You get two blogs today for the price of none.
Today has been a lovely day – although I am writing this in a Starbucks in Tucson before giving my talk this evening so maybe it’ll all go wrong.
It’s been an easy day. I woke around 6am and set off from Ajo towards Tucson in a leisurely way. I kept my eyes open for raptors and saw a black vulture (at last) and a Harris hawk which took the bird list over 250 for the trip. So far, so good.
I stopped for breakfast at Todd’s Restaurant at Ryan Airfield where there were lots of pilots and lots of old people having breakfast. Gayleen was a very helpful waitress – not only did she help me decide on corned beef hash with eggs and toast but she gave me some prickly pear jelly to have with the toast. Delicious.
Gayleen wants to visit Europe so I told her that Europe was worth a visit.
Further down the road there was evidence that ‘all you need is Walmart’ – I bought a top-up for my phone and I had a haircut too. I always have my hair cut when I am in Arizona (twice out of two).
I need my hair cut because next week when I am back in the UK I have to go to my son’s graduation from Cambridge so although I will try to embarrass him in lots of ways I might as well have decent hair.
And today was the day when we might hear of said son’s final exam results. The tension mounts…
I like the look of Tucson. I found a cafe with wifi and learned that Golden Boy got a distinction in Part III of the Cambridge Maths course and so now will be heading to Edinburgh to do a PhD in maths. Excellent!
I had time to spare and I spent that time driving around urban Tucson from park to park. Surely I would see a bird of interest?
There are some birds that you know what they are the minute you see them – even though you’ve never seen them before and you haven’t swotted up on them. I saw one in Jacob’s Park.
It wasn’t the woodpecker which I started looking at to figure out which species it was, it was the small bird sitting under the tree on a yellow metal picnic table. Just a small bird with its back to me.
With its back to me but with the most striking of heads – the back of its head was…well…vermilion, I guess, as this was a male vermilion flycatcher. There was no doubt about it – I didn’t need a book. I could see some more vermilion low down and then it flicked around and sat on a metal waste bin and it was vermilion all over. No other bird could be called the vermilion flycatcher – this was vermilion and a flycatcher.
Stunning! And in a park in Tucson.
Will I remember the day that Tom got his fantastic maths results as the day I saw my first vermilion flycatcher? You bet!
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You should check out Sweetwater Wetlands while you’re in Tucson – a very nice birding site even in the baking heat of June.
Remember, too, that Tucson is the home of Linda Ronstadt. Your friends, The Eagles, were originally formed to be her backing group, I believe. A good time to listen to some of her music.
Congratulation to your Tom. Let’s hope one day he is in parliment to change these awful tory rules for the countryside forced on DEFRA. How can a bird one minute be called livestock and then next minute be called wild just to suit the gun!
Many congratulations to your lad on the maths result. Will the conversation be turning to boathouses at his graduation?!
You are aware that hair cuts are still possible on this continent too? I hope the intended offspring embarrassment is wholly focused on the graduand next week.
Jenny – really?