Arizona 7

This was a pretty long trip, but we were approaching the end on our seventh day. After a brief breakfast, we went for a morning hike to the top of Barfoot Peak. This was prime territory for the Short-tailed Hawk family that's been hanging out in the Chiricahuas, though we knew it would be early to expect them to be up and about. Still, I hoped that we'd be early enough to avoid the daily lightning while we were on an exposed perch.

It was a lovely, easy hike to the top. It was only about a mile and a half, and we didn't see a whole lot of birds on the way up. There were some pretty flowers, though, and we came across a mixed flock of birds that hosted our first Olive Warblers for the trip, among other mountain gems. At the top there weren't any birds soaring, but there were enormous congregations of lady bugs, a neat look-out tower, and views up and down the mountain range. There was also rain. Not much, but there was enough build-up to make me uneasy. As a result, we didn't stay very long, and headed back down the mountain sooner than we had originally hoped.

That was okay, though, because it gave us an opportunity to wander off in the other direction on the trail past our campground. In less than a mile, we came to the beginning of a catastrophic burn area from 15 or so years ago. It was beautifully flourishing with dense undergrowth and wildflowers, with Cordilleran Flycatchers, Yellow-eyed Juncos and House Wrens doing their thing among the scraggly snags. There was also a small group of deer that wandered off in disdain at our appearance.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and gave us energy to head back down to our camp and pack up camp to move down the mountain. This process was given energy by the densely building clouds and the occasional drop of rain, and so it was with a sigh of relief that we packed the last of our gear in the car before the rain fell.

It fell with a fury on our drive down the mountain. We had just gotten out of the car to look at an interesting, but distant, Buteo that was perched off to the side of the road (a Short-tailed or Red-tailed Hawk?), when a few drops became sheets of falling water, and we scrambled desperately into the car. We crept our way down the mountain slowly through the torrent of rain, while rivulets of brown water hurried by us and over the precipitous drops delineating the path.

Of course, being the monsoon, it eased as quickly as it had begun, and we arrived in Cave Creek Canyon to blue skies and dry weather. We took another trip over to South Fork, this time enjoying long, if somewhat unsatisfying, looks at a beautiful male Elegant Trogon.

There were a couple of other noteworthy events for the day. One was that we went down to Portal as it got dark and got to see Elf Owls. Elf Owls are the smallest owls in North America, about the size of a sparrow, and incredibly cute. Thanks to the help of a resident birder, we got great looks at an adult that was hanging around a nest near the post office.

The other cool occasion was that a friendly photographer/biologist had set up a blanket and a light in a neighboring campsite to attract interesting insects to photograph. He pulled in many interesting beetles, moths, and arachnids, but the definite star of the show were the jewel-like Gloriosa beetles that he captured for photography. He lets them go after taking their picture, but it was a delight to see these green gems with brilliantly shining golden accents. They really sparkled in the spotlight. You can see some pictures here: BugGuide.net.

Pictures for the day: Arizona 7 on Flickr.