Today on BirdingPI.com, it’s the final post of a lovely morning at El Rio Preserve in Marana, Arizona, back in August:
El Rio (5)
A Different Morning
Heading back to outside BIRDS HQ in Casas Adobes, AZ this past mid-August, early morning, featuring a gorgeous male Purple Shooting Star (a.k.a. Costa’s Hummingbird):
Also Curve-billed Thrasher:
[Editor’s note: after this photo shoot, the litter in question (the aluminum can), resulting from localized flooding in a nearby wash, was safely moved to recycling.]
El Rio (4)
Penultimate content from this particular morning at El Rio Preserve in Marana, AZ, featuring lovely Anna’s Hummingbirds:
The little black-blue patch just to the rear of the foreleg (see red arrow) is what gives this lizard its name (“Side-blotched”):
Fish Race
Taking a detour back to Gull Point at Presque Isle State Park back in late August, featuring fascinating foraging behavior w/ Common Merganser. No speed limit here!
The M.O. here involved cruising around the shallow lagoon with head below water, followed by intense bursts of speed while slightly partially submerged, to chase (and catch) small fish.
El Rio (3)
Back with more from El Rio Preserve in Marana, AZ, this past August!
Here’s a Vermilion Flycatcher partaking of a dragonfly exuvia; exuviae are the cast-off exoskeletons left behind after aquatic dragonfly nymphs complete their final molt into winged adults:
Coming up “soon,” “exciting” IBS content from southeast Florida, including butterflies, flowers, dragonflies, plants, alligators, raccoons, crocodiles, turtles, spiders, squirrels, native and invasive lizards, and pretty landscape shots of “sunrise @ the beach!” Maybe a bird or two.
Bonus Chat
More Yellow-breasted Chat! Yay!
El Rio (2)
Late post today, back to the amazing El Rio Preserve in Marana, Arizona, early AM back in August, featuring lovely hummingbirds like this beautiful male Broad-billed Hummingbird:
Time We Had a Chat
Pretty sure this post title has been used before, but what’s more important is this great sighting of an unusually cooperative Yellow-breasted Chat along the de Anza Trail @ Santa Gertrudis Lane, adjacent the Santa Cruz River down from Tubac, Arizona:
As may happen during the August monsoons in southern Arizona, the river was flooded out; this is as close as we could get to the road/river crossing at Santa Gertrudis Lane:
Another Strange Lake
Before more content from along the de Anza Trail @ Santa Cruz River south of Tucson, Arizona, it’s part 1 of a great visit to El Rio Preserve in Marana, just northwest of Tucson straddling Interstate 10. Like some other birding ‘hotspots’ in the area, El Rio Preserve features a shallow, artificial lake fed with treated wastewater:
At the time these shots were taken (mid August), the big news was a surprise sighting of a rare Purple Gallinule. The number of Purple Gallinules spotted by BirdingPI.com staff? Zero. But, there were plenty of other lovely birds to enjoy:
On the Trail of de Anza
Part 1 of pictures from a birding festival field trip to well-known ‘hotspot’ Santa Gertrudis Lane + de Anza Trail, along the Santa Cruz River, south of Tucson, Arizona:
