Last Thursday the local birding group was meeting up very close to my house so I decided to join them. We hiked the lower valley area of Tunnel Canyon on South 14. We met at 8 am but even that early it was already pretty warm. We have had unseasonably hot weather this June.

Because it was so warm there really wasn’t much bird activity. I’m sure they were up at 5!  I did hear several birds…most notably a Yellow-Breasted Chat. I would have loved to get a photo but they are so shy. As soon as we got close to target him he stopped singing. And of course as soon as we moved on he started up again.

A fun find of the morning was a very plump horned toad feeding on an ant bed. He didn’t seem too concerned about us photographing him.

Because it was so warm the butterflies were out in pretty good numbers. I had fun chasing them down for photos.

Checkered White

Acmon Blue

Acmon Blue - a little tattered

I soon left the bird group behind. Got a fun photo of them though.

Near the end of the hike someone with a sharp eye saw a gray flycatcher nesting. 

Gray Flycatcher

And someone else found a gnome that came out to see what was going on. 

All good finds that morning. 🙂