Catalina State Park

We stayed at Catalina State Park for a few days. It is in a place called Oro Valley just on the north side of Tucson. There are lots of campsites here in the campground and miles of hiking trails. The trails are multiuse, meaning that hikers, bike rides, and horse riders all use the trails. When you are in the campground you have the feeling of being somewhat remote but right across from the entry off the highway is a huge shopping complex with all the large city shopping and amenities you could want. It is a great park.

When we got to our campsite and started setting up this Greater Roadrunner came into camp. It appeared to us that he had been fed by previous campers. He wasn’t skittish or shy at all. He stayed close by for quite some time. I guess he finally figured we would not provide any handouts and moved on to greener pastures.

One of the sparrows, yes those little brown birds, which are common here, is the Rufous-winged Sparrow. You can identify it in this picture by the reddish line running behind the eye and the black lines on the chin or what are called, malar stripes. There actually are lots of them here in Catalina.

The color on this Northern Cardinal has always seemed strange to me. Such a bright color for the drab colors often found in the desert environment. They do not molt or change color with the season with the male remaining this bright red all year long.  

We had an image of the Ladderback Woodpecker in an earlier post. They are a somewhat common desert woodpecker. As you can see they are primarily colored black and white, with a barred pattern on its back and wings resembling the rungs of a ladder, hence the name Ladderback.

We had gone to get some groceries and upon returning this Coyote was in the campsite next to ours. You can see our trailer in the background. The people staying there had just left and he figured they must have left something to eat lying around. He was pretty brazen. We were a little apprehensive after that with our two small dogs that I am sure the coyote would love to invite home for dinner. Perhaps the coyote is part of the campground clean-up crew.

I call this bird “The Campground Coopers”, it is a Cooper's Hawk. You can often see them around your home feeders trying to pick off a smaller bird for a meal. I saw her several times in the campground and it was not at all afraid or shy of people. You could walk up almost directly underneath the hawk and she wouldn’t get very nervous at all. There were a lot of pocket gophers and ground squirrels in the campground that I am sure she used for food.

Here is a Hermit Thrush.This bird is similar to the American Robin only chunkier in stature. They are a short-distance migrant. They are among the last to migrate in the winter and first to return in the spring. They stay all year round in North America and many will stay in the United States all year. They have a wonderful song..  

Anna’s Hummingbirds are everywhere here in Arizona. This one took possession of the hummingbird feeder we had out and would not let any others in to feed. This hummingbird was very protective of the food source. You can see more or less of the red on the hummingbirds head depending on the light and how the bird fluffs it feathers.

We showed a sparrow earlier. Here is an image of two sparrows. The one in the foreground is a Lark Sparrow. Quite distinctive and identifiable by it’s facial pattern. The one in the background is a Vesper Sparrow. The markings that identify it are a little more subtle and cause many people to classify all the little sparrows as LBB (little brown birds) or LBJ (Little Brown Job). We will see more sparrows later.