SUMMER'S HERE!

We are well on our way through July. Where has the month gone? The month began with the 4th of July. For all of you who have animals that are sensitive to the fireworks, Green Valley is a great place to be. People don't light fireworks for 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after. We're all tucked in by dark!!

On the 6th of July, Bob and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner.

We had a nice dinner and were home before dark!!

The next day Kent and Lesley came from Casa Grande to spend a few days with us. We had a great time and got to show them what the Monsoons in Green Valley are all about.

Kent and Bob sat on the patio reading as the storm began.

After the storm we had "geedunks" on the patio

The sunsets after a Monsoon storm are amazing!

It's been hot the last few days -- in the range of 104 to 108 -- and the Monsoons haven't been as active, but when they are things will cool down as much as 20 degrees. We love Monsoon season!

DAY TRIP!

Last Sunday, June 14, we took a day trip to St. David, Arizona. Bob had read on the birding site he watches that a White Tailed Kite had been seen in that area. We didn't see it, but when we got home he read (on the same bird site) that it had been seen in Madera Canyon -- right in our own backyard so to speak. We didn't see the Kite, but we had a great day. St. David is about 70 miles from Green Valley. It is a green little oasis tucked in the center of nothing! We visited the St. David Monastery.

At the monastery they have a 2 mile bird walk. It was a nice walk and we saw a Thick-billed Kingbird (I didn't get a picture-it was too far away) which was a new life list bird for both of us.

While looking around the grounds of the Monastery, we came upon this headstone. It's hard to see the first name, but it's Robert. This gave Bob heart palpitations, and we decided we best be leaving so we headed for Tombstone, Arizona.

When we arrived at Tombstone where we were just in time for a parade and people dressed in period costume walking up and down the streets.

And we met this scary guy!

After Tombstone, we headed to Sierra Vista. We had been to a Bed and Breakfast near Sierra Vista where you can just go into the backyard and watch the birds, and they have Hummingbird feeders set up all over. They get quite a few Hummingbirds there that aren't normally seen in our backyard. Bob loves to go and just sit in chairs they have placed all around and look at birds. He calls it "Executive Birding".

While we were there we saw a Roadrunner and he could see his reflection in the window and kept jumping feet first at the window. I got the following picture of him just as he decided he wasn't getting anywhere and was leaving.

We had a great day, saw lots of birds, and did something to write for the Blog!

ARIZONIANS FOR A YEAR!

Can you believe we have been residents here for a year today (June 11)! It seems like only yesterday we were hurrying to get everything packed and loaded to move down here. I guess the old adage, "time flies when your having fun," really is true. We had heard from a number of locals that if you can stand June you can stand the summer! Well we made it through last June. It was warm -- well maybe HOT -- so we decided to stay inside and paint the house. When we bought the house it was mostly vanilla. As you can see from the following pictures it is no longer.

When we finished painting, we decided to redo the patio -- well, we decided to hire someone to redo the patio. The pictures below are how it looked before.

And after:

We have made some great friends down here. And had a "bunch" of fun along the way.

And we have been able to see our "old" friends too!

We are looking forward to another monsoon, lots more birding, October when all our friends come back, when friends and family visit, and to a second great year in Arizona.

After

OUR WEEK IN REVIEW!

It's warming up in the desert, but we have still been able to do some birding. Last Sunday we went up to Madera Canyon. We hiked up the Carrie Nation Trail and saw some great birds. We saw two pairs of Elegant Trogons. One pair was at the nest, and we saw them trade off baby (or is that birdy) sitting duties. I did get a fairly good picture of the male Trogon. You can see the nest hole to the left of the Trogon. We also saw some Red-faced Warblers. These little warblers are what we call "flitterers". In other words they move around quickly and it's hard to take their picture. The picture below is looking down at Green Valley from up Carrie Nation Trail. On Memorial Day, we went with our friends Linda and Jim to Tubac to bird along the Anza Trail. We had a good day and saw 34 different birds.

This morning (Sunday, May 31) we walked out to see if we could see any Burrowing Owls. We did see one.

Can you see the Hummingbird in the nest in the picture below? You have to look very carefully as he/she blends in with the background so well.

Below is a picture of a little Hummingbird I took in our yard. He kind of looks mad!

On our walk this morning, I took this picture of a Gila Woodpecker peeking out of his nest hole in a Saguaro Cactus.

This family of Quail have come to our backyard a couple of times in the past few days. There were 11 babies. I couldn't get a picture of all of them together -- they move fast!

Lately we have also had a Roadrunner that makes a swing across our patio daily. I am sure he is looking for baby Quail. I try to shoo him away if there are any baby Quail in the vicinity.

All in all we had a great week seeing more than 70 different birds. Some of the highlights were: The Elegant Trogons; the Red-faced Warblers; Peregrine Falcon; Blue Grosbeak; Varied Bunting; Summer Tanager; Black-headed Grosbeak; Hepatic Tanager; White-eared Hummingbird; Cardinal (always a favorite); and the Roadrunner.