Another Day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

This morning it was off to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum again. We didn't go for opening this time instead we arrived at about 9:45 a.m. in time to get to the Raptor Free Flight. We got there with about 1/2 hour to spare so waited in order that we get a good spot for photographing the birds. They only had three birds this morning.

the Chihuahuan Raven
the Horned Owl

and the Ferruginous Hawk


Just as I was getting out of the truck in the parking lot this morning there was a cactus wren building a nest.

I took this pretty landscape in the park.

We also saw the Bighorn Sheep

Here's a photo of some palm trees. There aren't a lot of palm trees here in this part of Arizona but there are some. I love palm trees!

This photo of the palm tree I took looking up as the sky was so pretty.

Here's another species of cactus. I don't know the name of it yet but will try to find out. By the way the one yesterday that looked like it was decorated for Christmas is a Fishhook Barrell Cactus.

We had lunch again at the Ironwood Grill. Gordon had his usual bunless burger but I had dorado fish on a greens salad with raspberry vinagrette dressing. It was yummy!

After lunch we went back for the second Raptor Free Flight at 1:30 p.m. This afternoon's raptor of choice was the Harris' Hawk. At one point there were five of them.


We hadn't seen this tree since last year when we were in California. It's a Joshua Tree. Joshua Tree National Park in California was one of our favorites.

We also had a lesson on the agave which is a succulent, not a cactus. Tequila is made from the agave as is rope, syrup, brushes for cleaning and all sorts of other stuff. The stalk is also used for fences and for roofs of some of their shelters.

We walked the javelina and coyote trail but it was just at noon and none of them were out. Remember mad dogs and Englishmen are the only ones that go out in the noon day sun. Well I'm an Englishwoman (born in Canada though, my Father came from England).

We left the park right after the Raptor Free Flight and were home by about 2:15 p.m., tired but happy to have spent another day at this beautiful place!

Yeah! I finally got my profile photo changed!