Day Two at the Grand Canyon

Day two dawned with a blue sky and slightly warmer temperatures. Avi and I took the Grand Canyon bus to the Bright Angel Lodge to check out their coffee shop. It is actually doing double time, becoming a bar later in the day. My cappuccino was good and Avi’s coffee was also eminently drinkable.

Then we headed out to spend the morning hiking along the Rim Trail.

As we hiked we also birded and had one of those special birding moments. Avi and I were looking at a nearby tree – at two different birds. Avi was looking at a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I focused on a Warbler and directed Avi’s attention to it. We both agreed it was a Northern Parula. Only problem? It wasn’t supposed to be at the Grand Canyon.

We mentioned it to a Ranger we met a bit further down the trail, but it didn’t seem to register with him. Later in the day we were going to attend a talk by a representative from Hawkwatch International, so we decided to bring it up with him that afternoon.

As a little addendum, two other birds we saw that were supposed to be there were a wonderful migrating Peregrine Falcon and a Cooper’s Hawk.

We continued on with the usual breathtaking vistas of the Canyon in optimal light.

Along the Rim Trail, there are markers indicating the billions of years of depth in the Canyon as distance markers. We walked about two miles, equaling about 4,600+ million years. Avi and I began debating about the formation of the Canyon.

We were fortunate enough to meet up the a Ph.D. candidate in Geology, doing some work at the Canyon as part of an internship/education (his, not ours) program. He told us the Canyon was mostly started by the Colorado River and enlarged by eons of erosion by rain, snow, ice, and wind. This was a bit of a conflict from the theory that there was seismic activity that contributed to its formation. But it seems that the river theory seems to be the more popular one – at least this year!

At one of the overlooks, while walking out on the path, we encountered a very insistent Rock Squirrel. S/he kept going from person to person, standing in front and begging for food. Nobody I saw rewarded this behavior. But there must be some rewards forthcoming, since the squirrel seemed a bit miffed s/he received nothing from those of us that were there that morning.

Rock Squirrels are very pretty animals. Here’s one in a less anthropomorphic position:

Something new I learned this time at the Grand Canyon is the fact there used to be a uranium mine there. In fact, some of the equipment and the entrance to the mine is still visible from the overlook. The area was “cleaned up” a few decades ago. But, considering the mine was still active during the 1960’s, I wonder what’s still emanating from that open hole today?

We took a bus back to have lunch at the Arizona Room, also in the Bright Angel Lodge. The Arizona Room has interesting and reasonably priced meals for lunch and dinner. Also, their tables for two are at a window by the rim area of the park.

After lunch we walked over to the Lookout Studio to see if there were any California Condors around. Most of them had already gone to winter in southern Utah. But there were, supposedly, about a dozen remaining in the park’s area. Luck was not on our side.

Earlier in the morning, Avi saw a very large bird swoop down behind one of the Canyon walls. We’re not sure if he saw a Condor or not. He’s still trying to decide if he wants to claim it on his list or not.

Since the Hawkwatch talk was at 2, we decided to head out to Yavapi Point, the meeting spot. We got there a bit early, so we did a little watching of our own. Before Felipe, our Hawkwatch rep showed up, we tallied a Red-tailed Hawk for the list.

The migration talk was the usual, except for learning that you watch hawks down in the Canyon, rather than up in the sky. We hadn’t really thought of it. But the thermals push the hawks up within the Canyon, and then they glide over to the next thermal, also within the Canyon. This offers a most interesting hawk migration watch, since you’re seeing the birds from above, and more closely, making identification a bit more accessible. Cool!

We spent a little time with the Hawkwatch people, while I told Felipe about our Parula. He was quite interested and asked for my email. He said he would be having dinner with the Ranger who maintains the park’s bird list and would pass the information along.

That night I received an email from the Ranger asking for more details on our sighting – otherwise known as a “Rare Bird Report”. We submitted it and it was accepted. We now have credit for only the third sighting of a Northern Parula at the Grand Canyon. Again, cool!

