A Cardinal's Courtship (Patagonia, AZ)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  

We hope this is the beginning of a great, happy, and healthy year for you.

A Cardinal's Courtship

Have you ever seen the courting between two Cardinals?  We have been honored and entertained with watching two bachelors trying to court/impress Miss Available Cardinal.  

Meet Bachelor #1: a handsome fellow.  We are not sure if he wants to impress the Miss or eat.  He seems a little shy and flies away when Bachelor #2 lands in the same tree.

Meet Bachelor #2: a very serious looking fellow with courtship on his mind.

He looks like he means business, doesn't he?

And here is the lovely little lady - Miss Cardinal.  She's a beauty, heh?

Here she is letting the sun filter through her head feathers giving her such a healthy glow.

I wasn't having much luck with getting the actual courtship dancing.  It is quite a sight to see.  If you happen to catch the Seinfeld episode where Elaine dances...that's what a male's courtship dance looks like - a disjointed, knee-jerking, very spastic, and "Totally Uncool Dude!" movements.  I did catch a few shots of them leaping from limb to limb...

Unimpressed, Miss Cardinal decided to get a snack and come back to see if the show was getting any better.

How about levitation?

I wonder...can birds yawn?  Doesn't she look a little bored?  Actually, I think she is eyeing the feeder.  "Hmm, I wonder if there is time for another snack...."

 Finally, Bachelor #1 decided he had had enough for the moment and flew away.

Well, no decision made today.  Miss Cardinal flew away and soon Bachelor #2 followed after her.    

Will Miss Cardinal choose one of these fine feathered males or is there a third one lurking out there?  Oh, I hate cliff-hangers!

Merry Christmas! from Patagonia, AZ

We hope this finds everyone happy and healthy this Christmas day.  We are celebrating our third Christmas in our motorhome.  It is amazing how fast the time goes.  We have our tiny 2-foot tree on the dashboard and covered it with all our favorite decorations.  

The cats have actually been good with it this year.  Only a few ornaments have been found on the floor in the morning.  I'm sure Santa will be very pleased with them this year.

Hitch and Squirrel

Max and Dusty 

We are still enjoying our volunteer time here at Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve.  We have had a few frosty mornings and a couple of nights below freezing.  There has been snow on the mountains nearby giving us a wonderful view to enjoy.

 We seem to learn or see something new everyday.  It has been quite an education.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our First Month

Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve

Patagonia AZ

Isn't it amazing how fast time flies?  We can't believe we have been here at Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve for a month now.  We recently found out we were not the only new visitors to the area.  We have a Surprise Visitor....

This photo is from the wildlife camera taken on Nov 11, 2011 - the same day we arrived.  This Mountain Lion crossed the creek a couple of hundred yards from our motorhome.  Our Preserve Manager Matt found signs of the cat in the area recently, such as scat and scratch marks.

Considering the Mountain Lion has been here all month, we are hoping he likes to stay hidden during the day and does his hunting at night.  We would not mind seeing him at a distance...a very long distance.

One night, we heard some strange cries near our motorhome.  Dan thought it was a distressed Javalina, but our manager Matt has not found any traces of a carcass nearby.  Javelina distress call: http://www.javelinahunter.com/sounds/javlinasound13.wav  

 We also learned that our cats make wonderful alert cats.  Sandy first heard Dusty growling and the other cats soon joined in.  Once they had her attention, she started hearing the crying outside (possible Javelina distress call).  We could not see anything and never did verify for sure what made the sounds.

White-nosed Coatimundi

A month ago, we had never heard of a Coatimundi until our manager said they had seen a group of them recently on the Preserve.  Dan and I had to look them up so we could recognize them.  The Coati is raccoon-like, climbs trees, and dig for insects.  Everyday, we would walk through the area with hopes of seeing just one.  No luck.

The other day we had some time off from our volunteering duties and decide to go for a walk.  Dan spotted the White-nose Coati first.  The Coati was on the trail in front of us.  He just stood there on the path staring at us.  We think this is a male since males travel alone.  We did not see or hear any others nearby.

