Monsoon Season has started in Southeast Arizona

As we shared in earlier blogs, one of the reasons we are spending the summer in southeast Arizona is to experience the monsoon or rainy season in the Chiricahuas. The locals told us the rains usually begins around the 4th of July..... this year the rain started a little earlier. With the rain comes lower temperatures and lots of beauty and life. We hope you enjoy some of our photos below.

There are spectacular views in every direction...

With the rain, we started seeing more and more butterflies...

Arizona Sister Butterfly....

This one is a Golden-banded Skipper...

Not sure which of the skippers this is....

Birds were everywhere....

Male Arizona Woodpecker...

Black Phoebe....

Female Black-headed Grosbeak

Female and male Blue Grosbeaks.....birds of the desert

Male Blue Grosbeak

Male Blue-throated Hummingbird

After the first rains, we started to hear the sparrows singing....

Cassin's Sparrow are known for their lark like song and aerial display. We can hear them singing all day and night in the grass & mesquite areas:-) Apparently they wait for the monsoon rains to begin before they find their mates to ensure they have enough food for their young.

 

Botteri's Sparrow is described in one of our bird books as a plain sparrow of the Mexican grasslands. There is nothing plain about it....what a personality. The day after the first rain, we encountered the Cassin's above and the Botteri's below singing away on opposite sides of the dirt road we were exploring. They almost seemed to be trying to out sing the other:-)

This was one of the only Chipping Sparrows we'd seen in quite awhile...

There were flycatchers and their young everywhere....

Brown-crested Flycatchers were calling....what a beak...

Cassin's Kingbird

We could hear Dusky-capped Flycatchers with their mournful call...

We could hear the "squeaky toy" call of the Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher all around us along Cave Creek.

This appeared to be a young Western Wood-Pewee looking for food from its parent 

... very interested in the camera noise...

Plumbeous Vireos could be heard everywhere....they obviously had a successful breeding season

Brown Creepers could be heard much more easily than seen...

We were seeing a  Cooper's Hawk on our South Fork hike on a regular basis...

Desert Box Turtle: this was our first time seeing these magical creatures. Apparently, they come out after the rain to breed and dig their holes in the soft muddy soil. These 2 turtles were on the side of the road...

....Bob got out and moved them to the side of the road :-)

Teamwork: these dung beetles were working together to move their prize off of the road...

Grace's Warblers could be seen and heard feeding in the tree tops...

Immature Grace's Warbler

Adult Grace's feeding their young

A Hermit Thrush feeding its young

Young Hermit Thrush- note the gape and spots on the back

We were blessed with wonderful views of  Montezuma Quail. We understand they are doing very well this year, some experts feel the early spring rains helped.

Female Montezuma Quail

Male and female Montezuma Quail

Male Montezuma Quail

Look at the size of its feet....

We came upon a family of Northern Goshawks hiking one day. The Northern Goshawk is the largest accipiter in North America. They have a reputation for protecting its nest by flying towards and often striking animals or people that come too close to the nest.

We heard the adult talking to the young....there was a lot of KEK-KEK-KEK-KEK going on....

....the young Northern Goshawk was sitting silently...it was almost as if the parent was warning of our presence and instructed the youngster to be quiet.

Orange Milkweek

A lucky sighting of a Zone-tailed Hawk walking down South Fork Rd.

We can't get enough of the majestic surroundings of the Chiricahua Mountains....

Life is Full of Beauty & Wonder,

Turtle & Hawk