Mostly sunny with temperatures reaching the upper 60s.
This morning Connor and I did a short birding route to a pond area near Kino’s Sports complex while Jonathan revisited the rock show there. I wanted to look through. I didn’t see very much of it in the 20 minutes we had after we came back from checking out the birds.
We picked up Rowan then met my parents plus my dad’s first cousin’s daughter and her spouse for lunch.
From there it was south to Madera Canyon. It’s not a canyon like I tend to think of (vertical rock walls with a river running through the bottom). It is a steep sided valley running up into the mountains. The road topped out at 5400 feet (10 feet higher than the tallest point on Baranof Island).
Connor, Jonathan, and I walked up on of the trails from the end of the road. We weren’t hearing much bird activity, so turned around before long.
We spent most of our time in the canyon at the Santa Rita lodge, where they have multiple bird feeders out. On our first stop there was more activity than the second (on our way down). Highlights included a Rivoli’s Hummingbird, Hepatic Tanager, Wild Turkeys, Yellow-eyed Juncos, and several more.
After returning to Tucson, we went to play mini-golf. That was one of my requests for my time here. We fit 18 holes, but didn’t have time to do the other 18 hole course (which looked more challenging than the one we had done – I only realized ther was the second one as we were finishing the first).
I’m leaving early tomorrow, so won’t be able to do any more while I’m here. I might have liked to spend a bit more time looking around the rock show. I wasn’t interested in everything, but there were plenty of things I would have liked to have a chance to look at. I also wouldn’t have minded doing a little more birding, and playing the other 18 holes of mini-golf.
While I prefer to stay home, when I actually go places, I typically find them interesting. I tend to set myself up with relatively short trips, and it’s not unusual (as in this case), to find myself thinking it would have been nice to have a little more time to see/do some things. I think it’s probably better to leave feeling that way, than to stay longer and feel more desparate to get home.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