Sandy was so happy she brought her camera for the walk. She almost left it behind for this late afternoon walk.  After taking some photos, moving closer and taking more, he started moving very slowly down the path.

And he stopped..........strike a pose....

Great photo of his paws - good for digging and climbing

Close-up of his paws

He looked back and froze again for several seconds. 

He turned around to look at us again...and froze. 

so cute

Then he turned the other direction to look at us again.  Maybe he was trying to get a better look at us.  This encounter must have gone on for 10 minutes!  It was great!

Check out his turned-up nose!

We think this is when he realized we were going to keep following him, so he ran off the trail and out into the brush.  He was brave and watched us a long time before running for cover.

We will close this post with just a few more photos from the preserve.  As always, all pics are "clickable" for larger images.

Morning Walks (Patagonia, AZ)

Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve

Patagonia, AZ

We are volunteering at a wildlife preserve in southern Arizona this winter. We are 60 miles south of Tucson, and 20 miles north of Nogales.  Preserve website: Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve 

We are parked on site, with 312 acres as our backyard. The preserve manager lives across the dirt road, so inside the fence line we have the place to ourselves after hours and on Monday and Tuesday when the preserve is closed.

We take turns in the visitors center, wandering the trails, or back in the RV. We bring our laptops into the visitors center to have something to do in between visitors. 

We open the gate, open the visitors center, greet visitors and tell them about the park, collect fees, and at the end of the day end of day settle the books and lock up.  In return we have full hookup RV parking and free high speed wifi. We plan on at least 3 months volunteering here.

Visitors center

Our RV site above

Year around creek and large solar array.



We are taking turns taking walks around the preserve while the other stays in the visitors center.  Here are some of Dan's pictures taken as he walks:

Coes (pronounced Cows) White Tail Deer

Click to enlarge to see two Great Horned Owls.

Tarantula Love

 I ran upon a pretty aggressive Javelina. He was snorting, stomping his feet, and clacking his teeth. He was about 7 feet off the trail I that wanted to walk down and I wanted to pass by him.

After a minute or so another adult Javelina and a young one ran past me from the opposite side of the trail and crashed out through the brush towards the creek.

The aggressive one calmed down after that, and I was able to walk past him and on down the trail.

Sandy's Walk......

Good Morning Sunshine!

Bedtime for Mr. Western Screech Owl

We woke up to frost on the ground a couple of days ago.  When the sun started warming the earth, I decided to take a very early walk. Crispy morning air, so bright and clear!

 The fields had a golden look to them.  I saw a couple of deer in the tall grass, but no luck getting their picture.  As a matter of fact, they seem to be the masters of evading my camera.  I can only see their heads above the grass and then they duck down.  They blend into the woods so well that I hear them before I see them and forget about the camera! By the time I have it up and ready - they are gone!  I'll get a photo of one  sooner or later.

The walk is about 2 miles round trip and it had been pretty quiet until I heard some crashing in the underbrush just below the pathway.  I thought it was deer, but I wasn't seeing them.  Then, I saw the Javalinas.   I stopped to get a photo, but the ravine was too dark and one of the Javalinas started to make grunting noises and blowing loudly through his nose.  Time to move on!  I kept an eye on them just to be sure they were staying put and not watching where I was going.  Yea, big mistake!  This guy was on the path right in front of me!

Okay!  Time to turn around and go the other direction!  I'm glad I did change directions to follow the spring-fed creek trail.  The sun was hitting it just right to cause steam to rise up.  So enchanting!  I looked for Frodo and Sam, but I did not see either Hobbit.  Darn!

Instead, I ran into the three little Javalinas.  They were munching until I started taking their picture.  They all stopped to stare back at me.  Yep, you guessed it - time to move on....

The rest of my walk was uneventful, but very relaxing.  I took this last photo with my Fish-eye lens just for fun.  I hope you enjoyed my walk and photos.