September 25 -- A Rare-For-The-Area Hummingbird, And An Evening Of "Malbec On The Deck"

My, these days (and nights) here in Portal and Faranuf just seem to get better and better...It started off with getting photos of the sunrise looking both east  --

And west -- 

The "Red Glow" of sunrise on Silver Peak... And "False Portal Peak" with the sunrise-lit clouds above -- 

And these are all taken either from my side porch (the sunrise to the east) or my back yard. I still can't get over the views...I was to pick up my friend Linda at her place in the canyon of Cave Creek and go to Whitetail Canyon, about 10 miles north of Portal, to look at a rare-for-west-of-the-Rockies Ruby-throated hummingbird. It was seen at Rick Taylor's feeders on a regular basis recently. Rick Taylor is the author of my SE AZ bird Bible, the ABA book that came out in 2005, and he's also an expert on the Elegant Trogon. So I was a bit intimidated to meet some who I consider an icon of SE Arizona birding -- yet he was affable and, well, just a downright nice guy. He showed us the feeder where the Ruby-throated is usually seen, and left us to watching for him (it's a male, as you will see). It didn't take long -- there he was, right where he was supposed to be. There were quite a few hummingbirds -- Broad-billed, a few Rufous, Magnificent, Lucifer, a few Black-chinned -- and about 4 or 5 feeders to watch, but he was the main show -- 

Brilliant "ruby" gorget, dusky green flanks, a black stripe extending from beak to just behind the eye, and a forked tail -- yup, definitely a Ruby-throated. There have been only a handful seen in Arizona, and it was a Life Bird for me because I've very rarely been east of the Rockies. Linda and I were there for a little less than 2 hours, then left and headed back down the dirt Foothills Road. Just outside of Portal we noticed a raptor on a "globe" -- a Red-tail variant -- 

His feathers are a tad askew, he looks thin -- and he's moulting; his tail is going from brown to red. He gave us great looks -- which led us to believe that something wasn't quite right with him. And when he awkwardly flew off the globe and landed in a tree on the opposite side of the road, we knew something was amiss. But what can we do about it? Sometimes you feel helpless when you want to help a bird, but really can't. You just have to let nature take its course... Linda and I stopped by a friend's house where she took a walk with her friend Marcia and I visited with Bob, where he showed me his self-built solar power setup. He's completed off the grid, and Faranuf is all-electric, meaning Columbus Electric, the power co-op here, is making a tidy sum off me. I'd like to "go solar" in a year or two, but I'd have to have someone install it for me, which of course would all to the cost. And another friend said later that Bob is always tinkering with the system --which would give me fits. So we'll see...I dropped off Linda at her place and went back to Faranuf, getting a nap before Peg, my friend and neighbor across the street from me, came over with a pot of soup, and I supplied Malbec On The Deck. Oh, I nearly forgot -- on the way to Linda's I had to stop on the road just outside of Portal and get the classic view of Cave Creek Canyon and a bit of Silver Peak -- 

Peg and I sat out on Farina's back deck, drank Malbec, and talked about events both personal and national (John Boehner actually left both his position and the Senate?) And Peg (who has her own bird tour business) brought over brochures that contained some of my landscape and bird photos. Once again, it was a great day full of birds and friends -- and the adventures at Faranuf continues...