Good-bye Mesa, hello Green Valley

Whine, Whine, Whine.....  Parents hate hearing, "Are we there yet"?  Dana got just a bit tired of hearing, "It is raining back home", and "I know we are going to freeze when we get home".  So, in a bid to head off the inevitable, rain and cold back home, we departed Mesa on the 18th and headed south to Green Valley, Az for four days of sunshine and birding.

Let me back up a smidgen.  As planned our final days in our 400 square foot home in the RV Resort was spent packing, cleaning and saying good-bye to many dear friends and neighbours.  Unless you have had the snowbird experience it is hard to describe the connections one makes with other snowbirds.  On the 16th we attended our last neighbourhood block party.  St. Patrick's Day was the theme.  Many were in a celebratory mood.  Dana and I were celebrating too, kind of.  We were happy to be there among friends but we were also a bit melancholy knowing that we were soon to be departing and not knowing for sure if we would return to 14th street next January.  Sunday, the 17th brought more packing and cleaning, and visiting.  We had a lovely dinner at my brother's place and got a chance to do a bit of reminiscing and speculating on the year ahead.  Mid-morning of the 18th we were all ready to go.  Final good-byes were said to Lila and Leroy, Scotty and Rosie, Mike & Darlene, Kelly & Donna and Kevin, Sherry, Mike and Emily who are on spring break and showed up the night before, and others who happened to wonder by our unit.  Then, it was time to head out of the park for the last time in 2013.

 So, here we are in Green Valley.  Green Valley is located about 45 miles south of Tucson.   Other than the fabulous birding opportunities there is very little, no I'm being kind, there is nothing in Green Valley to write about.  So, I won't.

Birding in southeast Arizona is terrific.  There are many hidden valleys, Riparian Preserves and Nature Conservency protected areas to explore.  Then there are just the open desert areas that attract hawks and other raptors.  Today, the 19th, we explored Madera Canyon.  The number of species of birds present was not overwhelming but in the few hours that were there we added 11 new species to our bird count for the year.  Barry had been stuck at 95 species on his year to date list.  Today he blasted through the 100 mark and ended the day at 106 for the year.  Today the new species included:

Northern Beardless Tyrannulet
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
White Breasted Nuthatch
Hermit Thrush
Bridled Titmouse
Acorn Woodpecker
Painted Redstart
Mexican Jay
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Wild Turkey
Gray Headed Dark Eyed Junco

I have included photos of the some of the birds we saw today.  I did not take the photos.

Tomorrow we will be off again in search of birds to add to our lists.  In particular we will be on the lookout for the Common Black hawk (not an attack helicopter) and the Elegant Trogon.  Wish us luck.

White Breasted Nuthatch

Painted Redstart

Acorn Woodpecker

Bridled Titmouse