On the weekend of Oct. 21-23, 2011, Sam Dorr and I went down to Phoenix for the Arizona Field Ornithologists (AZFO) state meeting, where she was presenting her talk on her Gray Hawk research. We drove down Friday afternoon and made it in time to go birding with others at the Hassayampa River Preserve near Wickenburg. We got to go off trail and wade up the river, which was cool although it took forever to dry my hiking boots out...luckily I had a second pair that I wore on the Sunday field trip at Agua Fria River National Monument. Birding highlights included a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Hassayampa and an Ovenbird and female American Redstart at Agua Fria River southeast of Cordes Junction (off Bloody Basin Rd.). Also, we're pretty sure we flushed a mountain lion along the Agua Fria, because not long after we heard crashing through the brush we found fresh mountain lion scat and a fresh deer kill! The meeting was good too, certainly never a dull moment. I got to meet new people, talk to birders I had only met through email face-to-face, and reconnect with old birder friends. The talks were good all around, although I think Sam's went the smoothest and she went first! Lots of other crazy stuff happened too, including a bizarre old lady stalking some of the young folks and another woman having a seizure right during a presentation (luckily there were folks with medical training in the audience and she was okay after the paramedics arrived). Also, twice during the weekend pebbles cracked my windshield, both only 1-2 inches apart. Definitely an eventful weekend! Here are photos from Hassayampa, Agua Fria, and Ash Creek off Dugas Rd.:
Hassayampa River Preserve:
Sam next to a tall-ass mullein (
Verbascum thapsus, Family Scrophulariaceae):
Sedge inflorescences:
tree tobacco (
Nicotiana glauca, Family Solanaceae), with carpenter bee pollinating it:
dragonfly/damselfly:
Agua Fria River:
Ovenbird:
American Redstart (female):
Remains of the deer freshly-killed by a mountain lion. At this point all that was left were the bloody limbs and clumps of fur it had stripped off the rest of the body before it consumed the meat. The blood was fresh enough that it still looked red and there were flies going at it:
Fresh mountain lion poo (flies still going to it):
Phainopeplas:
Lowland leopard frog:
Insect species:
velvet ant:
sacred datura (
Datura wrightii, Family Solanaceae):
Neat-looking boulder:
Ash Creek off Dugas Rd. (east of I-17):
Texas mulberry (
Morus microphylla, Family Moraceae):
roadkill snake:
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