May 21, 2015, Thursday
Every morning at Cave Creek Ranch we met Bob to go birding at 6:00 am. This morning we took a short drive to Portal to bird the parking area at the store, the yards and the feeders.
After breakfast we drove about three miles to the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon. We walked about a mile and a half of rocky, flood-damaged road to South Fork Camp. Here we had some close looks at Arizona Woodpeckers and begging Mexican Jays, and then walked a short portion of the trail until we located an Elegant Trogon. There were numerous Painted Redstart spreading their tails and showing off flashes of white, Canyon Wrens with their musical descending call, and a few warblers, Grace's Warbler and Black-throated Gray Warbler.
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| Elegant Trogon digiscoped through Bob's telescope. |
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| The flood pushed a lot of rocks around. |
We walked back to the van and drove to the American Museum of Natural History Southwest Research Station to eat our lunch and take a look at their hummingbird feeders where several Black-chinned Hummingbirds, Blue-throated Hummingbirds, and Magnificent Hummingbirds zipped from one feeder to the next and to their perches in the trees.
Late in the afternoon we went to Dave Jasper's feeders to relax and get close up views of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Verdin, Orioles, and other birds, as well as a few mammals.
We ended the birding day with an evening excursion to look for and find a Whiskered Screech-Owl and Mexican Whip-poor-will.
