Fall Hiking in Arizona

My blog has been silent since the summer due to a difficult fall and busy semester full of classes to both take and teach. But with my last semester of taking classes complete and final grades submitted, I'm using this holiday season to take a breather and catch up on some things. Despite everything else going on, I managed to squeeze in a few rejuvenating weekend hikes over the last few months; here are some of the highlights, including lots of birds, courtesy of my new telephoto lens.

First, the photos from a hike at the top of Mount Lemmon (Marshall Gulch and Aspen trails) from early September.

A view west(ish) from the Marshall Gulch Trail.

A butterfly in the family Pieridae, probably a southern dogface (Zerene cesonia).

I'm not sure what this cute little bird is.

This is the aptly named acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus).

I told you it was aptly named!

Woodpecker in flight. I think this is also an acorn woodpecker.

Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), a common but impressive raptor.

This was a challenging identification. It's a yellow-eyed junco (Junco phaeonotus).
It looks like the dark-eyed junco, a  species with considerable regional variation, and a southwestern morph that has a distinctive reddish-brown back patch, but the yellow irises of the eyes are the distinguishing feature!

This is a baby greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi).
You can't tell from this photo, but its body is only about 3 cm long.

Another greater short-horned lizard, sometimes called a "horny toad", for perhaps obvious reasons. When threatened,
especially by canids, these and other horned lizards can squirt blood out of their eyes as a defense mechanism.

I suspect, due to the large ears and red back, that this is an Abert's squirrel (Sciurus aberti).

Wildflowers everywhere! I particularly loved this mixture of so many species and colors.

This is an Arizona sister (Adelpha eulalia). Butterflies in this genus are supposedly called "sisters" because the white and
black markings on the wings resemble a nun's habit.

This is the same butterfly (it stayed still for quite a while, beating its wings occasionally) from the front,
where you can see its eyes and a bit of the underwing, which is actually gorgeously patterned.

A bee flying between pineywoods geraniums (Geranium caespitosum).

A different type of bee, along with other small unknown insects, on a different type of pink flower, this time a thistle.
I think it's a Wheeler's thistle (Cirsium wheeleri), but I'm not an expert on bees by any means.

Another thistle, presumably also a Wheeler's, this one with what I think is a silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus).

Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor). This one seems to be in the middle of ovipositing.

And now the photos from two hikes in Sabino during November, mostly from the relatively flat and close by areas (Esperero, Rattlesnake, Sabino Lake, and Bluff Trails).

Empress Leila or desert hackberry butterfly (Asterocampa leilia).

A funnel web or funnel weaver spider (family Agelenidae).

Ornate tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus).

The Sabino dam, overflowing with water, a happy sight.
Also the Arizona sycamore (Platanus wrightii) providing some fall color.

Water droplets on the waxy cuticle of a prickly pear cactus.

We saw several northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis)...

Including multiple males apparently competing for female attention.

Despite appearances, this is not a female cardinal, but a closely related species in the same genus,
Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus).

Lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria), not quite as vividly colored as the male American goldfinch, but still beautiful.

I think this one is an Abert's towhee (Melozone aberti)

Curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre), sighted on both hikes.

Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), a common and distinctively tufted Tucson resident.

Cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus), the state bird of Arizona.

An adorable pair.

Although cacti don't look like comfortable perches, cactus wrens beg to differ.
I like that here you can see the wren's foot gripping the saguaro's spines.

I'm hoping 2020 will be calmer, contain more hiking, and include more downtime in which to share stories and photos, as well as in-person visits with at least some of you. Happy holidays!