Day 10—Tanque Verde Wash, Burrowing Owls, Tucson Botanical Gardens

Sunday, April 29, 2018 

Gray Hawk taken with my little point and shoot.
 It was a good distance away high in a dead tree

Today we drove to Tanque Verde Wash at Wentworth Road to find the Gray and Red-shouldered Hawks that our Tucson Audubon guide—Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona—said were usually seen there. This wash flows west from creeks that drain from the northern side of the Rincon Mountains, but of course at this time of year the wash was mostly dry and sandy.  The Wash was on the other side of the valley from our Airbnb, so was a pretty long drive. We arrived at 8:00.

Shortly before we arrived, I crossed a low bridge. Near it sat a Gray Hawk in a dead tree. Deb wanted me to stop in the middle of the bridge so that she could get a photo, but I parked off the road at one end and she walked back. By the time she got there the hawk had flown. Though we both later got photos of a Gray Hawk from the wash, I am not sure Deb forgave me for not stopping at the closer one.  

The wash, which is near Agua Caliente Park, another birding hotspot according to our guidebook, was wide and deeply sandy. Walking the wash was a calf builder and tiring, somewhat like walking in deep beach sand. There was some water in one spot and we saw a hummer repeatedly dip down for a drink.

A little water in /Tanque Verde Wash

While at Tanque Verde we walked the wash, which had some water in it in places (see above), and saw Song Sparrows (1), Least Goldfinch (2), the Gray Hawk, and an Oriole that Deb wished was a Striped-back Oriole, but neither of us saw well enough to verify its species. We also saw Lark Sparrows, White winged Doves, many Phenopeplias, two Gambel’s Quail, Vermilion Flycatchers, quite a few Yellow Warblers (3) (throughout our trip, too), a Slate-colored Fox Sparrow(4), Verdins(5), and a Summer Tanager (6). The wash was wide, so we could generally find a place to stand in the shade on one side and observe birds in the trees on the sunny side. Midway along, a couple on horseback came toward us and later returned the other way. Their horses were lovely.

After two hours of strenuous wash walking, Jeanine texted that the Burrowing Owls were back, so we left to see them. We drove about 14 miles  back to the mall where the owls were. It took a moment but we located one well camouflaged Burrowing Owl standing in the shade of some grasses near its burrow . . . right in the middle of heavy traffic and at the edge of the mall parking lot in the drainage ditch. I got two passable photos with my cell phone (see below) and Deb got a couple but we did not want to stay long because we were right next to a busy four-lane road and we were afraid that people would see Deb with her big camera and approach to see what we were taking photos of.

My cell phone shot of one of the  shopping mall burrowing owls

So, we left the Burrowing Owls to the "peace" of the shopping mall and highway and drove to the Tucson Botanical  Gardens. Deb wandered the gardens and the parking lot looking (mostly unsuccessfully) for birds to photograph—we had seen a Verdin in a parking lot tree—but I spent my time wandering the gardens and at the orchid and butterfly house. Most of the butterflies in the house were pretty worn and ragged but I  took pix of a few and of several of the orchid species. I am too lazy to look up their names.

Then took many pix of the cacti in the cactus garden (see above). After walking the cactus garden, I was overheated and entering meltdown, so went immediately to the garden’s café to cool down. I asked the maître de to seat me in the coolest place and he seated me inside. Everyone else eventually left this small room, so I was all by myself. Jess called and I talked to her for fifteen minutes or so. I am now easily distracted so was glad that no one else was in the room and I could talk freely. I had delicious Polenta chips and three types of salsa, two glasses of water, and a glass of cactus iced tea.

I guess I took more pix of birds than I thought because here is one (below) of a sweet White-winged dove nesting in a saguaro.

The Garden's Corpse Flower (below right) had bloomed only the week before..By the time I saw it, it had closed and wilted as in my photo of it. I was almost glad because then I did not need to inhale its stench. This enormous rare flower smells like rotting flesh. Years, or even decades, can pass before a corpse flower blooms. According to the Internet's "Mental Floss," when a corpse flower blooms, "the spadix heats up to temperatures of up to 98°F as the plant unleashes a stench akin to rotting flesh. Those pulses of heat cause the air to rise, like a chimney effect. It gets the stench up in the air to attract pollinating dung beetles and carrion beetles, that are drawn to the scent of rotting flesh." 

After the Botanical Gardens, we drove back to the Airbnb, arriving about 4:30 or 5:00. Deb was in bed and asleep at her usual early hour, but I tried to stay up until 9:00 or 10:00 so that I would not be awake and up before 5:00.