3 Nights in Sierra Vista

Apparently we're now officially snowbirds because when we checked in for three days at the Thunderbird RV Park, the managers greeted us like old friends.  We stayed here for 2 weeks in 2015, but we're here for only 3 nights this year because we have to be in Phoenix by Tuesday.

Apparently we are in the most desirable spot in the park, which means we are only staring at another RV on one side of our site.  Our neighbour is friendly though, he let us have his picnic table for the duration.

There's a million great hikes/bird destinations in the area so we had to pack as many of our favourites in our short stay.  So after setting up camp and waiting out the worst of the day's heat, we drove out to the San Pedro River around 4:30 pm.

The birds were smarter than us, however, they weren't coming out till it cooled off.  Did see a few pretty birds though.

Vermillion flycatcher, poster boy for SE Arizona

Pyrrhuloxia

The next day we headed out to Ramsey Canyon, where we found out a very rare tufted flycatcher had returned for the second year to a spot 2.5 miles up the trail.  News to us, not only were we not aware it was here, we were heretofor unaware of the species existence.  Some birders we are. According to the volunteer, all kinds of birders got themselves lost and injured last year looking for this prized bird.  I hope this was in the heat of summer, we did not find the hike that strenuous.

We also did not find the tufted flycatcher.  For one thing it's hard to estimate how far 2.5 miles is up the trail, especially when distracted by such beautiful birds as the painted redstart (bird of the day).


When we got back from our hike we found that the tufted flycatcher had been spotted not far from the visitor center.  It's hard, however, to regret a great hike up one of the beauty spots of the world.

Not blogging or playing Scrabble, but checking the bird app.

And we saw a magnificent hummingbird briefly at the center's feeder, and it was indeed magnificent.