It was the monsoon season in the desert southwest, and there were multiple times I saw distant thunderstorms, and a few times that I drove through rain briefly. None of these storms filled up a dry wash for a flash flood event, but that is always on your mind when you drive around this county in monsoon season. Here’s a storm brewing in Arizona. Click here for larger image.

I made a lunch stop in the Gila National Forest in far western New Mexico, and one of my lunchtime companions was this cute Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope). This is the smallest hummer in the US (thus also the smallest bird in the US), short-billed and short-tailed but not short on attitude. Click here for larger image.

Upon arrival at the B&B, I found some nice birds at the many feeders there. One of these was a Violet-crowned Hummingbird (Ramosomyia violiceps), a Mexican species which formerly was difficult to find in the US, but it seems to be expanding its range northward in recent years. Click here for larger image.

A hummingbird banding workshop, organized by my old friend Sheri Williamson, was in progress soon after I arrived. That is a regular occurrence at the B&B, and I documented a similar event last year here. Judging from the band on this Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre), however, banding of other species besides hummingbirds must happen here occasionally as well! Click here for larger image.

In recent years it has become apparent that Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin), a bird whose small and narrow breeding range is confined to coastal California and extreme southern Oregon, migrates through these Arizona mountains in the fall in significant numbers. This species is difficult to ID, since it shares many plumage characters with the more common Rufous Hummingbird. In fact, I initially IDed this one as a Rufous, but when I sent the pictures to Sheri Williamson, she straightened me out. One young male Allen’s was banded at the workshop, and I photographed this young male (no band) the morning afterward. According to Sheri, it is possible that young birds (perhaps siblings) regularly migrate together in the fall. Click here for larger image.

After breakfast I wandered over to Ramsey Canyon to meet another old friend who retired in AZ and is a volunteer naturalist/hike leader there. As always, Ramsey was an oasis, offering shade, water, and food to a huge diversity of creatures. This is an Arizona Gray Squirrel (Sciurus arizonensis), which has a very limited range in AZ and a tiny patch of New Mexico. Click here for larger image.

A special bird that is on most people’s want lists when birding in Arizona, the Painted Redstart (Myioborus pictus) is a common sight in Ramsey Canyon. They love the shady oak/sycamore canyons in the Huachuca and Chiricahua Mountains, so I was happy to coax this one out into the sun for a few seconds for this picture. Click here for larger image.

Another fun sight in Ramsey Canyon was a seep where many butterflies of many species were on the ground, lapping up electrolye-rich water and showing off their gorgeous wings. This is an Arizona Sister (Adelpha eulalia), which was formerly lumped with a very similar species, the California Sister. I think that the pattern on the back of the wings is simply gorgeous, reminiscent of stained-glass windows in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. Click here for larger image.

A White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata) was nectaring in some flowers near the reserve parking lot. It looks a lot like the White-lined Sphinx Moths that I see here in Flyover Country, but it was literally only about half the size of a typical one here. As far as I can tell it is the same species, but the size difference was very obvious in the field. Click here for larger image.

The final sighting of the day at Ramsey Canyon was this Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata), a large and showy dragonfly native to the western US. Click here for larger image.