On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
swiftfox
These are from the 2019 Southeast Arizona Birding Festival. Albatrossity highlighted the hummingbirds on his last trip to the festival. I had one pic of a female broad-tailed hummingbird but I’m going to feature the non-hummers. Two of the trips were to a wildlife videographer’s property 20 miles south of Tucson. He maintained a small pond for wildlife viewing. I doubt it was more than eight-feet around but in the desert it can be lifesaving. And good for wildlife photographers.
One trip was for a night setup for bats; the other was a morning birds and anything else that shows up trip.
Gambel’s quail
These birds were the first to show. Considered locally common in Arizona, urbanization, heat stress and lack of precipitation may be decreasing their populations.
Cactus wren
The state bird of Arizona.
Rock Squirrel
Compared to our eastern gray squirrel, these guys always look ragged to me. This one seems to be in good shape.
Roadrunner
Roadrunner ready to pounce on the piece of food tossed by the videographer.
Vermilion flycatcher
Always a great day when you can see one of these. Saw my first one at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in 2014.
Red-paper wasp
That’s what I believe this is. There are two species of red paper wasps in Arizona. It was fun watching it land and take off from the water.
Southwestern myotis
The videographer helped everyone set up their camera. We watched a live-camera feed for anything that came in over the pond.
Manyakitty
BIRB
Rusty
The bat picture is stunning, love the wasp too.
eclare
The flycatcher is stunning.
Rob
That roadrunner!
Albatrossity
Love the bat! We discovered that bats can empty your hummingbird feeder quite quickly on one trip to the Chiricahuas. But figured it was OK, since it was a species of bat that pollinated at agave plants that are used to produce tequila. As a fan of margaritas, I approved of taking good care of the bats!
JeanneT
Nice! Thanks for sharing!!
OzarkHillbilly
Birds! 2 days in a row! Whatever did we do to deserve such beneficence?
Thanx muchly, swiftfox.
SteveinPHX
I suspect it’s bats who empty one of our hummingbird feeders on occasion. Need to set up a trail cam by the house.
Thanks, as always.
CCL
Thanks for these. Love seeing the cactus wren and the quail.
mvr
Nice! I’m partial to wrens, but that bat image is striking.
Madeleine
Thanks for more-birdies Tuesday!
pieceofpeace
Thank you for these pictures, esp the stylish and perfectly-framed bat, excellent photo!
Yutsano
I just love quail. Did you get to hear their calls at all?
way2blue
Your bat photo is way cool. I miss the quails where I live. Now I only seeing them when hiking through the open space. Rarely even then.
swiftfox
@Yutsano: Sorry I’m late; had some other things to do today and just got around to the site. Yes, several of them did call.
aznfg
There are a lot of Gambrel quail in my neighborhood in suburban Scottsdale. Desert landscaping creates habitat for them.