Arizona - Exploring the area- Patagonia

 

Anxious to explore our new area, we decided to head out to the small town of Patagonia about 50 miles from our campsite.   The Tucson area was supposed to be receiving some stormy, rainy conditions from the tail end of Hurricane Sergio over the weekend, so we opted to go on Friday.  

Well, we woke up to rain, and low clouds but decided to go anyway.  We generally have some destination, or activity in mind when we head out. In this case the town was having a festival on Saturday and Sunday with Friday being opening night for locals.  Also, quite often it is to search for a bird, or a ‘twitch’ as It’s called in the birding world! This day was no exception.  Just off the main street in Patagonia is the Paton Center for Hummingbirds.  

 

With our rain gear on the cameras and ourselves we headed to the shelter of the hummingbird center.  Hundreds of hummingbirds, including a rare Blue throat showed up.  I didn’t get enough of the blue throat to put on here as it was hiding behind the feeder. There are dozens of hummingbird feeders all around the place, a one time family home.  I'm sure they go through a couple of gallons of nectar each day. 

 

I also didn’t find it to be all that colorful in comparison to the Broadbill above and the Annas with the crimson neck and head colors.

 

The white streaks are the raindrops!

As usual, I found some flowers to occupy some of my time.

This orange flower reminds me of a spinning skater or dancer whose skirt is flying out as she twirls and twirls!

 Unfortunately with all the rain, the skies stayed dark and dreary and the craft fair did not get set up by the time we moved on..

 We continued south towards Nogales and the Mexican border then cut across to highway 19, back up north past the small towns of Tubac and Green Valley.

 

The clouds and rain finally cleared up a bit, and by the time we returned to Eagles Nest it was quite lovely.