Mt. Lemmon

On our last weekend in Tucson we decided to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum again followed by a drive up Mt. Lemmon.  The museum has one aviary with local birds and a second with just hummingbirds.  Both seemed somewhat devoid of birds compared to what I had remembered on previous visits.  A consolation prize, however, was a show stealing performance by a young Great Horned Owl at the raptor flights.  With a lot of head-bobbing, hooting, and dancing on branches he had the entire crowd laughing and showed why most people are fascinated by owls. 

The trip up Mt. Lemmon is a spectacular drive through hairpin turns, rock formations, and views of the desert below.  The climb starts at 3,000 feet and ends at 9,000 feet near the small resort community of Summerhaven and Ski Valley.  The cactus to conifers trip is the equivalent of driving from Mexico to Canada.  The bird life changes as altitude increases.  At the Molino Canyon Vista Point I found Black-chinned Sparrows-a lifer for me.  At the Molino Basin campground I was hoping to find Crissal Thrashers but drew a blank.  A rather tame tree-climbing Greater Roadrunner, however, was quite curious about me.

As I was packing up, the camp host drove up on a golf cart and informed me that you can't enter the campground without a $10 fee (on top of the fee you pay to stop anywhere on the route).  He was very nice about it and let me skate when I played the Michigan Ignorance card.   He said he was also a birder and known all over the country as the "Vagabond Birder". 

At the top I photographed Yellow-eyed Juncos which was another lifer for me.  The Junco is quite common on this "Sky Island".

Our plan was to eat at the Iron Door Restaurant and then drive down the mountain to a previously planned  vista for sunset pictures.  At 4:10 we entered the restaurant and were informed that the kitchen was closed.  So much for a great meal with spectacular views.  Our backup plan was pizza in Summer Haven at the only other restaurant around for miles. The pizza was ok but not great as was the sunset which featured a very uninteresting sky.