Finally, the other attention-grabbing thing from our morning at the Canyon was the witnessing of a helicopter rescue. There are often helicopters around the Grand Canyon, mostly tours and supplies deliveries. But this one was a little different, since there was a rescue basket hanging from the bottom and it was coming up from lower in the Canyon.

We found out there are over 300 of these rescues a year at the Grand Canyon, mostly young men who think they can hike down to the bottom and back up in one day. They miscalculate any number of things and wind up in trouble. Rescues occur via Ranger, mule, or helicopter.

If you’re morbidly curious, there’s a book all about tragedies in the Grand Canyon: Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers.

I’ll leave you with a shot of the Hopi House, designed by renowned architect Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, one of the first American architects to appreciate the utility and beauty of American Indian design. Following Hopi architectural traditions, the building was constructed primarily by Hopi workmen using native stone and wood.

Of course, the fact that two Common Ravens had decided to perch on it, was what motivated this photo.

Day One at the Grand Canyon

After leaving the Petrified National Forest we began the long drive to the Grand Canyon National Park. We decided to take the scenic route through the East entrance. Unfortunately, our sunset timing was off and we arrived at the park well after dark.

The “Village” is a convoluted area of curving roads and we had a tough time navigating our way to our specific lodging (there are about four different accommodations in the park). But we were able to sniff our way to the Maswik Lodge with the help of Thelma, our trusty Garmin nuvi GPS. Thanks Thelma!

We awoke in the morning to thick fog and heavy on and off drizzle. UGH! We made an executive decision to cancel our trip to Bryce Canyon and stay an extra day at Grand Canyon. Luckily the Lodge was able to accommodate us for another night. Instead of staying in the park, we decided to drive back east, catch a few views of the Canyon, and head up towards Kanab, UT to do some sightseeing and shopping. I only intended to buy a few small gifts, since the trunk of a Mazda Miata matches the size of the car.

What a great decision it was! On the way out the fog and heavy cloud cover made for some breathtaking views – possibly even more breathtaking than the Canyon on a sunny day. Of all the photos we took, we call this one the “money shot”.


Note the rainbow near the center.

We continued up to 89A, the scenic route that would take us through the Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs. We tried very hard to capture another shot enhanced by the inclement weather, but weren’t quite as successful. Remember now, we were only using a point-and-shoot Panasonic Lumix (albeit with a Leica lens).



The drive took us over the Navajo Bridge. They really were two bridges – one you drove over and the other for pedestrians. We did the walking bridge twice. Once on the way up and the other on the way down.


Our return visit was prompted by someone telling us Condors sometimes like to perch on the bridge. But not today. But we did get spectacular views overlooking the Colorado River, the river that eventually runs through the Grand Canyon.

We stopped at an area called Cliff Dwellers. It was a bit of a misnomer – there were no cliff dwellings. However, there were enormous boulders,one of which was used as a home for a woman who came to this area and decided to make it her home. There are people and vehicles in this series of photos to give a sense of scale.

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This one shows true scale. Look at the man in the lower left area of the photo.

We drove back to the Grand Canyon via the east entrance and caught a few glimpses of the low sun against the Canyon.


During our drive we had seen spectacular scenery and I was able to purchase a few gifts – earrings and a necklace fit nicely into a small compartment in the car. I also made good use of a nuno felted scarf I purchased before the trip.



Upon our return to the Lodge, we saw a few White-tailed Deer. A lovely end to the day!

Southwest Boogie: Painted Desert/Petrified National Forest

This was a return visit for me, but a new site for Avi, who marveled at the beauty of the scenery. When I did this trip with Dan we spent most of our time in the Painted Desert. This time we stopped a few times along the Painted Desert, then drove (and hiked) down to the Petroglyphs before continuing onto the Petrified Forest part of the Park.

At the Petroglyph spot, we were greeted by a Common Raven (though we also saw some Chuhuahua Ravens in the park as well), hanging around the parking lot. We surmise it was looking for a handout.

The petroglyphs were abundant at this stop. But there were more at another stop called Newspaper Rock. Some samples from the initial trail are below (with others on my Facebook page and, eventually on my Picasa page as well).

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My favorite has to be the bird that appears to have a person in it’s bill. One has to wonder where the inspiration for this sort of drawing arose.

