Incidents and accidents

John and i were headed to Ohio to visit my dad and brother this week, but somehow he’s come down with a case of what we’re pretty sure is Strep Throat. He’s got white spots all over the back of his throat and all over his tonsils. So, instead of Ohio, we’re headed to the doctor. We’ve pretty much quarrantined ourselves, because no one else needs this shit. It’s a shame too, because I don’t think we’ll be able to go see fireworks this year. I just hope I don’t get it.

Note to all: Day in the Life day is tomorrow.

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All of the photos from the trip are now up. No captions yet, but I’m working on it. Here are a few of the best.

Day 1 - Fly to Arizona The flight was good. The two hour stopover in Dallas gave us time to eat and relax a bit before getting back on the plane. I had planned to go to Beatty’s Ranch in the afternoon, but it wasn’t to be. The car rental took much longer than expected, and by the time we got to Sierra Vista three hours after landing at 2pm it was too late to do anything but eat and crash. I enjoyed the flight over, but we had a little rough weather coming in so John didn’t enjoy it at all. Bonus: Sierra Vista has Little Ceasar’s pizza!

Day 2 - Beatty’s Ranch and Ash Canyon B&BI woke up at 5am thinking it was 9am. Sux0rs. John woke up only a little after me, so we decide to gt breakfast and head out early. The air was quite chilly even at 7am, and the mountains were wonderful. Beatty’s was packed with hummingbirds, too many to keep track of. We were there for about 3 hours and must have seen at least 300 different birds. Ash Canyon B&B was nice, mostly because of the host (Mary-Jo). She talkedto us, helped ID hummingbirds.. etc. Her place wasn’t as swarming with birds as Beatty’s, but it was much more personable to be there. We also got there just as it was getting hot out, so that may account for the lack of birds.

Day 3 - Ramsey Canyon Preserve Ramsey Canyon would have been much better if we were avid birders of all types. As it was, the hummingbird section was the smallest and fewest attended of all. The feeders were far away, the birds were few. All in all it wasn’t inpressive. The best shots I got of the day were actually of some deer, not hummingbirds. We went to the Sierra Vista Mall looking for gifts. I got a few things and a small glass hummingbird necklace for myself.

Day 4 - Arizona Sonora Desert Museum The road getting to this place is really scary. It winds though the mountains, at one point you look out your door and it’s a 100ft drop down. Yikes! Not my idea of fun, but John really enjoyed the drive there. It was hot when we got there and it just got hotter. It was also Day in the Life, so you can see the entry here. Th hummingbird avaiary was actually wonderful. The only ay it could have been better was if it was cooler. I sweated through a memory card in tere and called it quits. We wandered through what rest of the park we could make it through, but it was just so hot that we were miserable by 3pm. We leaft to check into the hotel afer buying some postcards for people back home.

Day 5 - Pima Air and Space Museum Hot hot hot. This place was dusty and filled with old airplanes. John’s dad would have loved it, and I think we’d have enjoyed it more had he been there to tell usfunny stories abuut the planes e worked on in the war. I did find the Blue Angel plane and the Harrier (made the awesomest in True Lies). We were dissapointed to learn that John’s favorite plane (The Warthog) was in restoration and not on display.

Day 6 - Reid Park Zoo and Tucson Botanical Gardens Reid Park Zoo has to be the smallest zoo I’ve ever seen. It took us less than two ours to go all the way around it slowly. That said, it also has to be one of the most well-done zoos I’ve ever been to. It was shaded niely, well laid out, designed with the viewer in mind and featured some great animals. This place would rival San Diego Zoo if it were larger. The only issue we had was that it was a school feild trip day there. Packed with screaming kids isn’t the best idea for a small zoo. We left there at about 11am and went directly to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. This place is also stunningly well designed. I could have done with more shade areas, but it was great for what it had. They had a few wild hummingbirds there too which I chased around for a bit, but it ultimately got too hot even for them. We left after buying a pair of awesome hummingbird socks for me.

Tomorrow we may go back to the Desert Museum to pick up some more hummingbird shots before it gets too hot. We might also go to the Zoo again and hope that it’s not filled with kids this time. Saturday we fly back home. We’ll be getting in at about 11pm EST, then driving home from Atlanta.

Three days into the trip, and we finally have internet. The hotel was in the middle of switching internet service, so we were SOL for a bit. The trip has gone great so far though! We’ve been here for about three days now, and have seen 9 species of hummingbirds.

M/F Magnificent
M/F Blue Throated
M/F Broad-Tailed
M/F Broad-Billed
M/F White-Eared
M Lucifer
M/F Black-Chinned
M/F Anna’s
F Calliope

We’ve missed Rufous, Allen’s, Berylline, Violet-Cowned, Costa’s and the Male Calliope. The Costa’s we’ll see in Tucson at the museum, but I don’t know about any others. So far I’ve gotten some pretty decent photos, but I have no photoshop onthis computer. Editing in Paint sucks a lot. So far, I’ve taken about 700 pictures. Of all the places we’ve been, some of the best photos have been in the field behind the hotel. The shot to the left was taken last night near sunset. It’s a male Anna’s, and he was less than a foot from me, singing. Hopeful to get a girl or something.

