Looking at Some Birds

Here are some images of various birds we have seen while traveling. This is not an all inclusive list rather a sampling of some of our feathered friends that we have seen along the way.

This is a Cactus Wren and it is sitting on top of a satellite antennae that is on the roof of a trailer belonging to some of our friends here at the RV Park. Unfortunately it was not determined if the wren improved reception or hindered the signal. Further research is needed. There are a lot of Cactus Wrens here.

Here is a somewhat standard looking Red-tail Hawk. It has a belly band of darker colored feather tips across it's chest or belly. This is a distinct field mark that helps define the Red-tail. Some of the feathers are ruffled by the wind, this bird needs to work on feather control

In contrast, this is a another Red-tail Hawk that we saw along one of the back roads on a ride around the country. The belly band as seen in the Red-tail above is either very faint or missing. Some percentage of the Red-tail in the south west have very limited belly bands such as this bird. Neat bird.

Just outside of Wilcox, AZ is a golf course and adjacent to that is a series of ponds containing reclaimed water. The Great Blue Heron was sitting in the cattail reeds apparently warming in the sun when we spotted him just sunning itself.

This is a Western Screech Owl. It was living in a large Cottonwood Tree right behind San Pedro House. The house and surrounding area are situated along the San Pedro River Valley which is an important area for migrating birds. There are generally a lot of different species that can be found near the San Pedro House.

In the same general area in Wilcox where we saw the Great Blue Heron we found this group of Northern Shovelers, they are ducks. This bird favors broad, shallow marshes where it can use the comb-like teeth along the edges of its large bill to strain aquatic animals, plants, and seeds from the water. It is called a dabbling duck or dabbler in a broad general classification of ducks.

The Yellow-headed Blackbird is neat to see. The bright yellow contrasting with the black body makes for a great looking bird. If you have seen and heard them before you probably know they have one of the worst calls or bird songs ever. It is like a garbled choked off squawk. How such a great looking bird can have such a terrible sounding call is a puzzle.

Here is a tree full of lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds. There is actually a mixture of blackbird types in this tree. We were surprised to see so many Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

With the large number of blackbirds in this flock there had to be someone looking for a meal, this large of a flock would certainly attract attention. At one point the large flock took off swirling around and this Prairie Falcon came in and snatched one for an evening meal. Unfortunately a farmer came racing along the dirt road we were on and scared the falcon off before we could get better images.

This image gives you a little different perspective of the large flock of blackbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds seen above. Here they are spread all acroos the road covering the tree on the left and moving in mass to the right. They would move about from trees to ground to open field to brushy areas.

In trying to look through all the individual blackbirds we found this one lone white bird. One would think with all these darker colored birds we could easily spot a white one, not so. The bird, which we think is an albino or white colored yellow-headed blackbird would always stay down low in the brush and at times seemingly hide from our searching eyes. We looked for quite a while hoping to get a better image but this was as good as we got. Fascinating bird.

This is a Northern Harrier. It is a type of raptor and it swoops and dives and glides low over marshy areas or brushy fields or open areas searching for food. It used to be called a Marsh Hawk because they will spend a lot of time in and around marshy areas. They are very acrobatic in their flight movements and can detect a vole from 12 feet simply by hearing it's movements. They are fun to watch when hunting and we don't often get a chance to see them perched as seen here.

And finally, I know that many of you, who initially saw this list of birds, wanted to see lots of sparrows, commonly called LBB (little brown birds because they all look alike and are confusing to identify). So as not to disappoint you, here is one. It is a Vesper Sparrow identified by the prominent white eye ring, lightly streaked breast, dark coloration on the cheek, and the rusty spot on its shoulder. For some reason there are not the sparrows here in Southern Arizona that we have seen in the past. We have chatted with many folks and no one seems to know why but everyone says the sparrows just aren't here in any large numbers. Nonetheless, here is one sparrow.

That gives you a view of some birds that we have seen. Hope you enjoyed this post and as always let us know if you have any comments or questions.