Then there’s the petrified wood.

The wood was originally washed downriver and buried in the silt to be mineralized over centuries. Silica and other minerals remained when the actual wood rotted away, resulting in beautifully colored logs and pieces of logs laying around appearing as though it used to be an actual forest.

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We didn’t see many birds while we were there (other than Ravens). However, upon leaving the park and driving back up to I-40 we saw a young Golden Eagle flying overhead, being mobbed by two Ravens.

We drove on, arriving at the Grand Canyon well after dark. May I say the Grand Canyon National Park is quite the maze to get around in the dark with no park map available to us, since the entry booth was closed when we arrived.

However, we were able to “sniff” our way to our lodging for the next couple of nights, the Maswik Lodge.

Southwest Boogie Acoma Pueblo

At the recommendation of a friend we set out to visit the Acoma Pueblo (Sky City). This is a village set high up on a mesa. The settlement dates back to the 12th century C.E., and has been continuously inhabited since then.

Today about a dozen families reside there, many of them working in pottery and beads, selling their wares along the tours.

The drive up to the Pueblo is incredibly dramatic, with rock formations on either side of the road. Scenery in the Southwest is both dramatic and ever-changing. This drive was no exception.

You can only visit the Pueblo on an organized tour. We paid $20 each, which covered the tour and camera permits.

The tour guide told us the residents live without running water or electricity, cooking and heating with wood. This is probably true for many of them. But we found a bit of anachronistic details in a couple of the homes. Can you find one in this photo?

(HINT: Look in the upper right corner of the photo.)

Avi and I, being creatures of detail, enjoyed the way of couple of the homes were set apart from the others through a little bit of decoration. One home even had a hummingbird feeder out, though we didn’t see any of the birds around, other than a few House Sparrows, masters of civilization everywhere.

The tour was interesting, the Pueblo was interesting, but, for me, the pottery was the MOST interesting. Inside the visitor center was a piece that will haunt me for years. It was a multi-piece Storyteller Doll – a Grandfather telling a story to many children.

The detailing is incredible. Every character has a Ladybug somewhere. The Grandfather has a small lizard on his foot and a butterfly on the bolo he wears around his neck.

The work is an enchanting piece of art. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the name of the artist. Shame on me!

I left the Pueblo richer by two pieces of pottery, beautifully and painstakingly decorated with natural slips created from the colored clays and sandstone in the area.

We took the tour bus down and continued on to the Painted Desert/Petrified National Forest.

Southwest Boogie, Oct. 23

We drove all afternoon yesterday and spent the night in Van Horn, TX. Woke up early in the morning, partook of our Holiday Inn Express "breakfast" and hit the road.

Our first stop was White Sands National Monument where we placed the very first stamp in our new National Parks Passport.

 

Unfortunately, it had rained heavily a couple of days prior so half the park was closed to traffic. But even access to half the park is pretty impressive! It's basically large white dunes made of gypsum. In fact, they're reputed to be the largest gypsum dune field in the world: 275 square acres. The National Park only uses part of the White Sands area. The rest is used by the US military for missile testing. In fact, the Trinity Site (where the first atomic bomb was detonated) lies at the northern end of the dune field.

Not much in the way of birds other than an easily identified Say's Phoebe. Any other birds we saw were small and flying away from us. So we spent our time looking at the vegetation and the way it interacted with the dunes in which it grew -- the sand giving these hardy plants a home and, in return, the plants giving the dunes some stability against the wind and rain.

After White Sands we drove back to Las Cruces, NM because we HAD to have a couple of #2 combination plates from Nellie's. It was the first time I've gone off my diet -- but it was necessary. If you've eaten at Nellie's you know. If you haven't eaten at Nellie's, get thee there ASAP!

We drove farther north and spent the afternoon checking things out at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio, NM. This refuge is famous for its wintering flocks of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese. Although the bulk of the populations hadn't yet arrived, there were sufficient numbers to have brought out over a dozen photographers. In fact, I DO believe we were the only "just plain birders" there.

While we were watching, a small flock of Ross' Geese also flew in, landing near the larger Snow Geese and giving us a nice contrasting view of the two species.

