place at the shore, and secured a small bungalow down in Cape May for a week. Continue Reading »
Marty June 8th, 2009
Our last day in the Cave Creek area we wanted to hit some of those places we had missed earlier and look for a couple of species that we really wanted to see: Juniper Titmice, Scaled and Montezuma Quail and Zone-tailed Hawks. We also wanted to make a trip up to the Chiricahua National Monument to see the amazing rock formations there. Continue Reading »
Marty May 27th, 2009
For our fourth day, we decided to reverse our previous days’ path, except we still wanted to start the morning at the South Fork. We had heard that many people were hearing the Elegant Trogon* right near the bridge, so we started there. Initially, things were a little slow as the sun was just starting to peek into the canyon, but they quickly picked up as all of the birds started to wake up, producing a magical post-dawn chorus. Numerous Empidonax flycatchers were joined by warblers and orioles in song, while other, quieter birds like the Painted Redstart and several hummingbirds flew about in frantic activity. Vireos and a few warblers (including a few Townsend’s and Wilson’s) were flitting about in the tall sycamores by the creek, while Acorn Woodpeckers competed with Canyon Wrens for top song of the morning. Soon, it was almost impossible to keep up with all of the movement and chittering on the trees. Continue Reading »
Marty May 19th, 2009
Now that we were finally at the first leg of our trip, it was time to start in earnest. Waking up at the Cave Creek Ranch was majestic – the magnificent peaks of the canyon walls reflecting the morning sunlight was beautiful, there were a multitude of birds hanging put at the feeders just outside the back door: curve-billed thrashers, canyon towhees, cardinals and several hummer species, along with cliff chipmunks and rock squirrels. Continue Reading »
Marty May 17th, 2009
Day 2 started better than the first day although we had our little side trip to get a new card reader. It required a a trip to Wal-Mart to pick one up, but since we had to get groceries anyway it wasn’t a huge deal, if a but inconvenient.
The drive on the interstate was typical of the type of road, but at least the roadside scenery was different from what we were used to. At one point about halfway there was a short length of amazing rock features along both sides of the road, a kind of sandbox odd the gods. As we got closer, and off the interstate, the scenery got more interesting. We crossed into New Mexico for a brief while (the road seemed to ignore state lines), before heading into the desert ecosystem, mostly unfettered by man save for the sparse barbwire fencing that was ubiquitous throughout Arizona. Continue Reading »
Marty May 14th, 2009
To say I was excited for this trip would be a great understatement. But there was a bit to do last night before we could leave: mow the lawn, clean the house for the pet sitter, and of course, pack. By the time 10 o’ clock rolled around, we were exhausted and still not done the ‘chores’. And the oppressive temperatures didn’t help, either. So, I woke up at 2:30 a.m. to get a jump on the remaining tasks before our 6am flight. Shari was already up and doing stuff, so we both pitched in so we could have plenty of time to park and get to the gate. It didn’t work – we were five minutes too late and missed our flight, but were lucky enough to get on another only 1.5 hours later, which messed up my plans a bit but was a minor set back in the grand scheme of things. Continue Reading »
Marty August 28th, 2008
Okay – so vacation wasn’t what I expected, but there were some really nice moments. Of course, Shari caught more of them on film (well, digital negative) than I did but here are some of the nicer moments we had with our family down there.
Charlie and Lucy at the beach
