April 21-May 8 --- A layover at a Long Beach (CA) RV resort...

I was born, raised, and had been living in San Pedro, aka the Port of Los Angeles, up until last year when I retired from Kaiser Hospital after working there for 34 years and hit the road for Travels of Discovery. I still have parents, condo and friends in the South Bay, so I'm staying at the Golden Shore RV Resort in Long Beach as it's the closest RV park to "Pedro" (pronounced PEE-dro by the locals). The setting here is spectacular, with the RV part visually between the Long Beach skyline and a marine wetlands preserve --

It's not exactly boondocking, or camping in a natural setting, but this IS the Los Angeles basin, and RV parks are at a premium, both land- and price-wise. One of the reasons I'm back here is to sell my condo, a corner unit on the 3rd floor which has a great view of the LA harbor and looking across to Orange County; the sunrises in particular can be spectacular -- 

Here's a street view of the condo (the one with the "For Sale" sign on it, of course). As of May 9th it's still for sale @ $389,000 -- anyone interested? ;o) --

The RV park in Long Beach is located at the mouth of the Los Angeles "River", which is concrete-lined for flood control. As I mentioned there is a wetlands here (I'm looking at it right now as I type this) and there can be a good selection of birds here -- surprisingly -- such as Black Oystercatcher --

And Black Skimmers, who are always fun to watch as they "skim" the water, scooping up fish -- 

And there are occasional surprises here along the ocean. While sitting on the rocks overlooking the wetlands one evening, I saw a small "powder green" blob fly onto a rock. I looked through my camera viewfinder and saw -- a Budgerigar, or Budgie, probably someone's escaped parakeet -- 

Poor thing, probably going to be raptor food before long...In between visiting with family and friends and running errands, getting ready for the next road installment of Travels of Discovery, I'm biking and hiking around the South Bay, possibly for the last time. Though most people tend to think of the area as heavily urbanized since it's a busy port, there are still oases of calm and natural beauty to be found here. For instance, there is George F Canyon on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, one of the last fairly pristine canyons left in the area, with its rare running (for the most part) stream -- 

As with much of the natural areas on the peninsula you can hear Spotted and California Towhee, Song Sparrow, Western Scrub Jay -- and if you're particularly vigilant, see Pacific-slope Flycatcher --

But you don't necessarily have to hike a trail to see "good birds". For instance, there is a "dog park" just off a busy street which has now has nesting Western Bluebirds. A few friends and I put up a bluebird nest box there a few years ago; I hadn't checked it for a year as I've been on the road, but the other day I found -- success! -- Mrs. Western BB coming out of the box -- 

Averill Park, with its ponds running the length of the park, is a place for contemplation, and has seen visits by Green-winged Teal and a male Mandarin Duck -- 

Those are turtles sunning on the rocks in the center foreground...Landscape-wise, the PV Peninsula is hard to beat in the Los Angeles area. Here's a view taken during a bike ride, looking north -- 

Malaga Cove is famous among local surfers; the Los Angeles basin and beach coastline is in the (smog-lined) background -- 

Here's the view from the same vantage point, looking south -- 

As you can see, this area is pretty spectacular. And there are inside places to visit, too. One I recommend is The Discovery Room at Ladera Linda Park, across from Trump Golf Course. It's full of local exhibits documenting the history of the area and its flora, fauna and geology. The "matriarch" of the Discovery Room is Yvetta Williams, who I have the honor of calling my friend. I donated the photos you see hanging on the wall of her Discovery Room -- 

It will be difficult to leave this area as I've been here all my life, but now it's time for the next chapter...

April 18-21 -- Goodbye to the Chiricahuas, and a Salton Sea interlude...

After coming down from Barfoot Park and the high Chiricahuas, it was time to clean up and get ready to leave my boondocking spot. I'd been "off the grid" for nearly 14 days and I'd grown quite comfortable with the setup and scenery --

I'd encountered no snakes, and the sounds of birds woke me up in the morning -- along with the fantastic view to the west, looking up Cave Creek Canyon; I never got tired of this view -- 

This was taken on Saturday April 19, just before I left the Chiricahuas. A storm was coming through, so I dodged raindrops as I hitched up Discovery to Tundra, muttering a few oaths of the "Godfrey Daniels!" variety as the rain fell harder. (I heard from a friend afterward that it hailed in Portal that afternoon.) The evening before I had a barbecued rib dinner with Helen Snyder, my real estate agent and new friend, along with her husband Noel and their circle of friends, at the Portal Store, while a country music band played outside. And just before that I spent an hour at Maya Decker's house just down the road from the boondocking spot. Maya used to live in southern California and was active in Orange County's Sea and Sage Audubon chapter; she subsequently moved to Portal and bought a converted hotel, a rambling structure that she lovingly restored and added to. Her garden is well-known for its birds, particularly hummingbirds, and in this part of SE Arizona that means Lucifer's and Magnificents; here's the latter -- 

