Santa Rita Lodge ~ Birds

Gila Woodpecker

Scott's Oriole & Acorn Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Add caption

Hepatic Tanager

Ladderback Woodpecker

Pyrrhuloxia

Pyrrhuloxia

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Oro Valley Area, AZ ~ WOW Arizona

My stay for the past few days has been at the WOW Arizona Bed and Breakfast booked through AirBnB.  CJ and Mary Ellen have lived on this property for more than 30 years.  When they bought it, the property was all rocks and desert but slowly over time they transformed it into the wonderful nature preserve that it is today.  They have done an incredible job and CJ maintains it on a daily basis.  His days are busy changing out feeders, watering different areas, racking the paths, weeding and a myriad of other jobs that a property of this size entails.  It's a labor of love for them and it shows. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area.  He has numerous hummingbird feeders, seed and suet feeders and some of the birds come to him for food.  I saw 28 species of birds here, lots of butterflies, javelina and more.  I had my best looks of a Zone-tailed Hawk here.  There were some birds here that I heard that would have been life birds for me but I only count them if I actually see them.  Another plus for me was that it was close to Tohono Chul and several quilt shops that I wanted to visit.

The view from the upper patio outside my window.

More of the view outside. 

Black-chinned Hummingbirds came multiple times per day.

This Costa's Hummingbird was also a frequent visitor

The Verdin were everywhere and this one was building a nest.

Verdin make several nests and use a main one for raising their young but others for roosting overnight.

Pyrrhuloxia

Five Javelina came up near the house to eat.

Large Desert Spiny Lizard was a cool creature I saw there.

Cabo ~ Birding in the morning

Kathy and Diane are up early each morning to take a 4-5 mile walk into the hills around Cabo.  They leave at 6:30 AM and return about 8 AM before the heat of the day.  I decided rather than walk with them I wanted go birding and see what birds I could find.  The bad part about walking this early was that the sun was unfavorable to taking many pictures as it was in front of me rather than behind me.







It was exciting to see lots of Cactus Wrens including this one on a tulip tree just inside the gates of Village Paloma.  I saw about 16 species of birds including some new life birds ~ Scott's Oriole and Pryyhuloxia.

Scott's Oriole

Pyrrhuloxia