January 2021

 

Where does the time go??  2021 is here and we are in Green Valley AZ.  About 30 miles south of Tucson.  Our home for the next 3 months is very nice, with a very nice back yard.  We put out bird food and have been visited by at least 12 different species of birds.  

We did not travel far today for our hikes and birding.  One place we stopped at was loaded with Birders!  Its been a long time since we seen so many people with binoculars.  We met a couple that had volunteered at Santa Ana in Texas!  Hope to run into them again. 

View from our home...

Prime rib, asparagus and baked potato for dinner.  Its fun to cook again!

Saturday Jan 2 we headed south to Tubac for a bit of walking etc.. Again it started out pretty cold 32 deg but warmed up to 64 by mid afternoon.  Our back yard/patio faces the south so it is bathed in sunshine in the late afternoon.  Great for resting, napping and watching our bird feeders.

Sunday we headed back to Tubac to find a very elusive bird, RedBreasted Becard.  No luck...  Great walk and great day to be outside.

Great Horned Owl

Tonight was my first Zoom call with my high school friends!  How fun that was..

Corky, Me, Bonnie, Anne and Isobel, Betty and Roxy!  Debbie just had a new knee and was not feeling well.

It took us quite awhile to get everyone on and audible but we did it..  Fun to see the "girls" again.

Jan 3:  Back to Tubac to look for the Bird...  again no luck but a great walk

Morning visitors running in the neighborhood

Jan 4; We headed up to Sweetwater wetlands not knowing that they don't open until 9:00 on Mondays.  By 9:30 they still were not officially open so we just walked in..  Great place to walk around, its is Tucson about 30 miles from our home. 

Bobcat came pretty close to us..  another one was up in the tree.  not sure what was happening as they usually run away at the first sight of people.  We kept our distance with two ladies who were also birding.

I got a wonderful package in the mail today!  I had broken my cup right before we left home, so glad to be able to have coffee with my two sister/friends.  Bonus gift in the package was this beautiful scarf!

Jan 5 back up to the mountains...  We first went looking for the Eurasian Widgeon but No Luck.  Another nemesis bird..  we have a few and this one is again bird we have been looking for, for a few years.  someday.   But we did find the Elegant Trogon that we tried to get on Dec 31 but missed!

  

We did see a coyote but no pictures, he was very healthy looking...

Jan 7:

Fire in the Sky in the Morning

Afternoon sky

Evening sky

We lucked out and got our 625 USA Life Bird!  We were not even trying...  We had seen this bird in Mexico so our World number did not change. 

The Greater Pewee

Jan 8  Back up to Tucson for some birding.

Military was doing flybys 

Florentine steak Pinwheels for dinner, one of the best things about being close to grocery stores is buying fresh food!!

Eric did a great job cooking them on the grill

Another great thing about being in an urban area, is we can receive packages in one to two days and we can see where the Amazon delivery person is at!!  He is at our door!!!  He is the blue circle we are the red/white circle!!

Jan 9:  Finally, Finally we got the elusive Eurasian Wigeon!  We have been looking and looking for this bird.  He has been in Wisconsin but we have never been able to find one!  #626 in the USA!!!  

We had a bit of wind today, but all in all a great day.

Monday Jan 11 we headed south to Patagonia State Park. 

 It was cold and windy but we managed to get 0ver 50 birds on our walk.  They have made some changes to the campground since we were there 6 years ago.  This is the park where the bird walking trail goes through the cows!  Lots and Lots of cows.. they roam free but are fenced from going into the park and campground.   

Crazy bridge in the park

We made a stop at Paton's yard but it was closed due to Covid.  We were able to look from the road and found a beautiful Violet crowned hummingbird.  

Great day although a bit cool.

Tues we went looking for the Rose Throated Becard again.. it was very cool (cold) this AM.  But we found it!  

Not very good pictures but we finally found the Green Tailed Towhee today too!  

Went to Tubac for lunch, not too much was open on a Tuesday.  We went to Elvira's for a delicious although a bit pricy lunch.