All the best - George and Deanna

Slaughter Ranch Museum

The Slaughter Ranch Museum is located in Southern Arizona right along the border with Mexico. The following two paragraphs contain a little history about the Slaughter Ranch and the information was gleaned from the Slaughter Ranch Museum Website which you can view By Clicking Here

90 pesos is all it cost Ignacio Perez to buy 73,240 acres through an original Mexican land grant in 1822. But he couldn’t hold it long. Within 8 years, Apaches had run him off the land. But change affected them too. The Mormon Batallion rolled through in 1846. And the Gold Rush of 1849 turned Southeastern Arizona into a major thoroughfare for prospectors on their way to California.

It was 35 years later that Texas John Slaughter bought 65,000 acres of the original Perez grant. The Gadsen Purchase had re-drawn the lines. Two-thirds of the property was then in Mexico. Slaughter bought and leased more land on this side of the border and reached 100,000 acres of ranch land, which his in-laws lived on and managed while Slaughter served as sheriff. The 1887 earthquake destroyed the original buildings. Slaughter re-built in 1893 and lived on Slaughter Ranch after his retirement.

This map presents the perspective as to where the Slaughter Ranch is located in Arizona. It is along the very southern border and in its earlier days much of the ranch acreage was located in Mexico. It is situated about 16 miles east of the town of Douglas and about 10 miles of that 16 are dirt and gravel. Fortunately the border patrol maintains the dirt portion of the road and it had recently been graded so the road was in decent condition.

This is the main house and contains a lot of period artifacts and fascinating information. We are not trying to duplicate the museum rather provide you with a little glimpse of this fascinating place. There is a great deal of information that you can find about the Slaughter Ranch Museum on the Internet.

I placed my hat on the window sill inside the house to give you a view of the actual thickness of the walls. The day was pleasantly warm but the interior of the house was very cool. The thick adobe walls have a great insulating effect.

This is the fireplace in the main room. Though this is a desert environment it can get cold in winter and I am sure the fireplace was well used and much appreciated.

This fascinating piano type of instrument was in the main living area. There were several bedrooms, a kitchen, a bath room and the one great room where this was situated. The signs in the home stated that none of these artifacts, with a few exceptions, were from the original home or family, rather they were period replacements of what was most likely in the home.

Here is a view looking behind the house. There are several outbuildings.

This 1915 Model T was in one of the rock out buildings. It must have been quite a ride across the desert in the old dirt roads back in the day when this was used. Not a lot of air conditioning other than the wind and don't even think about gps navigation or lane departure assistance.

This building was identified as the "Grainery". In the early days of the ranch the Slaughter Ranch acted as a store for the surrounding ranches. Supplies would be brought in and kept here for dispersal as needed.

On the grounds is a large pond. It contained a number of water fowl and provided a nice contrast from the surrounding mesquite desert environment. There is a couple, that are caretakers of the place and live in a home on the property, and the lady indicated that the water coming out of the well and the tap in their house was about 72 degrees all the time.

This smaller building functions as the office for present day operations. There is a $5.00 entrance fee per person and this is where you go to pay the fee. I asked the lady, when we were paying, how far is it to Mexico and she said about 100 yards, Pretty close.

Also they have a no pet policy. They have their own dogs that wander around but visitors are required to keep their dogs in their vehicle while visiting. I asked her the reason and she said they have had a lot of problems with people bringing dogs. There was one person who brought a "Service Dog" and when she let it out of the car it immediately attacked one of their dogs and injured it fairly severely. Some service dog that was, hence no pets allowed.

This is a view of the surrounding area from along the road not far from the ranch. It gives you a little perspective on the apparent desolation of the location. I asked the fellow who is one of the caretakers "How many acres did it take for a cow to forage for food in this country?" He stated one to five acres and in explanation said the original cattle were small longhorns bred for this environment. He said they were a lot like goats and could eat anything even the mesquite and scrub brush that are prevalent in this environment.

At one point I said to the fellow that it must be really quiet and peaceful out here so far from nowhere. He said it really was not. When you look at this map it gives you an idea why and he explained. Highway 2 in Mexico on this map runs from the Pacific Coast in Tijuana all the way across Mexico to Brownsville at the southern tip of Texas. There is almost no speed limit on the highway and at night the big trucks running the roads will turn on their jake brakes coming down the small hills and it sounds like they are coming down the driveway into the ranch. So much for peace and quiet.

