Early Morning Beauty at Tohono Chul Park

Yesterday morning I went to the Park early for a bird walk scheduled for 8:30. When I got there I was the only person around. I stood for a while in the central part of the Park, what we call the Sundial Plaza, and just looked, breathing the fresh scents, listening to many birds calling (cardinal, Gambel’s quail, Bell’s vireo, lesser goldfinch, house finch, white-winged dove, cactus wren), feeling the faint breeze on my skin. It was so beautiful, so lush, that tears filled my eyes and I wished that everyone I know could have been there. 

Here are some of the things I saw. I only wish my photos could really capture the incredible beauty.

                                 

This is an overview of the Sundial Plaza, showing the circle with its beautiful flowers, including giant hesperaloe (red yucca), ageratum, and tecoma stans (yellow bells). There were small gray birds on the hesperaloe, probably young verdins.

Here is another shot from deeper inside the sundial plaza, with a shot of one of the two male cardinals who spent a good bit of time chasing each other away; I don’t know who ultimately won.

                                                                                        

On a nearby desert trail, you can see why some early visitors to the desert thought the saguaro had a red flower; these fruits can be seen all over the Park, often with a white-winged dove in attendance.

             

Finally, on another trail, here is one of my favorite mourning dove nests. The mother, who built her nest on TOP of an old cactus wren nest, is raising her second brood of two babies (you can just see the beak of the second baby behind the first). They were totally motionless as I watched, no doubt certain that made them invisible.

                                                        

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