Aha, Ajo – blog 34

If you are reading this then it’s because I didn’t have time to write a blog ‘today’ because I was giving a talk to Tucson Audubon – so I wrote this ‘yesterday’  (except that another blog follows this one – I spoil you really).

This is a very useful website as it gives you bird checklists of lots of national parks etc. These are invaluable in planning your journey and in figuring out what you have seen.  Sometimes it boils down to a choice between two species – and if one of them doesn’t occur in the site then you probably haven’t seen that one, you’ve seen the other one.  But it all depends on the checklists being accurate.

In my experience they seem pretty good.  But sometimes you wonder…

In the Organpipe Cactus National Monument both turkey vulture and black vulture are said to be Common and Resident.  I’ve seen both species lots in the past but on this trip I have seen thousands of turkey vultures (and very nice they are too – I’m not complaining) and no black vultures.

Here in the NM I reckon I have seen hundreds of turkey vultures and no black vultures so I was beginning to wonder whether I was missing them. So yesterday I went out in the heat of the day and watched vultures for an hour.  I saw lots of turkey vultures (and some ravens and red-tailed hawks) but no black vultures.  And that goes to prove nothing, maybe I was just in the wrong part of the area for black vultures.

I did have bison yesterday though – in a burger.  My bisonburger, medium/well done, southwest style, with salad and no bun and no fries was delicious.  With a couple of Cokes thrown in it came to $19 (an expensive meal for me) but I’m worth it.  I was told the bison was ranched in Montana.

That meal was in the 100 Estrella restaurant in Ajo.  I like Ajo – it has an attractive central square and everything else is a bit grotty – but I like that.  And the lesser nighthawks are still flying around.

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