She also has Orioles as regular visitors, such as this male Hooded Oriole in "red hot poker" plants --

But back to Saturday and leaving the Chiricahuas...There's a house in the area that I'm interested in 

buying. I'd visited it during my stay and had a "walkthrough" with Helen. I took one last look -- 

And placed my camera lens against the glass of the "Arizona Room", a long room in the back running the width of the house -- 

It's not an overstatement to say I fell in love with the Chiricahuas, Portal and the Black Hawk house, and its friendly and helpful residents. So it was with a twinge of regret that I headed back up Hwy 80 to Interstate 10 and started the drive west back to southern California. But I had one last look at the Chiricahua Mountains at Fort Bowie, where a thunderhead had formed over the northern end of the Chiricahuas -- 

In fact, thunderheads were popping up over the mountain ranges, and the wind was picking up. I stayed with my brother and his family overnight at Sierra Vista, then continued west on the I-10 then I-8, going through the saguaro desert that turned into the Mojave desert. I arrived at my day's destination, Salt Creek Campground on the north shore of the Salton Sea -- 

Salt Creek is a major bird "hangout"-- White and Brown Pelicans, Terns, Black-necked Stilts, Avocets, gulls of all types, and a "lifer" for me -- Red Knots, and in breeding plumage too --

I was thrilled when I saw my first one. Then I saw another, then another, then...I stopped counting at 30. OK, so they WEREN'T so special, at least at the Salton Sea...Flies were everywhere, and with the "Sea stench" and needle-sharp fish bones on the shoreline visiting the Sea can be a challenging experience, but the birds and landscape make it all worthwhile. The next day, the 21st, I start the drive into the Los Angeles basin, but stop off at the rest stop in Banning for a quick photo of Tundra and Discovery with Mount San Jacinto in the background -- 

and 4 hours later I'm at my RV spot in Long Beach, near the bike path and a marine reserve where Skimmers and Terns hang out -- 

It's time to see the family and friends, do chores -- and use the swimming pool so I can get my money's worth out of this expensive RV park...

April 15-17 Barfoot Park redux, and a dayhike to Chiricahua Peak

I'd already done an "overnighter" at Barfoot Park, but there is so much to see in the high Chiricachuas -- and I wanted to hike the Chiricahua Crest Trail starting above Rustler Park -- that I allotted 3 more days up there, camping once again at Barfoot Park. I drove the trans-Chiricahuan dirt road up to Onion Saddle, where the road drops down to the western side of the Chiricahuas, and took the Rustler Park road. The mountain lupine were in bloom, so I got my Canon-brand tube extender out, which turns my Canon 17-55 f/2.8 lens into a macro lens, and got a closeup --

It's a great and inexpensive way to turn what lenses you have into one that does macros (I could even put the tube extender onto my 100-400 f/5.6 lens, if I so wanted, and achieve a macro that way). I had bought a 3rd-party tube extender prior to getting the Canon one -- and it didn't work at all, though what does one expect from something costing a mere $15? So with macro, landscape and telephoto possibilities, I was set for my Barfoot sojourn. Taking the fork to Barfoot Park, the rough and bumpy dirt road goes through an area burned by 2012's Horseshoe 2 fire (that's "Cochise Head" in the center distance, through the burned trees, so-called because it looks like an "Indian's" profile in a horizontal position) -- 

When I arrive down at Barfoot Park, I find I'm not alone -- surprisingly; a couple from the Gila area of central Arizona was camping there for 2 days. We chatted about birds and the beauty of the place, then I took off for the road to Rustler Park. Along the road the views were wide-ranging and spectacular, with clouds adding to the overall picture  -- 

This is looking north, from the road to Rustler. I climbed to the top of the hill in the center right and looked out to what is truly an awe-inspiring view -- 

Only a panorama can give a mere inkling of "you are there", so this is 4 photos stitched together, looking southeast to Cave Creek Canyon in the distance; the snaky road is the trans-Chiricahuan road that I'd driven up earlier. In the distant left are the mountains of New Mexico. It's a view I never get tired of seeing... 

