Glamping Days

Though not really a birder, I've become a bit obsessed with these sandhill cranes. One would think that hanging out with them for several days last year would have been enough for a lifetime; one would be wrong. I woke up before sunrise to watch them take off to go out to feed. Line after line of them formed up for more than an hour.    While the cranes were out feeding, I went into town to run a couple of errands.  During the afternoon, the cranes returned. There are thousands of them here, but no way to capture more than a few in a shot with a cell phone camera.   I took a walk around the ponds this evening. The dark dots in the foreground are a few cranes, & the 6 white dots in the background are the 6 campers here this evening. There aren't any campsites or utilities, just a wide road around the ponds where folks camp along the edge.    Can't beat a day with both a sunrise & sunset, & a good dose of Mother Nature in between!

My short drive of about 70 miles southeast took me through 4 different sorts of landscapes. The area just south of Tucson is flat Sonoran dessert, with mountains all around in the distance. Further along, I-10 cut through rolling, almost barren  hills which looked almost like sand dunes. The "dunes" gave way to hills of large rocks.    Less than 20 miles further along here in Wilcox, AZ, the terrain is very flat. The ponds here attract Sandhill cranes, snow geese, ducks, coots, & other shore bird over the winter. Boondocking is allowed around the perimeter of one of the ponds. My plan is to stay here 3 nights.  The big attraction is the Sandhill cranes, but it seems like there are many fewer of them this year than last year; hope that they just found a place they like better.  

After a board meeting by Zoom late this morning, I stripped the bed, did some laundry, & made a grocery run.  None of that was worth photographing, so here are some pics from Friday in Old Tucson. It was built as a movie & TV location in the 1950s, & is still in use today. My brother & I visited it when we were here in 1975. In the last few years, they've bumped the ticket prices & added some touristy bits like a train ride, arcade games, & a  carousel. A fun fact that I picked up in the small museum: When built in the 1950s, there wasn't any electricity here, so many of the buildings were roofless to allow in natural light for interior shots.       

My brother & I took classes here in the summer of 1975. It makes me feel old to think that something I did as a young adult was 50 years ago. The spaces outside of the school of music & school of art had some interesting pieces.     Though fairly small, the art museum actually felt like 3 museums.  There is some contemporary art, which is a complete mystery to me. The stacked balls in the 2nd pic are painted basketballs.   There are a couple of rooms featuring old Spanish ecclesiastical art, which is more my speed.                                             There is one gallery featuring art from local high school students; this was my favorite section,.                                              

My errands today took me to an Apple Store in a lovely mall here. Upscale malls around Pittsburgh are roofed & feature house plants, but here they are open to the sky & feature plants found locally outdoors. This southwest aesthetic is really growing on me.      There are very few clouds here, but usually a bit of a haze, so all of the sunsets look pretty similar.                                     

I can't remember seeing a humming bird nest before. This one is under the eave of my step-sister's house here in Tucson.   After watching the hummingbird for a bit, they took me on a drive up Mt Lemmon. The drive takes one up to over 6,000' through several ecological zones.  Then we enjoyed a lovely meal of sushi.