The number of Hummingbirds here is amazing. We saw 7 species in one hour, hundreds of birds. They’re everywhere in the canyons. The best part so far was when John and I were in the mountains at Beatty’s. We walked up the hill and there were at least 8 feeders there. One feeder was right next to the entrance to the veiwing area, and I stood there taking pictures of a Broad-Tailed. As I stood there, another flew up. John says “They’re so close, it’s as if you could reach out and touch one.” I slowly reached out my arm, expecting it to fly away. When it didn’t, I moved a bit closer. It didn’t move. I acually gently pet it’s back before it finally realized I was human and flew off. I know I shouldn’t abuse the birds like that, but it was too magical to pass up.
Worst part? Realizing I left my little camera on a table at the preserve we were watching hummigbirds at. I paniced for a bit before emembering where it was. I called the preserve and they said someone had turned it in. Bless that selfless person, because I got it back.
Arizona Photo Album so far - here. More will bedded, of course, once I don’t have to edit in Paint.

Almost 5am, and we’re leaving soon. I had a hard time sleeping last night. I felt too much like a kid on Christmas Eve. The flight leaves at 9:10am, so feel free to call on the cell phone if you want to chatter. We’ll get into the hotel by 3pm, then right back out to see hummingbirds. With luck, I’ll see 12 species in a day!

I’ve already packed what I can. I’m so keyed-up abount being in Arizona that I’m starting to try and pack what I can’t. Like the cat. No, not really… but like the pajamas. If I pack them, I can’t wear them to bed, duh. All the camera batteries are already charged, all of the memory cards emptied. The maps are found, directions printed, hotels called. I’m so ready to be gone already! I find myself looking around and going “Next week at this time, we’ll be doing ________.”
I’ve been talking on and off with Sheri Williamson, a co-founder of Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory. I was hoping to catch a Hummingbird Banding session, but it turns out that she has workshops to do the entire time we’re out there, so we won’t get to see her at all. That’s a shame, really. I’d wanted to meet at least someone I’d been chatting with out there. None of my Hummingbird Forum people are going when I’ll be there (not for lack of trying on my part). It’ll be pretty much John and I, plus anyone we happen to meet out there.

To add to pack:
Gas Pills
Pain Pills
Sunglasses
Bug Spray
Graphic Novel

To take with us:

Camera & parts

• Both cameras (s400 and Rebel XT)
• USB cables, chargers and cords
• Both lenses (50mm and 70-300mm) and small lens hood
• All memory cards and extra batteries
• Mini tripod

Clothes

• 7 pairs pants/shorts each
• 10 pairs socks each
• 10 tops each
• shoes (sandals and tennies)
• underwear (plural)
• hair-ties
• Sweatshirts (because deserts get cold at night)

Bathroom supplies

• Shampoo and Conditioners
• Contact solution
• 1 pair extra contacts each
• Brushes, combs
• No-Baby Pills
• No-Stink sticks (ie: deodorant)
• Toothbrushs + toothpastes
• Razors
• Sunblock, SPF of 80+ (because John makes like a lobster)

Books

• A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America
• Various novels for both of us

Extras

• Candy
• Thermos w/ straps for water
• Plane tickets and trip details
• Plastic baggies
• Cell phones (and cords to charge them)
• Binoculars?
• Laptop

I’m totally wishing I had an iPod, because they’re just so awesome. Music in the rental car would be great, plus photo storage and such.

I’ve been having trouble with my Sigma 70-300mm lens. I keep getting photos like this out of it.

Not very sharp at all. I was begining to think that I’d never be able to use the darn thing without a tripod, which would be very sad indeed. Then my photo-geeking neighbor, DavidB, told me somehting I’d read somewhere and then forgotten. He said “Use the middle F-stop.” For those of you unfamiliar with cameras and lenses, here’s a quick bit: lenses have blades or plates, which open and close to let light in. Each setting of these blades is called a ’stop’ or an ‘f-stop’. The 70-300mm lens stops from F/4 to F/29, making the middle stop of this lens F/11 or so. My 50mm Macro goes from F/2.8 to F/44, making it’s middle stop somewhere around F/22. It’s different for every lens. So, I decided to do a bit of an experiment. Is the 50mm lens sharper than the 300mm lens, even when the photo is enlarged? If I could get away without taking the big 300mm to Arizona, I’d be happy.

The 300mm is on the left, the 50mm enlarged is on the right. Pretty darn sharp, even when compared side-by-side. These shots are from a tripod mounted camera, which means that there’s no shaky hands making the camera’s pictures fuzzy. If I wanted to drag a tripod around the whole vacation, this would be great. Me, I’d rather hold the camera with my hands and turn myself rather than picking up some contraption to follow a hummingbird. Since I have notoriously shaky hands, I needed to know if I could get a usable photo out of the 300mm at all, or if I should just hope for the best with the 50mm.

This is a hand-held shot of a pair of doves I just took. The doves were about 20 feet away from me. Nice and harp! Yay! The middle stop works quite well for hand-held shots in bright sun. Not so well for shady areas though. But, I think I can safely take it with us and get a few good shots out of it, at least at the zoos and feeders. Wheee!

Heather: “Hey honey, want to go hang-gliding in Tucson while we’re out there?”
John: “I realise that hang-gliding is a long time dream of yours, but there’s no fucking way you’re getting me in the air with nothing but a kite to hold my ass up.”