Bird Watcher Heaven

Most of you will want to just skip right on past this post and get to our near-death experience in the windstorm but I have to go on record as saying that we are truly amazing from a birding point of view.  We camped (and yes, it was too camping, Scott.  We had no sewer hook-ups.)  We trekked and trekked in one of the best birding locations in all of North America - Southeast Arizona - we camped at Patagonia State Park and hiked at least twice a day into the Patagonia-Sonoita Riparian areas in search of the incredible variety of species found in this location.  It did not disappoint.

This is a Lazuli Bunting and he is one of over 65 species of bird we saw in this area.  Of these, 32 were personal firsts for all of us!  Now for those of you non-birdwatchers that probably doesn't mean a lot but it had us jumping up and down.  But the real, jump up and crow sighting that had all the other campers and naturalists spinning was this young man pictured below:

He is an Elegant Trogon and there is 1, count 'em 1 in this area.  We had to climb and crawl and wade and do some bandaging afterwards but we found him!! We were told at the Visitor's Center afterward that we might want to keep it quiet that we were first time visitors to the area because there were people who wouldn't look too kindly on that kind of  "luck."  I say, luck, schmuck, we're just that persistent.

The next pictures are actually in an area called Cathedral Rock Vista.  A steep trail takes you up to the treetops and you are greeted with such beautiful rock formations that it takes your breath away. It just isn't possible to capture the gorgeous play of light in the following pictures: