Patagonia

Lots of lovely Fremont cottonwoods

The town of Patagonia is a 40 minute drive from our RV park.  We usually stay at nearby Patagonia Lake State Park, but couldn't get a campsite this year. We came to visit the Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve.

On a past visit we were walking on the railroad trail when a troop of coatimundis came running through.  This time though we saw only this:

Coatimundi footyprints!

But we did see this troop of 13 wild turkeys foraging in Sonoita Creek.

Leo got shots of both female

And a male vermillion flycatchers.

Later we visited the Paton Hummingbird Centre next door.  The Patons welcomed birders into their yard for years and donated their home to the Nature Conservancy on their deaths. But with the cold weather, as elsewhere, hummingbirds are difficult to find.

We were hoping to see Violet crowned hummingbirds which have been seen at both the Preserve and Patons recently, but no luck today.  There was only one Anna's hummingbird at Patons when we were there.   Lots of birders though, including a tour group visiting from New Jersey.

The seed feeders were busy, however.  Leo got a nice shot of a yellow-rumped warbler, 

And a ladderbacked woodpecker.

Here's a female cardinal:

But the Birds of the Day did not stick around for photos.  Someone shouted gray hawk, and we looked up and saw a pair fly up into the blue sky.  It was quite a spectacular sight. These beautiful Mexican birds only come up into the lower southeast corner of Arizona and we've been hoping to see these birds for years.