Because it's winter, the trees beyond the bird feeder area are mostly leafless, so the birds don't have much cover for protection from, say, Coopers' or Sharp-shinned hawks. And bird area is very open, too; not many shade trees (ok, NO shade trees). So I think the birds are hesitant to come out in the open; I haven't had many yet, while the back yard of my friends Mark and Lori are swarming with birds and is much more flying friends-friendly. I do have an artemisia and pyracantha in pots on the back deck, and plan to put them in the ground soon (well, today the 13th), but they're still pretty scrawny and would provide no cover at all until later in the spring. And the Desert Willow is growing, but still leafless. I know, patience... When visiting my friend Peg across the street, we collected some wood that you can kinda make out in the photo, and I placed them near the feeders so the birds have perches that would be good for photographs. But again, they're exposed. Most of the feeders are high to discourage the deer -- they're now eating the bird seed, along with using the water feature -- but I've seen them get up on their hind legs and sniff at the bird seed trays, even that high one in the center. What birds I've seen in the back yard are mostly Chipping and Black-throated Sparrows, and they're not sticking around for very long during the day. I guess I'll just to wait until things leaf out in the spring...
It was a good hiking day, with temperatures reaching the mid-70s. I went up the Portal-Paradise road and got my favorite classic view of Cave Creek Canyon --
I was doing Greenhouse Trail again; I've hiked it many time before. It's a "mid-level" trail, so it gets the winter morning sun; the South Fork trail in the canyon doesn't get sun until about 10am. At the Museum of Natural History's Southwestern Research Station I took a left on Herb Martyr Road. One of the things I love about this road ending at Herb Martyr dam and falls is the view from the dirt road --
That's Spencer Peak on the left, and in the shadows just above the center is Winn Falls, with a drop of about 360 feet, making it one of the longest waterfalls in Arizona. It's frozen now, but still a spectacular sight, and even more so when you photograph it with a telephoto lens --
That's frozen Winn Falls in the center, in the cleft of the rock. There are small plumes of water coming from the hanging ice, so it may be starting to melt in this warm (mid-70s) weather we've been having lately. The Greenhouse Trail goes to an overlook of Winn Falls, but as you'll see I wasn't able to make it that far..
The trails starts out as a former 4-wheel-drive road, then meets the Basin Trail. There aren't that many birds here yet; I just see, and hear, flocks of raucous Mexican Jays and Pink-sided and Yellow-eyed Juncos. This is an area of mostly scrub oak chaparral, one of 5 life zones in the Chiricahuas (there are 9 altogether). But there is still plants of the Sonoran Desert here, too, such as yucca -- and pockets of snow remain in the shade --
And as the trail begins to parallel Greenhouse Creek, there's more snow in areas which don't get much of the winter sun --
The creek is off to the right,and has a pretty good flow from the melting snow above in the high Chiricahuas. Here's one of the cascades --
I always assume I'm the only one on these trails, particularly in winter. So I was surprised when a man and a woman were coming down the trail. It turns out they're visiting the area from Colorado, staying a pop-up camper. We chat about the absence of mountain lions and "illegals" on the trail, and agree that they're really not things to worry (much) about. (I still whistle, or cough to make noise, just in case someone/something is around.) But a little further up the trail I do see scat, and...hmmm...while I'm not a scat expert, I just checked online (a website called Tracking and Trailing -- Animal Scat) and this looks like it could be from a mountain lion --
I didn't notice any animal tracks around it, though -- but it seemed to be pretty fresh. OK, I think I'll whistle and cough a little louder for now.. There was also a lot of tree deadfall blocking the trail, which I was able to climb over or around --
Shortly after this, you enter a mountain meadow full of pine trees. I've seen Mexican Chickadee here, and Greater Pewee. But that was in May, and though Mexican Chickadees are "residents", I didn't see any. As I went through the meadow, the trail grew increasingly overgrown, and then I took a bit of a wrong turn -- and ended up in mesquite, which means sharp needles. Ouch! (It's the day after now, and I'm still finding scratches, though thankfully no spines buried in my skin.) Okay, it's time to head back....Besides, the I see snow covering the trail that zigzags up the side of the mountain leading to the Winn Falls overlook, so I knew I couldn't get up that. So I head back, whistling the Chaconne from Bach's Violin Partita (my favorite tune since I've been here in the Chiricahuas) just in case a mountain lion was a classical music lover. I returned to the spot where the trail crosses Greenhouse Creek and experimented with a slow shutter speed to smooth out the cascades. I'm getting a pretty steady hand; this was taken handheld with a shutter speed of 1/4 second --
As you walk back to the trailhead,, the view opens up where you can once again see the high Chiricahuas --
And Spencer Peak, with frozen Winn Falls in shadow on the right --
It was another great hike -- as are all the trails here. I took it easy for the rest of the day, and was rewarded by the sunset full of clouds that I mentioned earlier --
Just another perfect day in Paradise -- well, that's actually about 7 miles up the road..
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