Here's a closeup of Cave Creek Canyon and the road.  That's Silver Peak on the left, and the town of Portal is on the other side of it. I then turned looking west from the same spot -- 

The destruction from the Horseshoe 2 fire is appallingly evident. I'll be hiking in that area when I "do" the Chiricahua Crest Trail tomorrow...But back to Barfoot Park, as evening descends over Buena Vista Peak, where Barfoot Lookout with its fire watch "hut" once was, but the fire along the crest burned everything in its path -- 

I got an early start the next day, the 16th as I would be hiking the Chiricahua Crest Trail from Rustler Park to Chiricahua Peak, highest point in the mountain range. I went to the trailhead at Rustler Park and the fire destruction was evident from the beginning -- 

Notices for reasons of (probably) liability, charred signposts (behind the Crest Trail sign), dead, leafless trees, and then there's Rustler Park campground, where I had camped in a dark green forest in 2008; now -- 

The actual "park" is just beyond that hill in the middle center; it's a meadow, like Barfoot, and, somewhat incredibly, escaped the worst of the destruction. But it's still a sobering sight...I decide to take a "shadow portrait" using the morning's lengthening shadow of myself and the 500 f/4 lens, which I carry with me on my day hikes as you never know when you'll see that "special" bird or animal here -- 

The trail goes just below the ridgeline, but sometimes a spur trail will take you to a view looking west -- 

The view seemingly extends for a hundred miles, showing valley and mountain range marching off into the distance -- and just below, hills stripped of growth from the fire. Then you enter the wilderness proper -- 

Though you can't see it, by this time the wind was starting to pick up, and would howl for the rest of the day, coming from the northwest. The trail sometimes just hugged the side of the ridgeline, with a drop hundreds of feet below, which can be unnerving at times when carrying a camera lens like the 500 at your side -- 

 But the views continued to be spectacular; here's a panorama looking west --

Finally, about 6 miles from the start at Rustler Park, you reach the top of the Chiricahuas -- Chiricahua Peak, and the USGS stamp telling the elevation -- 

Someone had left a small notepad in a baggie for hikers to record their names; the last person to do so had been there 3 days ago. A lone raven flew "kited" in the wind above the peak (there are very few if any crows in southern Arizona, and two species of Raven, Common and the smaller Chihuahuan). The top of the peak is flat with pine trees thinned out from the fire -- 

After having lunch I begin the mostly downhill hike back. There are still pockets of what the forest cover used to look like; here's a part of the trail near the curiously-named Booger Spring (well, we may not want to know WHY it was named that) -- 

As far as birds, Yellow-rumpeds are everywhere, I see 2 Spotted Towhees at about 9000 feet (!) and come across some Western Bluebirds at a saddle with trail junctions. Interestingly, Eastern Bluebirds were once common in the Chiricahuas, with a Mexican form that was known as "Azure Bluebird", and they are still around.  I so wanted to turn the Westerns I saw into Easterns, but it's another example of never totally knowing what you'll find here...Just before Rustler Park I come across Coues White-tailed Deer -- 

Here's another panorama showing the Chiricahua Crest looking north,with the burn area all along the upper reaches -- 

And the area around Rustler Park in the late afternoon -- 

Whew!  What a long day. I go back to Barfoot Park and set up camp out of the back of my Tundra -- 

The 2 people from the Gila area are gone, so I have the park to myself. And after dinner, just when I thought the surprises had finished for the day, I'm treated to another. Birds hover, or "kite," in the air around the rock face of Buena Vista Peak in the early morning and evening. I'd seen Turkey Vultures do it, and a Red-tail or two, but while looking at the peak behind Barfoot Park I saw a bird slowly gliding along the bluffs. I put the 500 f/4 lens on it and saw a black bird, looking very much like a Turkey Vulture, but it didn't fly with the same rocking motion as TVs do. As it flew to the west in my direction, I realized I finally had a Zone-tailed Hawk. It's been said that Zone-taileds use their similarity in appearance to Turkey Vultures to confuse any possible prey --

 This is probably a male, with its broad white band on the tail and one band at the tail base; females also have the broad white tail band, but also 3 to 4 narrower white tail bands (this info from the National Geographic's "Field Guide to Birds of North America", which along with Rick Taylor's "Birder's Guide to Southeastern Arizona"is my bird Bible when in the area). What a great way to end my stay at Barfoot Park. I get up early the next day, have breakfast, pack up and park the truck near the meadow and try one more time for possible Red-faced and Olive Warbler, Hepatic Tanager (I've seen them here on a stay 6 years ago) -- and Short-tailed Hawk, a bird which has been proven to nest in the area. I think I see the Short-tailed, flying along Barfoot Peak to the north of the park, but turns out it's just an adult Cooper's Hawk. So I head back in the direction of Rustler Park as I have one more bird to look for -- Olive Warbler, which is not really a warbler at all and has been recently placed in its own family. I've been told by a respected authority in Portal the location where they are most likely to be found, and after 3 tries I get some good photos of this somewhat elusive bird, then with a feeling of "mission accomplished" I say goodbye to Barfoot and the high Chiricahuas -- for now...

