June 27-30 -- The Spectacular Sunrises Return, And A Visit To Rucker Canyon

 The monsoon season is finally here, but it's July 1 as I write this blog entry, and though many places around the Portal area have received a good amount of rain, we still haven't. I look at the weather maps and it's as if our area has a force field around it -- white amidst green, yellow and orange. As an example, today July 1 was supposed to have an 80% change of thunderstorms, and it looked like it was going to last all day. Now it's 60% with scattered rain and t-storms; read "scattered" to mean "not in your area". We did have some wetness yesterday, but it wasn't much. Still, the monsoonal flow means the spectacular sunrises and sunsets have returned --

We even had the infrequent phenomenon we call "The Red Glow", when the sunrise clouds and sun are just right to make Cave Creek Canyon's walls a deep red color. On the 27th, The Red Glow seemed to be bathe the east side of the Chiricahuas --

It's that time of the year for juvenile birds to make their appearance; I've seen them begging for food, even when they look grown up enough to get it themselves. But I was surprised when 10 baby Gambel's Quail made their appearance in the back yard, along with a very protective Mom and Dad. They were like little balls of feathers with Energizer batteries, zipping around and never seeming to stand still. I managed to get a few that had their switch turned to off for the moment --

Their cuteness factor is practically off the scale. And here's Mom with her brood of 10 --

Alas, their numbers will dwindle considerably as time goes on as they're perfect snacks for the Roadrunner, coyote, gray fox, bobcat, and probably snakes, too. I saw them for the first time on the 27th, didn't see them for 2 days, then caught a quick glimpse on the 30th, when it looked like a few were MIA -- or DOA.

One of the unique things abound the monsoonal sunrises and sunsets is their complexity; there's usually lots going on. Here it's the setting sun's glow on clouds, a saucer-shaped cloud to the right above Limestone Mountain, and three rays that resemble searchlights --

The sunrise the next day was golden -- 

Tundra and I, along with my friends Lori and Mark, drove through Rucker Canyon, a picturesque east-west route through the Chiricahuas. As with most roads here, it's unpaved, but it's in good condition at the moment, though that could change as the monsoon season progresses. The scenery is spectacular, and the clouds made it even more so -- 

We were mainly out to find birds. Lori said a Buff-breasted Flycatcher, a bird that's only seen in certain "sky islands" in SE Arizona, was spotted at a campground in Rucker Canyon. I'd seen one a few years ago while on a hike along Cave Creek, but they're infrequently seen, to put it mildly, Once we arrived in the actual canyon, we went down to the creek, which was still flowing even though the monsoons haven't started officially, and I saw these tiny fish, perhaps 2 inches long at most. As it turns out, they're Chiricahua Dace, an endemic species only found in the Chiricahuas. It's been commonly thought that the fire in 2011 and flood in 2014 had wiped them out -- but here they were. But back to the Buff-breasted...Mark hooted a Pygmy Owl call, and the response was immediate. Birds seemed to be all over the place -- and we eventually ended up with at least 10 Buff-breasted Flycatchers!  In fact there were so many that we started concentrating on other birds; "Oh, it's just another Buff-breasted". I ended up taking about 50 photos of them --

Lori spotted a Violet-crowned hummingbird, considered to be "uncommon" in the US as it's a south- of-the-border bird; this one turned out to be a juvenile, as it doesn't yet have the adult's violet crown, and its front still isn't totally white -- 

This was a Life Bird for me; I'd never seen one before. (Thanks, Lori!) Then, though I was never able to get a photo to back it up, Lori said she saw a Berylline hummingbird, whose status in the US is even rarer than the Violet-crowned. Wow. The Pygmy Owl call brought in other birds, including a few Painted Redstarts --

But wait, there's more...After that Bird Fest, we went to the campground at the end of the road to have lunch, and hiked up the creek bed. While hiking we heard what sounded to be a scream. What the...It was obviously an animal, but we weren't quite sure which. Then a wild turkey flew pell-mell down the creek, obviously flying for its life. Then Lori said "it's a mountain lion!" And we saw the tail end of it going back up a faint path on the other side of the creek. Holy Toledo. Try as we might, we never saw it again, though that may have been a good thing. Mountain lions -- or a single one -- has been seen in Portal, and there's always a chance of coming across one while hiking in Cave Creek Canyon, but it's a thrill to actually see one as, well, they don't want to see you more than you don't want to see them. And -- there's more. After lunch, we went up another creek drainage, ostensibly looking for a somewhat rare butterfly, the Chiricahua White, that Lori and Mark had seen there on a previous trip. Lori, who was in the lead (and is a champion spotter) said "There's a bear!" and sure enough, there was a black bear on the other side of the creek drainage. It too disappeared, just like the mountain lion, but this time it seemed to stay in the drainage, not go up the hill, so as the trail was overgrown, we decided not to go any further as we didn't know if we'd accidentally come upon it. Well, wow. What an amazing day. The rest of the trip west, out of the canyon and into the valley, wasn't as eventful -- but how can you top what we'd seen? Lori -- yes, once again -- ID'd a Gray Hawk off the side of the road, which is a fairly rare bird for the Chiricahuas. Then we took the road -- unpaved, of course -- south through Leslie Canyon Nat'l Wildlife Refuge. It was established to protect another endemic Dace, and the creek goes through a lush riparian area that's in stark contrast to the surrounding high desert scenery. And it's isolated; a place where you wouldn't want to be by yourself, for various reasons.

As a reward, we ended up the day in Bisbee, first having beer at a brewery, then dinner at a Mexican restaurant, where we met out friend Peg, my neighbor across the street from Faranuf. The ride back home was up Hwy 80; totally dark with no street lights, and lightning flashes off in the distance. Whew! What a day. And I was zoning out, but still woke up at the usual 2:30am the next day. The sunrise was another memorable one; here's the view looking west, to Cave Creek Canyon --

And looking south, to New Mexico and the Peloncillo Mountains. Both of these views were taken from my property --

I had to do a grocery run to Douglas this day, so after the 150 mile-plus jaunt to Rucker Canyon, the 100-plus miles to Douglas and back made me reach my limit. But there was an interesting interaction in my back yard, a staredown over the water dish -- 

June ended with a visual splash. We might not have the monsoonal rain yet, but we do have the monsoonal sunrises and sunsets; here's yet another look at the predawn over Cave Creek Canyon -- 

And the glorious sunrise over the Peloncillos --

OK, I think that's enough for this blog entry...