September 3, 2020 Cave Creek Canyon

We spent the day in the Portal/Cave Creek Canyon area, one of my favorite areas in all of Arizona. The highlight of the morning was spending time watching and photographing a male elegant trogon feeding one of his youngsters, a recent fledgling. The dad was molting but I still find them such charismatic and beautiful birds.

Later in the day we went up past the Southwestern Research Station (still closed due to Covid) and checked out the returning berylline hummingbird (we saw it last year too). We met a guy who had a hummingbird flash set-up and in addition to the berylline, there were violet crowned, blue-throated mountain gems and rufous hummingbirds.

The absolute best find of the day came in the evening when we spotted a Sonoran Coralsnake in the road. Not often found, and definitely the first one I've seen. Once again, I failed to get a good photo--partially because we were in a hurry--trying to photograph it, get it off the road (carefully, as they are venomous) and get out of the way of oncoming traffic. I'm so glad we saw this one as overall we did not see that many reptiles on this trip. The lack of monsoonal rains seems to have either made reptiles scarce or kept them hidden from sight.

Last but not least was our encounter with two hooded skunks that were searching the Portal town grounds for food scraps. I managed to get a photo of one of them. Interestingly enough, this area of Arizona has four species of skunks. I now have photos of two of the four species.

הועלה ב-ספטמבר 13, 2020 04:53 לפנה"צ על ידי