Our third day in Southeastern Arizona brought us to Patagonia, AZ.  A premier birding spot!  I made big plans for some great birding opportunities.

We stayed at a B&B just outside of Patagonia.  They had so many birds there.  I could easily have spent a whole morning just sitting on the patio.  I got a couple new birds there in just the few minutes I spent on the patio.  I saw my first Broad-Billed Hummingbird – gorgeous!  And I saw a very shy Hooded Oriole.

Here’s some of the other birds I saw that morning before we headed to our other destinations.

 

We stopped at a local coffee shop before heading out.  I just had to snap a quick pic of these beautiful black labs.  🙂

Our first stop was at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds.  This was a former home of birding enthusiasts.   Now it is managed by the Tucson Audubon Society.  It has been opened to the public and designed for optimal hummingbird viewing.  I had hoped to see the Violet-Crowned Hummingbird, but I guess I was a little early in the season for this sighting.  I did see lots of Broad-Billed Hummingbirds.

There were a few other variety of hummingbirds present as well.  However, they were females and I’m terrible at identifying most of the female hummingbird species.

One of my favorite photos I took there was of this Gambel’s Quail.

While I was photographing birds, Tim spotted this gopher busily cleaning out his den.

From there we headed to Patagonia Lake State Park.

We stopped in at the visitor’s center first.  Lots of birds on the feeders there!

While at the visitor’s center, we heard about a 1-hour boat birding tour.  It was only $5!  So of course Tim and I signed up! While waiting for the boat, I saw this Broad-Billed Hummingbird collecting tidbits for her nest.

I then followed her and saw where she landed.  She found a good hiding spot.  I had a lot of difficulty just getting this photo of her.

Soon we were on our boat ride.  This was Scarlett’s first time on a boat!  She wasn’t sure what to think of it, until we let her get right up front where she could see out.  Then she loved it!

Lots of great bird sightings from the boat.  It was difficult getting sharp photos while moving.  But I’m pretty pleased with most of my photos.

I was very excited to get a new bird on the boat ride.  A Greater Scaup!

The bird guides were quite excited to spot a Hooded Merganser female.  Evidently they are a rare visitor to the lake.

Coming back to the visitor’s center, I got this nice shot of a foot bridge in front of the marina.  I really liked this bridge.

The bird guides told us of a path along the lake that is good for birding.  So we quickly headed over there before the day grew too late.  As we started the path, an Osprey flew overhead.

This was a fabulous path.  Birds everywhere!  Tim was a great spotter for me.  He saw many more birds before me.  I told him I was going to take him along more often! Here’s photos of the many birds we saw.

Tim spotted a Leopard Frog sunning himself in the shallows.

We saw lots of butterflies along the trail. Hopefully I named these correctly.  Thanks to Joe on my previous post.

There was a bird feeder station set up on the trail.  The feeders were getting quite a few visitors, including a big squirrel.

Just before getting in our car after walking the trail, we saw the Osprey fly over again.  This time he had a fish!

It was a fabulous birding day!  Lots of beautiful birds with a couple of lifers, a day spent at the lake and a wonderful time with my husband and dog.  It doesn’t get much better than that!