We drove around the area for a while to see what else was around. We came across a field filled with American Crows, a few smaller birds scattered in different trees, and two falcons: an American Kestrel and a Merlin (photo below).





As the sun began going down, we decided not to complete the Marsh loop. Avi was reluctant to drive too much after dark in rural areas. So, we continued north and marveled at an incredibly beautiful sunset with luminescent clouds, followed by a bright full moon over the New Mexico desert.

We're staying in Albuquerque tonight and tomorrow hope to have time to get in everything we have optimistically planned.

Rather than post a bird list at the end of each day, fighting exhaustion, I'm just going to break it down in a final post after I've arrived home.

So, I'll leave you with our sunset and moonshine photos.

Doin' the Southwest Boogie

Today Avi and I will embark on what I'm calling our "Southwest Boogie". Translated, this means we are going to put the top down on the Mazda Miata and hit the road. Our itinerary is a wonderful combination of nature, culture, and scenery. We've even purchased a National Parks Pass for the occasion.

A quick rundown of our anticipated visits:
White Sands National Monument, NM
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, NM
Acoma Pueblo, NM
Painted Desert/Petrified National Forest, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
Bryce Canyon, UT
Avi's medical school roommate in Scottsdale, AZ
Chiricahua National Monument, AZ
Big Bend National Park, TX

Yes, it's ambitious, especially for a mere 10 days. But it will be a taste of many different things. And, speaking of taste, I've yelped and roadfooded several of our stops (along with memories of the best places Dan and I ate on some of the same route during our drive to Seattle). So food will be an added component to the trip. I KNOW we'll be stopping at Nellie's in Las Cruces, NM and The Frontier in Albuquerque, NM. But I'm hoping we'll find a few other "gems" as well.

So, stay tuned for some amazing scenery, interesting stories, and maybe even some birds!

Quiet Summer

It's been a quiet summer -- at least birdwise. Because we've been busy with our adult children, who are now located on opposite corners of the country (Seattle, WA and Hollywood, FL), we've been doing quite a bit of non-birding travel, although there's always some birding involved in any place we go and anything we do.

We did travel over to Hollywood to visit our daughter for a few days and, in between, caught a ride to the John Lloyd State Park, just a few miles away from her apt. A friend of my daughter's gave us a ride and dropped us off at the entrance. Unfortunately, we miscalculated distances and wound up walking much farther into the park to get to the nature trail than we had originally thought. It was hot and humid and we also didn't bring water, assuming our walk would be minimal.

Luckily, there were restrooms with vending machines near the nature trail, so we corrected our mistake (one which I plan to never make again) and checked out what their trail had to offer. The trail took us through various habitats, including mangroves, beachside, intracoastal waterway, and forest. Though it wasn't very birdy, we thoroughly enjoyed the local Agriope Spiders and their enormous webs. We approximated one to be about 6 feet from top to bottom.

I think we also saw Horseshoe Crab nests with distinctive trails leading to and from the sandy areas in which they were located.

We're both looking forward to going back and, instead of helping our daughter get settled, getting in some quality birding time.

Also in the nearer future: a road trip through part of the Southwest. On the itinerary during our West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah travels:
White Sands National Monument, Bosque del Apache, possibly Sandia National Forest, Acoma Pueblo, Painted Desert/Petrified National Forest, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, a visit to Phoenix (to see my husband's medical school roommate), and a couple of other stops which are yet to be determined. If you have any suggestions, especially between Phoenix, AZ and Las Cruces, NM, please be sure to let me know in the comments section.

Finally, in the more distant future, we'll be going on a birding survey in Cuba with the Ct. Audubon Society's Ecotravel divisition and the Caribbean Conservation Trust (just got word of this year's license approval). With all the talk of allowing Americans to, once again, travel to Cuba, I'm happy we'll be seeing it before the influx of American development.

Apparently Nature just had a special on what Cuba has to offer for someone interested in nature. You can watch it here. I haven't seen it yet, but will be watching it within the next couple of days.

So, stay tuned. I'm hoping our time in the field will increase, as will the birding posts here.