Uncategorized – Page 94

Another view of an elegant trogon (Trogon elegans), showing the silky iridescent greens and blues of its mantle feathers. At Madera Canyon in the Coronado National Forest, Pima County, Arizona.

Elegant trogon (Trogon elegans), at Madera Canyon in the Coronado National Forest, Pima County, Arizona.

I spotted several of these magnificent birds on both days of my stay at Santa Rita Lodge. This colorful specimen is a male. I saw, but was unable to photograph, his female companion.

And I heard more ETs than I saw. As they move up and down the canyon as the temperatures rise and fall during the day, they announce themselves with a repetitive bwrrr bwrrr bwrrr call, like the insistent barking of an agitated chihuahua. You can here samples of their sounds here.

Untitled.

Watering hole.

Coatimundi (Nasua narica, the white-nosed coati), at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, in Coronado National Forest, Arizona.

Please click photo for an enlarged view.

Coatimundi (Nasua narica, the white-nosed coati), at Santa Rita Lodge. Coatis are diurnally active, and this handsome fellow climbs up from the canyon below to the lodge’s bird feeding area several times each day to check out the action, scrounge a few treats, and get a drink of water. He’s still a wild animal, but habituated to people – an opportunist who isn’t put off by gawkers on the lodge deck.

At Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, in Coronado National Forest, Pima County, Arizona.

Mexican jay (Aphelocoma wollweberi), at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, in Coronado National Forest, Pima County, Arizona.

July 4, 2019.

Reptile rescue: The cat found a little playmate in a cool dark corner of the living room this morning. Captured, photographed, and released outdoors before the games got too rough.

Ornate tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus), in Glendale, Arizona. This lizard was tiny, only about an inch long from snout to vent (2.5 cm).

Clark’s spiny lizard (Sceloporus clarkii) on an alligator juniper tree (Juniperus deppeana), at Madera Canyon in Coronado National Forest, Pima County, Arizona.

Rivoli’s hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens) at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, in Coronado National Forest, Pima County, Arizona. My room at the lodge had a treetop view that looked down into the canyon. I was able to watch these amazing birds gorge on gnats, then dash out of view to the nectar feeders to wash them down.

Etymology note: For a brief while this bird was commonly known as the magnificent hummingbird. In 2017 the ornithologists who task themselves with such things changed the name to Rivoli’s, in honor of amateur ornithologist François Victor Masséna, Duke of Rivoli (b. 1799). Our lovely Anna’s hummingbirds are named after his wife, the duchess.