Tag: Santa Rita Lodge

Keep Your Chin Up!

Howdy ya’ all! I have to say, it feels like a stress weight has been lifted as of noon today. Got through the anniversary celebration event earlier in the week and that all went very well beyond a bit of a let down on our chosen fancy pants dinner location – a LOT of dollars for a mediocre experience which is disappointing when you are ordering “market” priced entrees. Beyond that, a great day just confirming why we both said “I do”. That only left today’s physical to get through and then it was days primarily filled with training and prepping for the haunted trail (that is actually coming at bullet train speed). Didn’t know what to expect at the doctor’s office – late start to training, pushing to the edge in our humidity trying to get caught up, just got back from 2 months living in a tin can and in a battle since January to cut the weight from the sedentary ankle recovery months. A bit shocked, but every diagnostic test indicator came in excellent (some cases better than my peak performance years) and weight was 8 pounds less than last year – apparently rucking mountains, daily core work and limiting yourself to only two if not one meal a day is the ticket – a bit of work, but rewarding! Which brings us to today’s featured feathered friend.

Black-Chinned Hummingbird found at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, AZ in March 2025

Hopefully you have picked up on my featured theme as of late – Hummers. Like the last several training months, this purple chinned beauty comes with a bit of work. Hit the jump to read about the latest in this rocket-propelled series.

Continue reading Keep Your Chin Up!

Magnificent by Any Name

Greetings from the heat wall of the Midwest! Finally getting settled back in after our long trip – had to harvest my yard for the second time yesterday and finally appears to be tamed..for the time being. Along with the catch-up work around the homestead, the body had been quite upset its relative “time-off” from training is over. Back on the road now including two-a-days whenever possible. Typically there is a slow(er) transition to the high heat and humidity typical of the area allowing the internal thermostats to readjust and condition for the mid-year training and races. Being gone for two months, this has been an abrupt introduction and basically getting sweat-spanked on the outings even with the early mornings and darkness sessions. This is a bit tricky for me as you recall from my previous race posts as my internal thermostat is damaged, so I have to be careful not to go over that fine knife edge between training and…well, ambulance. Imagine running with Linda’s voice in your head “Make good choices!“. To my credit, I did pass up this weekend’s big ultra-race (CMAR link here) as hard as it is to admit, just not ready for that distance with the heat or the ankle – next year, no question as I need redemption for that last DNF.

Speaking of Linda, Monday will be our 35th anniversary and just over 37 years since we met on our first day of our new careers – fingers crossed our bosses and HR do not find out we are in a relationship hehehe. Joking aside, we did keep it a secret for a VERY long time not knowing what that might do to our work situation. You can say or training class was really close…we and the 15 other individuals in the training program were all sworn to secrecy – many of which are still close friends today in retirement. In honor of that first day I laid eyes on Linda decades ago, I thought it would be fitting to go with a featured feathered friend that I will also never forget the first time I met and equally beautiful.

Rivoli's Hummingbird found at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon in March 2025

How is that for a stunner of a Hummer? Hit the jump to learn more about this new Hummingbird on the lifer list.

Continue reading Magnificent by Any Name

That is One Good Looking Broad

Greetings once again from the road. By the time you read this we should be out of California and somewhere in Arizona. Picked up a number of birds during our first “official” trip to the state lighting up the 6th new state this trip on my eBird profile. Have to admit, Linda’s bribe of birding opportunities for agreeing to go out to Washington for the CPE Agility Nationals has materialized far better than ever imagined. I am getting a bit homesick now and looking forward to getting back…but not until we hit a few more of my favorite birding spots in Arizona. Fingers crossed the heat doesn’t chase the birds away.

This month is coming to a close and surprisingly it was spent entirely on the road. Big thanks to Brad for keeping the post quota pressure from adding additional stress to the trip. For this 6th and final post of the month, I am going to feature a member of a bird family that doesn’t get a lot of attention on this site. This has absolutely nothing to do with our fondness for this group of birds – we love them actually – but it comes with a great deal of work both during the encounter, inevitable work in the digital darkroom and then depending on a number of conditions (gender/lighting/breeding/etc), the potentially painful ID process.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird found at Patagonia, AZ in March 2025

To get the ball rolling, this post is going to focus on a Hummingbird that is pretty easy to identify if you can find the male. Hit the jump to learn more about this distinctive speedster.

Continue reading That is One Good Looking Broad

An Arizona Specialty

Continued greetings from the road! We are in the second half of our western jaunt and I have to say it has been a bit tiring. The long drives, the continual up and downs from one mountain range to another and the temperature fluctuations … well that is probably the real story right now. After spending so much time at altitude and fairly pleasant temps (if not cold) weather conditions at elevation, we are now in the hot desert, more accurately, the torturous hot box. I have a history of heat “issues” and it takes the gradual temp changes back home to get the internal thermostats calibrated. This process has been short circuited to a 2 day cycle – one day 70sF followed by a steady 105-109F. Probably should have thought the plan through a bit more, but we are really in wait mode now until we make our sprint into California for a wedding and then point the RV east(ward). Early morning birding only at this point. Still managing to get some good checks and even broke through the 300 mark as I now sit at #268 in the top US birder rankings thanks to the now 92 birds added this trip (only 8 more to hit the Average Year goal of 400!!)

Thought I would introduce you to one of my favorite feathered friend finds from last year’s trip to Arizona while I try to get the internal body temperature down.

Arizona Woodpecker found at Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon, Arizona in March 2025

Your eyes are fine, that really is a brown Woodpecker. Hit the jump to read more about this very regionally limited bird!

Continue reading An Arizona Specialty

13 Down, 2 to Go

Greetings once again from the road. I have to say, birding wise things are going quite well on our trip to the northwest. 54 species have been added to my annual count and with the 3 lifers found today that number includes a total of 13 first timers. Not too shabby and we are not even a third of the way through the excursion. We are officially at the site of the Canine Performance Events Agility Nationals (outside Seattle/Tacoma) and time for Ruger and Linda to take to the ring. The birding will take a back seat for a few days while attention shifts to the obstacle course. Once that is over we’ll be focused back on our feathered friends…speaking of which, let’s get you to today’s feature.

Hepatic Tanager found at Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon, AZ - March 2024

Continuing with the theme, hit the jump to read more about this southwestern specialty.

Continue reading 13 Down, 2 to Go

Zebra-Head

Greetings from the road! It has been a week out now and it has been a mixed bag of good and bad – fortunately, more of the former. The weather has started out rough, but the last couple of days has been fantastic. We brought the wrong tripod head for Linda’s planned waterfall pictures, but we were able to remedy that today with a drive into Portland, OR. Grateful they were open on a Sunday of a holiday weekend and even more surprising had the exact head we needed. Just for the record, we really have no interest in going back to that city and I’ll leave that there. So far, challenges encountered, challenges surmounted. Best of all, the birding has lived up to expectations. Even though I haven’t moved into full birding mode I’ve been able to add 42 birds to my count with 8 lifers putting me at 342+3 for the year – and #556 in the US yay! 60 more birds to beat last year’s record, I think I can do it.

Unfortunately, I am not doing very well with staying on top of the posts for this month and technically behind – big thanks to Brad for keeping me above water. Kicking back into things with another entry in the “May I have another chance” series.

Bridled Titmouse found at Patagonia State Park, Patagonia, AZ in March 2024

Prepare yourself to be underwhelmed and hit the jump to learn about this Zebra bird.

Continue reading Zebra-Head