Returning to the desert southwest with part 2/2 of bird photographs from Tucson Audubon’s Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia, AZ. (Wooded location along seasonal/periodic Sonoita Creek = more riparian than ‘desert.’) Why not start with a medley of beautiful (if shady) Yellow-billed Cuckoo x male Broad-billed Hummingbird?

(Paton Center’s a fairly reliable location for Yellow-billed Cuckoo, FYI.)

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Great to have a relatively close encounter with Yellow-breasted Chat, here in a medley w/ misc. hummingbird:

Slightly better shot of Black-chinned Hummingbird (m); note the purple iridescence on the lower throat:

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Here’s a nice selection of Curve-Billed Thrasher x Broad-billed Hummingbird (f):

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Finally, befittingly, more hummingbird:

Nice sighting of a migrating female/immature Rufous Hummingbird:

From the ground to the “mostly air,” with more shots from June at Gull Point:

Finally, more nice shots of Red-winged Blackbird on Common Mullein:

Lots more bird content from June at Gull Point @ Presque Isle State Park, including nice shots of a foraging Spotted Sandpiper:

Following are Spotted Sandpiper except where otherwise noted:

Part 4 of bird content from an “average morning” at Gull Point. Pictures with ‘stakes + rope’ = the roped-off trail at outer Gull Point for accessing the observation platforms, e.g., here w/ Spotted Sandpiper:

An Osprey either carrying nesting material or w/ something caught around its feet/talons:

An Osprey in a similar situation was seen on other days, so perhaps something was caught in its talons such as landscape fabric or lake vegetation or ?

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Finally, a fun underside shot of a Bald Eagle (juvenile) harassed by an Eastern Kingbird:

American Goldfinches love thistle seed; this spot is along the south edge of Budny Beach, at its east end. Part III of late-June coverage of a typical summer morning along the Gull Point Trail.

Quite a disaster the last couple weeks at BirdingPI.com: folks infected with COVID, the Photo Editor in the hospital with a burst appendix, & (most impactfully) a broken coffee machine in the BirdingPI.com break room.

Anyway, back to irregular updates w/ Part II of a late June morning hike along the Gull Point Trail.

Seemingly no better place in the greater Tucson area for seeing amazing Violet-crowned Hummingbird than Tucson Audubon’s Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia, AZ. (Based on regular sightings + ease of access.)

Plus lots and lots of other hummingbirds and other birds. Following are Broad-billed Hummingbird (or mixed/unknown hummingbirds) unless otherwise noted:

Violet-crowned Hummingbird @ feeder:

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Bonus Gray Hawk flying over nearby/adjacent Nature Conservancy property:

A great fieldtrip/outing with the SE Arizona Birding Festival to the de Anza trail at Santa Gertrudis Lane. Beautiful woods and riparian habitat along the Santa Cruz River. This section of the Santa Cruz River is apparently fed with treated wastewater from Nogales, AZ, but also subject to an increased flow & flooding in the wet/monsoon season. (The previous two days, the trail south – which we took on this trip – was flooded out.)

Lots of Gray Hawk activity in this location generally, including this GHIF by the road:

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With overcast (even a little rain), early morning lighting, & thick woodland, very challenging photography conditions with a “not very fast” lens (f6.3) = a lot of the shots on this trip did not come out well enough for posting. That being said, so great to see beautiful Thick-billed Kingbird:

This bird was flycatching for feeding young = very cool to see.

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Perhaps the “bird of the entire Arizona trip,” an amazing female Green Kingfisher. This species has been on the “really would like to see it” list for ages.

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Also great to see Tropical Kingbird:

Cassin’s Kingbird and Bridled Titmouse also seen on this outing, but unfortunately no pictures.

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Finally, two shots of elusive Bewick’s Wren (supposedly pronounced “Buick’s Wren”):

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Directions to this spot: take I19 from Tucson to the Santa Gertrudis/Tumacácori exit, as if you’re going to the Tumacácori Mission historic sight. Take two lefts to the frontage road, then a couple hundred feet to Santa Gertrudis Lane. A large, metal archway marks the lane. Plenty of parking along the road; bird along the lane to either de Anza Trail north or south, both obviously marked. There are some vague “No Trespassing” signs by the entrance to Santa Gertrudis, but the lane is open for access to the National de Anza trail + birding.

Part II of misc. bird content from Christopher Columbus Park:

Still more Great-tailed Grackle:

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More Collared Dove (a.k.a. Eurasian Collared Dove):

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A nice, if difficult to photograph, series of female Broad-billed Hummingbird, flycatching in a cloud of gnats:

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It’s gray, it’s black, but thankfully (for the residents of the US desert southwest) lacks a “strange, mewing, cat-like” call. So not a Gray Catbird!, but a female (probably) Black-tailed Gnatcatcher:

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And on a lighter note (pun intended), it’s a bonus section of bad owl photography! It was 5AM at the BIRDS field station, just the barest hint of dawn in the east. Outside, the calls of two Great Horned Owls! (“Hoot, hoot.” “Hoot, hoot.”) What else to do but run outside with the “giant camera completely inappropriate for low light photography” for some long-exposure, hand-held shots? Nikon 600mm f6.3 lens @ 1/8-1/10 second, ISO 25,600, handheld w/o flash. Amazingly (after a lot of post-processing), might actually be able to tell these are owls! (Note the nice talon detail.) Also interesting to see these owls were perched on nearby power lines. (Somewhere there’s of a picture of both owls together, which will be posted once it’s found someday in all the memory cards from Arizona.)

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Coming up soon, more gloomy photography!