Fri Jan 15 we headed to Catalina State Park, about 45 miles north of us.  We ended up walking 3 different trails.  Our first trail (the birding trail) was pretty quiet, both birds and people.  The other two trails had a lot more people.   We had stayed at this park in 2015, great hiking trails.

Saturday we headed about 30 miles south (almost to Mexico) before turning west to Pena Blanca Lake. The weather was forecasted to be 77 today, starting out at 44.  Until we go to the lake, needless to say we went up in elevation, when we got to the parking lot the temp was a chilly 32!  

The children's trail turned out to be a bit of a challenge but we conquered it!

the lake is so beautiful

A plaque on the side of a rock on an Island!

While walking the path we smelled a Skunk!  It was not a javalina, we know their smell, it was most definitely a skunk.  We stopped and waited a few minutes until the smell evaporated.  Never seen the animal.

Grilled shrimp to celebrate the Green Bay Packers win! And our 627 life USA bird  

The Black Chinned Sparrow!

Sunday on our way back from Sweetwater we stopped at our favorite grocery store

We went in Las Vegas, Cathedral City and Tucson!  The shrimp cerviche in Tucson was not spicy like in Vegas and Cat City.   The marinated chicken we purchased and grilled today was outstanding!  Not sure why it took so long for us to visit our fav store.  Also bought a delicious Tres Leche cake, thinking it was mocha flavored...

Monday MLK day: Back to Patagonia SP.  Today's animals were Cows!  Yes they let the cows roam free around here.   On our way down the path the cows kind of charged us!  Well actually they were running down the path.  We managed to stay ahead of them and kept on walking.  Our our way back down the path we were surrounded by cows!  they had us trapped on a small little piece of land behind a bush.  

They hung around for about 10 minutes looking and snorting at us!  Finally they got bored with us and began eating.  Time to escape.  We walked quickly but not too fast...  Wow what an experience!  We have seen cows before but never have they walked towards us!

On our walk on Wednesday we were lucky that we did not see a mountain Lion

We did see this beauty..  a Great Horned Owl

Rain!  we actually could feel it coming, the humidity went up to 40%, then we could smell it then we could see and feel it!  wow, it was a nice afternoon in the backyard.

Don't see this too often in the desert

We were forecasted to have rain all day, well these weather people are just as bad as the ones we have at home.  The morning was beautiful.  We ended up walking the "hood" and found a few desert paths!  We did get rain in the afternoon. But it was to be an all day soaker.  Needless to say our inside chores did not all get done..  If the sun is out we are out... 

More exploring at Pena Blanca Lake area on Friday.  The cows were out and about but we luckily did not run into any on the path.  Only a lot of cow pies!  

We sure find a lot of signs you don't see in Wis!

Jan 24: Rain, wind and snow??  We got a bit of wintery weather this week. Snow up on the mountains, rain in the valley.  Although I am not a fan of cold weather a few days is not too bad.  I much prefer 80-85 deg and sunny but so far our time here in Green Valley has been quite acceptable. Cool mornings and warm afternoons make for good hiking and good sitting in the back yard. 

We did our best to rally the Green Bay Packers on to a win but...  We will have to wait until next year!

We were suppose to get a few inches of snow here in Green Valley but only rain.  Snow up in the mountains.  

We did see snow on our walk

Oops spoke too soon..  we did get a snow storm after we got back from our morning walk.  

A good day for a nap and a movie

The snow did not last long, under 12 hours and it was gone. 

Wooden Golfer!

I could make a book on signs we find here

Our weather here is like a roller coaster!  One day its hot the next really cold!  Oh well, we really are enjoying our time here in Green Valley and Southwest AZ.                                                                  

We signed up to volunteer to get the J&J vaccine here in Tucson. They are looking for volunteers to get two shots. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get chosen.  Our Alaska trip in June is in jeopardy if we can't get vaccinated. 

Jan 31: This javalina and his brother got caught between us and another birder coming down the trail.  They eventually moved off the trail.

Oh, we had a visitor while eating dinner!  A bobcat!  He walked through the patio then sat on the wall for a few minutes.  must have been looking for his dinner!

Ray is scheduled to have his new hip surgery on Feb 5.  We plan on leaving here on Feb 3 for Palm Springs.