Birder Heaven

It's hard to believe it's almost a week since our last post, but we've been in birder heaven and having a great time . In Tucson we went to the Sweetwater Wetlands and Tohono Chul Park--highlights were Gambel's Quail, Harris's Hawk, black phoebe, and lesser goldfinch. We also went to the Center for Creative Photography on the Univ. of Arizona campus and to a cultural festival that was very similar to GR's festival but only 1/10 as big, surprising for a city that's much larger than GR. But we enjoyed a variety of ethnic food and some Ukrainian and Mexican and Scottish music.

Monday we moved to Sierra Vista, where we've been for 4 nights. We've been birding every day, Tuesday all day with a guide. So far on this trip Len has about 40 lifers and Carrie has about 25. (For you non-birders, a lifer is a bird you've seen for the first time.) On the all-day trip, the highlights were a gray hawk, white-tailed kite, and vermilion flycatcher. Also a great horned owl that flew right past us in the woods and then perched right over our heads. Yesterday and today we saw a variety of hummingbirds, although we're past prime time for hummers; many of the species have migrated already.

Tomorrow we head toward Gallup to drop off some luggage and then on to Santa Fe and Taos for the weekend.