Febuary in Arizona

We've enjoyed another beautiful month in Arizona, great temperatures, sunrises and sets and visits with family.

At the Renaissance Festival

 

 

We saw the Chihuly Exhibit at the Desert  Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

 

We took in the Lost Dutchmen Parade in Apache Junction.

On one of the few cloudy days we had, we took in the Basha's Western Art Gallery in Chandler.

 

We took in a couple soccer games that Ken's grandkids played in.

 

We did a little birding, we found this hummingbird nest and found that the

Avocets are getting their breeding colors.

 

And I don't feel any older than I did last month.

 

 

January in AZ

January here in AZ has been warm and beautiful, while the rest of the country has been in the deep freeze.  We picked the right place to spend the winter this year.

Saguaro Lake

We did a little hiking and bird watching.

Brown Creeper found at Granite Reef

Fountain Hills


My brother and his wife came down from IA for a visit and we had a good time.

He took a plane ride.

 

We visited Tonto National Monument and took the Apache Trail Drive.

 

We took them on the tour of the Gilbert Temple.

 

The Temple was open for tours for 4 weeks then it will be dedicated in March when it will be  open only to good standing Mormons for weddings and other ceremonies.

 

 

Ken and I went to Gold Canyon to watch Yellow Bird do his award winning Hoop Dance.

 

There was a fire at the RV park behind us, we missed most of the excitement but did come home to smoke and blocked roads.

 

That was our January.

Jim at Roosevelt Dam



Birding in AZ

Well, 2013 is almost over and we had a pretty nice year looking for birds starting the year in Florida, then the states on our way home and then our travels to the NW and finally here in AJ, Arizona.  I know the year isn't quite over and we could find a few more birds to add to our year list but as of today we have 308 species for 2013.

Usery Mountain Park is one of our favorite places to visit, here we will find the desert birds

like a family of Harris Hawks, and these birds for a sample

Phainopeple

Gamble's Quail

Black throated Sparrow

Cactus Wren

Another favorite site is Gilbert Riparian Wetlands where we will find wading birds, song birds and hummingbirds.

 

Say's Phoebe

Costa Hummingbird

Ruby crown Kinglet

Ring neck Duck

Wilson Snipe

Black Phoebe

Vermillion Flycatcher found at Granite Reef Rec. Area

Canyon Wren found at Boyce Thompson Arboredum

Horned Grebe found at Veterans Oasis Park

Inca Doves in our RV park

Peach face Lovebird found in Gilbert Riparian

Common Merganser with fish found at Granite Reef Rec Area

Red napped Woodpecker found at Boyce Thompson

Pyrrhuloxia found at Boyce Thompson

Spotted Towhee found at Boyce Thompson

Curved bill Thrasher



 



American Widgeon

 
These a just a few of the birds we see in the area,  AZ is a great place to bird you'll never know what you may find.
Soon we will start a new year and a new bird list, here's to another great year of birding.

Happy New Year
To a happy and healthy 2014



Lake Havasu City

We will be  settling in for the winter tomorrow in Apache Junction after enjoying a few days in Lake Havasu State Park.  It was so nice not to be crowded in and to have some very quiet nights.  We woke up to quail and rabbits outside our RV.  Our first night we had this spectacular sunset.

Lake Havasu City is of course known for having The London Bridge, brought over and rebuilt in 1970 by Robert McCulloch, an oil tycoon.

The city has also placed around the lake and river channels 21 1/3 size replicas of western lighthouses.

 

We wanted to spend some time here to visit the wildlife refuges that are near by.

We walked the peninsula trail at the Bill Williams NWR a couple of times hoping to see the Blue footed Booby, we didn't but we did see the White wing Scoter.  We were disappointed in the auto tour route as it turned out to be a high clearance vehicle route.

We drove up to visit the Havasu NWR we could see some of it from the hwy but it's roads were for 4 wheel drive vehicles and the sloughs were dry. The river would be great to canoe though, we didn't see many birds just the usual coots, grebes and a few Am. Pelicans. 

We did see the Brown Booby at the lower unit of the Havasu NWR just outside of Lake Havasu City.

Lake Havasu was hosting a bicycle and jogging endurance marathon this weekend, we had bikes going though the state park and over the bridge and joggers and bikers all over the island.

 

We stopped by to see some of the classic cars on Saturday.

Today we took a drive to see the Parker Dam, that's in the background in this photo, and we finally saw the burros on the road we kept being warned about.  We stopped to take photos and they walked right up to our window, people aren't supposed to feed them but it seems they are quite the beggars.

We are looking forward in seeing our family in the next few days and spending the holidays with them.