My trip to Arizona Jan. 2011

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Shall we dance?

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The rocks out here had a lot of this beautiful chartreuse lichen all over them.

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A group of horseback riders.

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The group once more.

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The last shot for tonight.

Karen

love those saguaros!

I love Arizona, too! I have a cactus that I bought at the Botanical gardens outside Phoenix that I left with my Dad in California when I moved here. Years later I found it abandoned in his yard and packed it up in an empty suitcase and brought it here. In the winter it lives in the house and tortures me with its spines. (I always forget to wear protection when I move it.)

Great tour, thanks !!!

Great photography, and you made a lot of people happy by taking the time to post those photos.

(Loved the photo of 2-3 weeks ago of your dad and Patches both yawning (?) simultaneously, lol.)

Did you see many birds out there, Karen? I would love to find the different hummers they have in AZ.

Thanks, guys!

Marilyn, I saw quite a few birds out there. Mostly the ones I saw were mockingbirds, cactus wren, Gambel's quail, gila woodpecker, canyon towhee (possibly), curved-billed thrasher. Saw a few hummers, but don't know which variety. Maybe Ana's Hummingbird.

Memory, cacti sure are tough.

Don't remember which photo that was, BA. Was it a shot from Christmas Day?

Karen

Wonderful pictures Karen,although I don't travel much, I enjoyed the traveling I did through your pics.

Thank you, burn.

Karen

Those sound like great birds, Karen....the only one I saw in your list out west was the cactus wren....however, I did see a lot of life listers out there....would love to go back.

I got some good shots of the cactus wren, curved billed thrasher and Gambel's quail. I will post them now. I got the shots at the Desert Botanical Garden, where I was able to approach them quite closely. I'm going to do a separate thread for most of my pics from there, as there were so many. Just over 500, though I will not post all, only the best ones.

Here is the cactus wren.

Karen

The curved billed thrasher. He has distinctive yellow eyes.

I'm actually not sure if this is the Gambel's quail or the California quail.

When I listened to the calls of the California quail and the Gambel's Quail, these sounded like the Cali ones. I read that the 2 species ranges do not overlap, and that Gambel's are found in southern AZ and NM. Phoenix is in central AZ, so maybe all the quail there are the Cali ones.

Karen

One more quail pic. I believe this was a youngster.

Well, now I read this about the Gambel's quail:

Gambel's Quail: Resident in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Mexico, extending into southern New Mexico, up and down the Rio Grande, up the Colorado River drainage into Utah’s canyon country, and west to California and southern Nevada. Preferred habitats include brushy and thorny vegetation of southwestern deserts.

Anyhow, they both look awfully similar to me. The calls of these quails sounded like Cali quails to me.

Karen

nutsfordaylily-

It was Buffy, not Patches, in the NE Pets Forum, seventh photo from top, Christmas time.

Frame-worthy!

Karen, great bird photos! Thank you so much!

Cool birds, I always love the quails little headdress.

Thanks for the compliments on the bird pics.

BA, now I know which pic you're talking about. Thanks.

Karen