April 14 -- With the Mexican Chickadees along the Greenhouse Trail

 My "new" friend Dodie, birder and artist from Minnesota who has been spending part of the year at the Chiricahuas for awhile now, recommended the Greenhouse Trail as a good place to see a variety of habitat with a corresponding variety of birds. The trail goes all the way up to the Chiricahua Crest Trail --and I would see that intersection when I hike the Crest Trail a few days later. But it starts at Herb Martyr Road in Pinyon-Juniper woodland -- and right off the bat, just at the start of the trail, I hear the mournful call of, then see, a Dusky-capped Flycatcher (click on the name to hear the Dusky-capped's calls and song) --

If it weren't for the call I'd have a hard time IDing it in the field, which is why I tote the 500 f/4 lens around on my day hikes, since this clearly shows one of the ID marks of a Dusky-capped -- secondary feathers are "washed" with rufous coloring, unlike any other "Myarchus" flycatchers. I came upon another Dusky-capped later on in the hike -- 

 It was around 9am, and the air was full of singing birds, such as this Grace's Warbler (click on the name to hear the bird's calls and song) --

I mean, he was really belting it out, a Frank Sinatra among warblers -- 

 Simply spectacular -- and I remember myself thinking, as I have done so many times during the past year of my travels, that there is nowhere else I'd rather be, the moment was perfect in every way...The habitat along the trail is now a mix of Sierra Madrean pine and oak woodland, with Ponderosas scattered here and there, so there are Juniper Titmouse chattering along with the "shreep!" of Western Scrub-Jay. And a White-breasted Nuthatch was grubbing around the bark of a tree, and found a snack --

Lizards seem to be everywhere in the Chiricahuas, and the area around the Greenhouse Trail is no exception -- 

What I wouldn't do to see a Gila Monster -- though from a safe distance... But once again, you never know what you might come across here in this ultimate "sky island". And there are those species that are unique only to the Chiricahuas, such as the Apache Fox Squirrel, probably one of the most striking-looking squirrels you're ever to see, with its rich red coloring -- 

The Greenhouse Trail keeps climbing, and now you enter a mountain meadow -- 

The meadow, like much of this area of the Chiricahuas, shows evidence of 2012's Horseshoe 2 fire and its seeming arbitrariness, charring some trees while leaving others relatively untouched --

Ahhh, the scent of pine...And it's just about 300 yards from this point that I make the re-aquaintance with that most wished-for of all the bird species to be found in the Chiricahuas, Mexican Chickadee (click on the name to hear the Chickadee's calls) --

It's the only Chickadee to be found here, and the Chiricahuas are the ONLY place on public land in the United States that you encounter them. Even though they're "common" in the Chiricahuas, they're still a bit challenging to find. But this one seemed to be putting on a show for me -- 

Once you cross the meadow, the trail continues on up to the Crest Trail, about 3 miles and perhaps 2,000 feet above, so I reluctantly head back -- and flush out what I believe to have been Montezuma Quail. You never notice them as they blend in so well with their surroundings, and they fly off at the last minute. Alas, I can't re-find them, and though I also encounter them along South Fork road a few days later -- and actually see them; 2 are crossing the road -- I end up with no photos of Montezuma Quail. But, getting back to the meadow along Greenhouse Trail, the dayhike still holds one more surprise. I see Flycatcher -- a BIG one. It's hidden behind a single branch, so I can't get a totally unobscured look at it --

RATS -- 

And it isn't calling, but with that crest, and large bill -- and then it flies to a higher perch, in the direction of the sun of course, but now it's unobscured -- 

I've been wanting to get this species for a LONG time. It's a lifer for me, and one of the signature birds of SE Arizona's sky islands, known for its "Jose Maria" call, the King of Pewees (and you thought it was Peewee Herman),  Greater Pewee (click on the name to hear the Pewee's call) -- 

With that large bill, and showing the head crest in the previous photo -- no doubt about it, even though I never heard its call. I am truly a Happy Camper by this point. And to add to another great day in the Chiricahuas, I hear the call of Mexican Whip-poor-will, in the day (very unusual) while in that same meadow. Gee, how can you top THIS day? Well, it happens, when I go back to Barfoot Park and camp for the next 3 days there...