ARIZONA - MARCH 28-APRIL 5, 2002 Here are some brief notes to let everyone know how things are going! Day 1: Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Great birds included Phainopepla, Yellow-Eyed Junco, Gila Woodpecker and Mexican Jay. One of the most common (but still cool) birds was the Cactus Wren! We encounterd these everywhere, including outside our hotel room the first morning. This yellow-eyed junco was a great photo opportunity. Very friendly! Desert birdwatching can be a bit boring for a 2-year old, but Karsten finds ways to amuse himself, including using interpretive signs as drums. Day 2: Patagonia Roadside Rest Area (yes...it's a famous rest area for birding), Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve, Patagonia State Park and the Paton's backyard. The Paton's are a family that have turned over their backyard for the betterment of hummingbird watching. They provide a tent fly for shade, seating under that tent for about a dozen people on benches and chairs, at least 10 feeders and great birds. We picked up black chinned (below), violet crowned, calliope, broad billed and rufous hummingbirds in just minutes. Day 3: Sonora Arizona Desert Museum. The word museum didn't strike me right when I first heard the name of this place, but it turns out to be a combination arboretum, aviary, botanical garden, natural history museum, zoo and wildlife refuge rolled into one. We joined a birdwalk and afterwards spent several hours exploring this masterpiece. They sound like cardinals, look sort of like cardinals, but pyrrhuloxias defintely aren't cardinals. The Desert Museum included several restaraunts and snack areas. Karsten had a pyrrhuloxia land on his chair during this stop. Here Karsten enjoys a croissant. That afternoon we made one of several stops at sewage lagoons. Great places to bird! This ruddy duck shows that even a good midwest bird can be exciting to see in a great location with good lighting. Day 4: Madera Canyon. One of the most highly talked about birding locations for non-residents and this area didn't let us down. While our species and lifer counts were not very high, we had some fantastic looks at several new birds, including: Elf Owl -- we ended our day with this very small owl. Here it peaks out of a hole in a telephone pole created by an acorn woodpecker. Painted redstart was high on our target list. What a great looking bird. The best spot of the day was a Spotted Owl. After hiking over 1/2 mile up one of the canyon trails, we were taking a rest when Heidi spotted this owl landing nearby. When we reported this species, it made almost everyone back down around the lodge and feeder areas buzz with excitment. One group of four even took off to go try to relocate it, despite it being located on a steep rocky canyon trail (and they found it, we found out later!). Our lists say that this bird is very hard to find outside of a few locations (and this was outside of those spots). Slightly smaller than our barred owl, with spots on the flanks rather than bars. Karsten was very excited upon seeing this owl. We definitely print him a copy of these pictures to put on his wall.