After four days in the Green Valley/Madera Canyon area we traveled about 25 miles north to Tucson. For the next several days we stayed at a golf course/resort. None of our group plays golf, but this facility is wonderfully landscaped in native plants and attracts a surprising amount of wildlife, including birds and javelina. On the first morning at the facility I went for an early walk and encountered this coyote, which pretty much ignored me.

This Black-tailed gnatcatcher was photographed in the parking lot not far from our room.

A male Pyrrhuloxia also in the parking lot area…

This Curve-billed thrasher was in one of the areas around a parking lot.

A female Ladder-backed woodpecker...

And a Cactus wren. On both our April stays at this resort I discovered Cactus wrens nesting around the parking lots. They were easy to photograph if you were willing to be in the sun during the day when the nest areas were well lit. I’ve never seen able to see a nest proper,… they’re always secreted in the heart of a cactus. I can’t imagine any predator getting to the nest… in fact, it’s a mystery to me how the bird itself manages to not get pierced. And somehow in that environment they manage to raise young who also manage to avoid the cactus spines! I’m guessing that the young wrens are much better behaved than some species of young birds! The first wren is bringing food to the nest and the second one has just exited the nest area

This will be the end of my Arizona photos and commentary from the trip last year. Next, I’ll be back to sightings and commentary from the home turf… Skagit County,, WA.