Day 8: Tucson to Chicago
Sunday 5 April 2015
78 °F
Today was the day my family, aunt, uncle, and I flew home from Arizona back to Chicago. It is a shame that such a fantastic trip has to end, but I suppose I have more exciting birding opportunities planned this year. One thing I am especially looking forward to is the resumption of Oak Park Bird Walks for this spring! The first one will be this Wednesday, and I will definitely make a post about it.
I woke up at around 6am to bird the area around the property we were renting in Tubac, AZ. I biked on the nearby dirt roads and quickly amassed a list of 23 bird species, which would increase later in the day.
Female VERMILLION FLYCATCHER:
RED-TAILED HAWK:
View from a ridge to which I biked:
View of the hacienda-house we rented from the ridge:
BLACK-THROATED SPARROW:
GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE:
Male RUFOUS-WINGED SPARROW:
CASSIN'S SPARROW:
BLACK VULTURE:
Male NORTHERN CARDINAL:
Male PYRRHULOXIA, also known as the "Desert Cardinal:"
CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN:
BLACK-THROATED SPARROW in front of a desert mountain:
Coyote which came as close as seven feet away from me!
We then drove to the airport, and our Southwest Airlines 737-800 lifted off of the Tucson runway at around 12:00 noon. It was a fine flight and there were some wonderful views to be had in the first part of the flight.
Madera Canyon, where I found the Elegant Trogons on Friday, is in that mountain range, the Santa Rita Mountains. Bye-bye Madera!
Some other views:
We thought this was the Colorado River:
Mountains with snow:
Natural design in a grassland that resembled a bird's claw from above (only a birder would think of that!):
We landed about a half an hour early and arrived at our house in Oak Park before 5:30pm. Upon arriving home, Pearl, my little sister, immediately donned her bunny costume from a few Halloweens ago and collected all of her Easter eggs from the Easter Bunny:
Bird-of-the-day to the GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE, the only one that has ever posed for an acceptable photo. Runner-up goes to the male PYRRHULOXIA, a beautiful bird that I will surely miss back in Oak Park, IL. These are both western species that cannot be found east of the Rocky Mountains.
Well, that concludes a wonderful trip! Bird lists and such for the trip can be found on the previous post. Stay tuned for a post on Wednesday that will describe the first Oak Park Bird Walk of 2015!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 751 Species (no life birds today)
30 avian species today:
Gambel's Quail
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Gila Woodpecker
Say's Phoebe
Vermillion Flycatcher
Cassin's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Bell's Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
American Robin
Curve-billed Thrasher
Lucy's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Green-tailed Towhee
Cassin's Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
House Sparrow
House Finch
