Tucson - The Desert Museum

This is another in a continuing series. The mornings are cool but as the day progresses the temperature increases. Layering is the standard approach, and we peel clothes as the morning progresses and then put on the vest, etc. in the evening.

There is a lot of wildlife in and around the museum. We spent an entire day there.

Tucson Raptors

The Arizona-Sonoma Desert Museum has a wonderful raptors in flight exhibit. No cages, just free-flying birds and amazed onlookers. The raptors include a variety of owls and hawks:

This hawk flew just above my head; I was standing about three feet behind the handler. The photo was taken with a wide-angle lens and so this bird was much closer than it appears in the photo. She settled on a saguaro directly behind me.

One of the hawks took a treat to a nearby saguaro before returning soaring. At one time there were four hawks pirouetting and dazzling the crowd. On the day we attended the museum there were two raptor in flight shows. One in the morning and another in the afternoon. The morning had several owls and a red-tailed hawk. The afternoon had four hawks.

Arizona Hummingbirds

There are hummingbirds in the Tucson neighborhood, but they don't stay put for long. The Arizona-Sonoma Desert Museum was a wonderful place to view them nesting. We were able to sit on a bench and monitor a feeder. Here an attentive male looks on; the female was nesting a few feet away: