Rainy Day and Boyce Thompson Arboretum

It started raining Tuesday night and kept raining all Wednesday. We just stayed indoors all day. Around 5 pm the rain let up and we went for a walk to check out the birds. They were active and we saw a peregrine falcon perched on a snag in the lake.  Shortly afterward a thunderstorm blew in and continued into the night.  Snug in our trailer we did sympathize with the tenters around us.

The next morning was fine so we drove to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, an hour drive away.

The day started well with a vermillion flycatcher right in the parking lot.

The Arboretum was started by a rich mine owner on his own property.  It is quite a dramatic setting situated below Picket Post Mountain.

It seems everything you turn a corner you are greeted with a new Vista.

See?

This is the view from his house on the rocks to the creek below.

I thought the house was kind of ugly so I just took a photo of its side view.  Apparently he had an elevator installed that took visitors down to the the base of the canyon.

We walked down along the creek

To this little house built into the rock that was where the previous owners lived.

Look at their view:

We saw this guy:

In the Austalian desert section someone built a replica of a driver's cottage to honor a local woman who'd grown up in Australia.

This showy aloe was in the African collection.

The bird of the day was the northern cardinal.

They were everywhere.

This is the agave section of the garden 

Leo got a nice shot of a broad-billed hummingbird.

And while we were eating lunch we spied this female Anna's hummingbird feeding on a vine.