Bear Canyon Critters
When I hiked 13 miles in Bear Canyon while we were in Tucson on October 21st, it was hot with temps in the 90's. Therefore, I did not see an abundance of critters out and about in the heat. However, I did see and photograph a hawk, butterfly, chipmunk, and a couple of lizards. I saw several yellow and black butterflies fluttering around, but they never landed where I could photograph them.
Sandhills and Pink
The Sandhill Cranes are back — flying up and down the Rio Grande at sunset every night on the way to their roosting spots.
Crows and cranes flying south over the Rio Grande.
Barney
When Barney the Barn Owl flew out of the aviary, all the crowd went "Aaahhh! How cute!" He is certainly adorable. He flew silently between perches entertaining his adoring crowd.
Barn Owls are graceful and silent in flight.
Barney took a bow at the end of the show.
Flying back to the aviary.
Bluebird of Happiness
This Western Blue Jay loved being in front of the camera. After another photographer and I were finished photographing him in a tree, we started walking down a path, and he flew right in front of us, onto a bench where he stood turning around and posing. When Laurie and I moved on, he flew to a fork in a tree next to where we were looking at other birds and continued looking for lens time.
The Bluebird of Happiness is found in different cultures from Chinese to Russian to Navajo. Most appropriate for a lens-hogging Western Blue Jay is the Navajo Bluebird song:
"Bluebird said to me, 'Get up, my grandchild. It is dawn, it said to me.Ӡ
You can listen to the Bluebird song sung in Navajo on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUhfbFfd1s
†Navajo Songs from Canyon De Chelly New World 80406-2
(Recorded at Chinle, and Canyon De Chelly, Arizona, September 1975)
http://www.newworldrecords.org/liner_notes/80406.pdf
Fish, Lizards, Spider, Snakes
Big silver
What's a desert museum to do if it doesn't have tropical fish on display? Not only does the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum have tropical fish, they also have a resident stingray that you can touch for an extra $3. We opted out of the stingray touch, but we did visit the tropical fish display. The museum also has a wonderful reptile and invertebrate display that has a lot of very healthy spiders, frogs, lizards, and snakes.
WARNING! There are photos of a spider and few of the rattlesnakes they had on display after the lizards. If you are afraid of spiders and snakes, stop at the lizards or before.
Crusty the crab
Seahorses always look sad and pensive to me.
These little eels came up out of the sand looking for food. They are really cute.
Eels having a conversation about some eel matter.
Lounging Chuckwalla
Gila Monster. A truly venomous lizard.
A giant tarantula that finished off some poor soul.
Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake
Tiger Rattlesnake with its toys.
A big, beautiful Arizona Black Rattlesnake.
Up close and personal with the Arizona Black Rattlesnake.
Harris Hawks
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has a raptor free flight exhibit, which we happened to be just in time for. The stars of the show we experienced were the Harris Hawks. Four Harris Hawks performed for the finale of the free flight show. Harris Hawks have made a regional adaptation to the harsh conditions in the Sonoran Desert by hunting in groups. The Sonoran Desert is the only place that Harris Hawks have been observed hunting and working together in groups. Their distribution in the US is limited to southern Arizona, southeastern New Mexico, and southwest Texas. Their larger distribution is throughout most of Mexico, the west coast of Central America, and the lower elevations of South America. Free flight shows are great for photographing these raptors because they are close enough to get a lot of detail and action shots.
Cougar, Coyotes and Boars...
One nice thing about the roads in the scenic area west of Tucson is they have pullouts every 1/4 mile or so where you can pull off the road to take pictures.
We took Susan's advice and visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on Sunday afternoon. It was well worth the effort and long drive home into the wee hours of the morning. As I drove up West Gates Pass Road on the way to the museum, I kept feeling like I was having "déjà vu all over again", but I couldn't conjure up a memory. On our way back over the pass, I finally remembered. I rode a bicycle race that went over West Gate Pass back in 1994.
I was racing with Kent and Carol Ann Bostick in those days, and we got to Tucson in the late afternoon on a Saturday, and the first event was an evening time trial up West Gates Pass Road up to the top of the pass, where the turnaround was, and then we sped back down the hill to the finish. I put a 56 tooth chainring on my bike, so after the turnaround, riding back down the downhill, that 56 tooth chainring on my bike (normally I used a 53 tooth chainring) increased my feet per crank revolution in top gear (56x12) to 123 feet per revolution from 116 feet per revolution with my normal 53x12 top gear, so I was able to fly down the hill. Needless to say I won the time trial for my category, and got a prize of $30 for my efforts.
The road race on Sunday was 80 miles around the mountain. The race started and ended at the bottom of West Gates Pass Road and made a big loop around the mountain. I finished second by the width of a tire in that race, and won an ugly Cow Jersey for my efforts. I asked the race director where the cash prizes were. He said the Jersey was worth $75. I told him "fine, here's the jersey give me $75!" In the end I took that stupid jersey home with me, but I was so disgusted after working so hard to get a second place by such a slim margin for a stupid cow jersey, that I gave up racing after that. So the "déjà vu all over again" was of my last big road race.
The first sign we saw in the museum parking lot.
One cool cat
One cool coyote
Another really fat coyote showing off, kicking up dust. Obviously the museum staff feeds the coyotes.
The temperature was 95º F. This javelina (wild boar) was lying, mostly hidden, in the shade of a rock overhang.
Another javelina was basking in the shade of creosote bushes and a saguaro cactus.
Bear Canyon Trail
Saguaro, prickly pear cactus, and landscape along the Bear Canyon Trail, Tucson, AZ
The destination in the distance
Pools of water at Seven Falls
"Abandoning That Which Once Defined" — Austin Martin, 2011
Plaque near the giant hobo knapsack sculpture.
There is an interesting sculpture of a giant knapsack on a stick, stereotypical of hobos' knapsacks, lying on the ground abandoned off to one side of the Science building. It does seem to make a point about "abandoning that which once defined".
"Abandoning That Which Once Defined" — Austin Martin 2011
A very nicely done memorial to the University of Arizona Alumni who were killed in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam is in a rotunda on the bottom floor of the Student Union Building.
Memorial of Alumni lost in World War I and World War II.
A fountain that is part of the war memorial in the Student Union Building, University of Arizona, Tucson.
Memorial of Alumni lost in Korea and Vietnam.
