Vacation, all I ever wanted

Mini Vacation, Summer 2007, Day 1 update:

BeanSS and I woke up at the crack of dark this morning to hit up Agua Caliente Park over on the northeast side. The AZ/NM bird listserv has been lit up since June 5th with sightings of a fairly unusual hummingbird at the park, so we headed over to the Tanque Verde Valley for some semi-urban birding. Its far closer than San Manuel Crossing, to which I've wanted to take BeanSS to since my seven tyrannid species day there earlier this month. Plus, the worlds best tortilleria is in Mammoth, and I didn't get to stock up last time.

The lower San Pedro River will remain an adventure for another day, but there at Agua Caliente, just before 8:00am, we added the plain-capped starthroat (Heliomaster constantii Delattre) to our respective life-bird lists. There were about 10 people stationed around the appointed snag to see this large, lanky, long-billed, drab, and highly insectivorous hummer and once it had made an appearance, hugs, high-fives, and even one high ten, were exchanged. Plain-capped starthroats are essentially Mexican and Central American birds, so it was a pretty big deal. I very well may never see one in the U.S. again. I understand there's a gentleman hoping to fly from Florida just to see it.

The "twitchers" packed up and left the instant the hummer flew off, but BeanSS and I stayed and looked for the blue-throated hummingbirds (Lampornis clemenciae Lesson) that are known to be nesting there this year. We struck out on the blue-throats, but did get several long looks at male and female broad-billed hummingbirds (Cynanthus latirostris Swainson), a lifer for BeanSS. Actually, the big dark hummer that BeanSS saw driving a male broad-bill from his perch could have been a male blue-throat, but we'd have needed more than a tenth of a second view of a small, fast-moving bird to be sure.

We also saw all sorts of other birds, including a coupla' species of diurnal raptors (my main reason for birding). Other vertebrates included numerous whiptails (Cnemidophorus spp.), a snake I didn't recognize, and a cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus Say and Ord or S. arizonae, depending on the taxonomy followed). The springhead pool was a who's-who of exotic cichlids, no doubt deliberately released from aquaria.

Upon the conclusion of our zoological expedition, it was off to Einsteins for a very late but delicious bagel-based breakfast, a quick stop at Tucson Bicycles for a sling-style frame pack for my vintage Fisher Montare, and then home to play with Clayton and take an afternoon nap. The sleepy time seemed unaffected by the gallon of coffee we'd collectively downed at breakfast. I guess many nights of insufficient sleep followed by hectic days at work, plus bike commuting and the lifting of weights in the mid-June inferno will do that. And damn if I don't need to head out into the backyard for more of the former activity right now.

This vacation may end up wearing me out completely, but isn't that the whole point sometimes?