When walking around part of the pond we found this Great Horned Owl up in one of the trees. The lady stated there were a pair that generally raised chicks but they had not seen the other half of the pair yet this year.

Hope you have enjoyed this post and got at least a little perspective on the Slaughter Ranch Museum. It is a fascinating place well worth the visit albeit a tad out of the way.

Be sure and let us know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best - George and Deanna

Food Items We've Seen Along the Way

As we travel around the country we, on occasion, stop in a restaurant or cafe, or joint of some type for a bite of lunch. Here are images of some of the items we have consumed at the eateries we have visited. All of these tasted really, really good.

This wonderful looking delicacy is called a "Krunchizona" and can be found at the "Kountry Kafe" in Elfrida, AZ. It consists of tender roast beef covered with pepper jack cheese between house battered bell peppers and onion rings on a buttered and grilled hoagie with a Horsey Sauce. The little green things in the picture are deep fried jalapeno slices. This is a great sandwich but eating one every three years or so is probably a little more than the recommended dietary allowance.

In reality the only healthy thing in this image is the coleslaw which was great.

This is a "Rodger's Special" named after our good friend. It is a large hamburger patty with some slices of bacon on top. Of course there is cheese and a decent amount of fries. There is also the healthy additives of lettuce and tomato with a pickle thrown in for good measure. You will note that the bun is nicely toasted. This is a large, wonderfully concocted burger that we had in the Main Street Cafe in Hurricane, Utah. Great stuff.

Switching over to Mexican cuisine, here we have a nice bowl of soup. This is Menudo, extremely well prepared and craftily presented. Hominy, lime, onions, garlic, black pepper, and oregano are used to season the broth with the hominy cooked into the broth and the remaining items served on the side so you can season it as you wish.

Menudo is often considered a hangover cure and is generally prepared in a clear broth, which is the traditional preparation, but sometimes a red broth which is created by adding red chili peppers. Menudo is also know as Pancita meaning little stomach as it is made from honeycomb tripe also known as beef stomach, in case you didn't know.

We do on occasion happen on an establishment that has breakfast. There is a superbly seasoned hash mixture concocted from various items hiding under the two eggs. The jalapeño peppers add a nice zing to the hash and egg dish. Some of us like our eggs sunny side up while others find that presentation not so desirable.

Someone gave us a gift card to Applebees and so we used it. We went there on a Monday and found it was Hamburger special day. Any burger on the menu for $7.99. This is called a "Quesadilla Burger". Essentially a large burger cooked and contained in a crispy flour tortilla and smothered in a pico de gallo sauce. It was rather tasty and we brought half home for a later lunch. The Monday special was a great way to extend the gift card purchasing power.

At the Main Street Cafe in Hurricane, which we mentioned earlier, they would give you an option as to salad, fries, or fruit cup to accompany your entree. Here is the delicious fruit cup. It was all fresh fruit, not canned, and larger and more appealing than most fruit dishes we had seen served on the side.

This was a lunch Deanna had at "Mi Casa", a fabulous hole in the wall Mexican Restaurant in Benson Arizona. The bird like critters are made from the chips that come with most Mexican meals and they were a clever, edible part of the presentation. The shrimp tacos that are seen to the right hand side here were also fabulous.

Staying with the Mexican Food Theme we stopped for lunch in Wilcox at Isabels South of the Border. They have wonderful food. Here are the fish tacos and the fish was Mahi Mahi. The pinto beans sometimes called ranch beans are the whole beans as opposed to the refried beans most often served with Mexican dishes. We will definitely stop there again when in Wilcox looking for birds or going to Chiracahua National Monument.

Seafood is very appealing to us for lunch though often difficult to find here in Southern Arizona. Recently, we happened across an establishment in Benson City at the golf course, The Benson City Grill. They have a great view from the restaurant and wonderful food. This meal is the Seafood Special and consists of two large fish fillets, three jumbo shrimp, sweet potato waffle fries, and coleslaw. The seafood was really lightly battered and not in the least bit greasy. The taste was fabulous. Great place to eat in Benson.

