Miscellaneous Images

This blog post contains various miscellaneous images and descriptions. We have not been traveling to any new, wild, and exotic locations so we thought we would share some images that cover a variety of topics and sights. Hope you enjoy.

This is an Acorn Woodpecker. We have posted images of these woodpeckers in the past. We call them clown birds because of their gaudy coloration. They do like oak trees and will drill a hole in the tree and cache an acorn there for later consumption.

The holes in this oak tree were once filled with acorns. The woodpeker drills the holes and then gets an acorn and stuffs the acorn into the hole. There are lots of holes in this tree, busy woodpecker.

This image is also of an Acorn Woodpecker. It has just landed in the tree behind the Mexican Jay. This is just a fun image.

Here is one of our local weathermen. It frequently rests on this weather station and I have no idea what its presence does to the calibration or readings. This is a Northern Mockingbird.

We have posted before about a location called “Lake Cochise” or “Twin Lakes Golf Course”. They are one in the same location. This image shows a small pond that is adjacent to the golf course. There are often a wide variety of birds found here.

On one recent trip there we found a lot of swallows flying over the pond and catching insects. I was foolishly trying to take pictures of the swallows in flight and got many more shots of water than of the swallows. This is a Barn Swallow easily identifiable by its coloration and long tail feathers. Obviously much more practice is needed for taking decent swallow images.

Here is a look at a Barn Swallow sitting. Not sure what it is talking about. This should give you a better idea as to what a Barn Swallows looks like.

This is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The long tooth pick like legs are fascinating. They do have a ruby red colored crown but does not show it very often. This picture is a little grainy as I was trying a different camera setting. As mentioned above much further practice is needed.

On several different excursions we have stopped by Sandy’s Restaurant which is out in the middle of Sulphur Springs Valley and a long ways from nowhere. This map gives you a perspective as to the location. Not much else around there. Google Maps indicates it ia about 92 miles from Tucson.

Here is an image of the front of Sandy’s. Great place to stop and eat if you are ever near the area.

Sandy’s has the usual fare of burgers and such. They also make great salads. This is an image of their Tuscan Salad. It makes for a great lunch.

This is the dessert we had on one occasion at Sandy’s, Blueberry pie and Dryers Ice Cream. Sandy makes all the pies herself and always has several varieties. This dessert dish cost $2.99 and that included both the pie and ice cream. At that price we should just skip the lunch and go for the dessert. After all the blueberry pie has lots of healthy fruit and you could just get a second piece of apple pie to balance the lunch out and add to your daily fruit consumption...

Further south down Sulphur Springs Valley is Whitewater Draw, a fabulous birding location that we have posted about earlier. Here we wanted to show you how the place will change for the summer.

During the winter at Whitewater Draw there are Sandhill Cranes, lots of cranes. During the winter of 2020-2021 the Arizona Department of Fish and Game estimated 47,601 Sandhill Cranes in Sulphur Springs Valley which is a record number. In a more normal year there are 34-38,000.

During the winter there will be lots of water available providing a roost spot for the cranes. This is an image from much earlier that shows the water level. The water is pumped up from the ground water starting in September or October and is pumped during the winter to keep the area flooded.

This image was taken on April 1st, 2021 and as you can see, most of the water is already gone. So too are the cranes, they have headed north to their summer breeding grounds.

Searching in the mud was this Greater Yellowlegs. It is considered a shorebird and the shore is really disappearing fast. This Yellowlegs will soon be on its way north as well.

Shifting gears a bit we will show one of the local resident birds. This is a Cactus Wren and it has no problems moving in and around the cactus.

This is a large Purple Prickly Pear Cactus and the Wren has a nest in this cactus located just above the block wall in about the center of the picture.

Here is a close up of the entrance to the nest. It is most fascinating how the wren can build the nest amongst the pieces of cactus.

This image demonstrates some of our field research. We have a very good friend, Tom Scribner, whom is ultra passionate regarding chocolate chip cookies. During our travels we will try an available cookie or two to see if they are suitable for Tom and then report back on our findings. We have found many great ones but we are still looking.

The Ovens of Patagonia is a great little sandwich and desert shop in Patagonia, and yes the cookie was good.

Here is another fun image. The small white dog is our Westie named Ozzie while the large black dog is named Atlas, he is not ours. Atlas does seem a great name for him. He was, as evidenced by the picture, a very massive Great Dane. Thank goodness he was very gentle.

That concludes our look around at various subjects. We hope you found something of interest.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best – George & Deanna