There's lots of time to cover in this post, so less writing and more photos. First off, let's finally get the Trinidad trip finished..
One of the naturalists at Asa Wright, Yosanna, showing her pet boa constrictor.
David Sibley sketching on the verandah (photo courtesy of Carol Comeau)
Asa Wright's groundskeeper Mukesh and the grounds he keeps
The final tour of my stay at Asa Wright was to Caroni Swamp, famous for its fly-in for the night by thousands of Scarlet Ibis.
A closeup of one of the stars of the show
Part of the fly-in for the night
The island roost at Caroni Swamp
Cheers with the requisite rum punch for a successful tour!
And I finally have a up close and personal encounter with a Bearded Bellbird.
OK -- Now that we finally got the memorable stay at Trinidad's Asa Wright done, it's back home to Portal. On December 7th we finally had snow, though it melted by the afternoon. I was glad I took photos otherwise no one would have believed me. This was at our Cave Creek Canyon Visitor Info Center, where I'm one of the volunteers.
A photo of the moon setting over one of the Cave Creek Canyon "monoliths"
While volunteering at our visitor center a fellow came in, saying two hikers said they'd seen an Elegant Trogon up South Fork. The following day I decided to take a look, carrying my 500mm lens. The autumn scenes were still, well, autumnal...
And dang if I didn't get the male Elegant Trogon. In full sunlight, with a fall color backdrop. And you can see why they used to be called Coppery tailed Trogons. This is the best photo I've ever taken of a Trogon -- and probably ever will.
The sunrises on the eastern side of the Chiricahuas hadn't lost their "wow" factor ---
There's at least one Northern Harrier that's a regular at Willow Tank. Here"She" was being blown about by the wind, but the 500mm lens managed to catch her banking and in full wing spread.
Hey, it really is winter here! It's December 18, and the high Chiricahuas have a thin cover of snow.
Even the formation called "The Fingers" looked brooding, like the "Lord of the Rings"'s Mountains of Mordor.
Then it was time for my usual holiday trip to visit my dad. And the usual traffic; this is on the 91 freeway going through Riverside.
The sunrises at the Los Angeles port town of San Pedro could be just as spectacular as the ones back home at Portal.
Harbor Park, across from the Kaiser Hospital where I worked for 34 years (really?) was recently re-opened after being closed for 2 years for rehabilitation and renovation. It's really improved and been cleaned up, and had a good variety of birds; here's a male Common Yellowthroat. Though it was always one of the birdiest spots in southern California, I can see it becoming even better than before -- so long as it doesn't get trashed as it previously was.
I returned home to Portal in early January. I've always wanted to get a good quality photo of a Ferruginous Hawk, so I went across the border to New Mexico and cruised up and down the agricultural fields near Cotton City. I saw this beautiful juvenile on a power pole.
There has been an irruption of Cassin's Finches in the area; they've been seen in lower-elevation locations. As friends had seen them at their feeders, I thought they'd missed my back yard until this female showed up.
Three of us Portalites have started a "500 Club", where we each have a 500mm lens. We took a day outing to Whitewater Draw on the west side of the Chiricahuas. Whitewater is famous for its wintering Sandhill Cranes, which in some years has reached 20,000 and more. On this day our 500mm lenses proved useful as the cranes were further away from the viewing path.
The majesty of the Sandhill Crane -- though they do have muddy feet.
And we saw two Vermilion Flycatchers at Whitewater, both males -- a juvenile and and this one, an adult.
So this being They Year of Travel, I'm currently on a mesa south of Overton, Nevada, boondocking (off the grid) with my travel trailer. But that's for the next post..
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