What good is a decent meal without a dollop of desert. They may have called this desert "Death by Chocolate" or some such moniker and certainly they could have. I am also certain that you won't believe me if I try to say the ice cream was low fat, the chocolate sugar free, and the syrup made with Splenda? Yeah right.

Since we had more than one entree we thought we should show more than one desert. This is a conservative lemon cake we had following one lunch. It has very limited ice cream, a nice raspberry syrup for color and flavor, and a big spoonful of whipped cream. It is very creatively presented and readily consumed by both of us.

This gives you a brief pictorial view of some of the myriad of dishes we eaten during our travels. They all were wonderful and these and similar dishes are readily available at many establishments if you just get out and travel and stop for lunch along the way.

We hope you have enjoyed this post and let us know if you have any comments or questions or would like any recipes.
All the best
George and Deanna

Sandhill Cranes - Whitewater Draw

Today, Tuesday January 15th we took a drive over to Whitewater Draw. It is a spectacular place, this time of year, to view large concentrations of Sandhill Cranes. Both Lesser and Greater species of Sandhill Crane can be found here differentiated only by size.

Today the crane did not disappoint. We got there about 11:15 and there were not many Sandhills. But then they started arriving. It seems the best time to observe them is to get there about 11:00-11:30 and wait. They roost at Whitewater Draw in the night and leave early in the morning to go out into the surrounding agriculture fields and feed. They comeback to rest in the wetland area about noon or so.

We had spoken with a local rancher about a week ago and he stated he had lived here all his life and there were many more crane this year than he has ever seen. We have not found any official statistics as of yet so we will take his word for it. There are alots and lots of crane.

This image gives you a little perspective on the cranes. There is a long and large line of Cranes just above the lady's white hat. The visitors will stand along a raised dike and view out at the concentrations of Sandhills. The concentration we are looking at here is but a small portion of the Cranes. They are spread out in all directions.

Here is a little closer view of some of the cranes along the shore.

While we waited and watched you could hear and then see literally thousands of Sandhills rising from fields in the distance to fly over to Whitewater. This image shows only a small segment of the many, many cranes that were flying around and dropping from the sky as we watched.

Here is part of a large group coming in to land in the field. Try and keep in perspective that this activity is happening in several spread out locations. There are literally Sandhill Cranes flying around and landing in many, many areas. There are lots of birds.

They are coming in closer to land now, dumping the wind from their wings spreading their legs picking their landing spot getting ready to land.

You can see them spread their wings and slow their decent as they prepare to land. They are magnificent flying machines.

At one point a large portion of the flock decided to relocate. They took off in mass and made a low circle coming back to roost closer to the water's edge. In totality they didn't move more than about 50 yards.

In this image the group from the image above is circling back and will land closer to the water's edge.

One of the crane decided to display his wings. A rather large wingspan.

Sandhill Crane typically mate for life. You will often see them in a pair, which is probably the male and female of the species. Here, we most likely have a family of three. The two adult and the juvenile born and raised this past summer. The juvenile is the bird on the left. Note the lack of color on the head and the brownish tinge on the side. The juvenile, called a colt when younger, is brown in color and this youngster is loosing his younger plumage. The female Sandhill normally lays two eggs and if food is plentiful and predators or disease do not take the chicks they can raise both of them to adulthood. Most often only one chick survives hence a family of three is fairly common.

This image is just another view of a possible family group. The juvenile is the bird in the center.

Here is one last look at two Sandhill crane setting up for a landing. They look so very graceful as they drop out of the sky.

In this image they have largely settled into the wetlands areas. They will continue to shift and move around. The noise they make lifts your spirit. It is a wonderful sound.

If you are ever south of Tucson in the winter, be absolutely certain to visit Whitewater Draw and see and hear and experience the Sandhill Cranes. It will be an experience you will never forget. We have seen such a display many,many times and each time for us seems fresh and new and still fills us with awe and wonder. It is a neat place with incredible birds.

We hope you have enjoyed this post and as always let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best
George & Deanna