Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson

High wind and blowing dust delayed my departure from Tucson a day.

So Beth and I used it to visit the Desert Museum. No dust up there. We got there just before the first raptor free flight presentation, so headed in that direction.

 On the way we passed through the "mountain woodland" area and met a mountain lion.

 They have created wonderful habitats for the animals here. This is the black bear habitat...can you find him? He's sleeping on a ledge to the right of the tree.

 Mexican gray wolf.

 Great horned owl. The free flight birds are just that...free. Not banded or tethered in any way, and can leave if they want. They call them volunteers.

 This is a Prairie Falcon. The Peregrine Falcon decided to go hunting and did not show up for his performance.

 The Red-tailed hawk (bottom) got distracted by a Cooper's Hawk (top) that is nesting in the area. The Cooper's Hawk kept bombarding him because he was flying near the nest.

 Cooper's Hawk (not one of the volunteers)

 Red-tailed hawk.

 After the raptor presentation we walked around looking at the desert plants and animals. This cactus is just beginning to bloom.

 I noticed something sitting atop the highest rock.

 It was a Roadrunner.

 But if you look closely, there's also a lizard on the rock to the left, and another one on the right.

 Not sure what the name of this lizard is.

 The one on the left started to move.

 Over to the rock under the Roadrunner.

 The Roadrunner was watching.

 Hmmmm....

 The Roadrunner followed the lizard.

 The lizard crawled through a crack.

 So did the Roadrunner.

 The lizard crawled up to join the other lizard.

 The Roadrunner gave up the chase.

 This area shows underground habitats...animals you usually don't see.

 Like this Banded Gecko.

 Western Screech Owl

 Bobcat

 There were two bobcats.

 Agave-Century Plant in bloom.

 Sparrow in a Saguaro.

There's a restaurant at the Desert Museum, so Beth and I had lunch there. I had Taco Salad.

 After lunch we visited a couple of walk-in aviaries. In the Hummingbird Aviary, mating and nesting were going on.

 Can you see the baby's beak? The nest is made from cobwebs.

 The Broad-billed Hummingbird builds a more elaborate nest.

Not sure if he was going after the nesting material in the bag, or the man's hair?

 The other aviary had some new birds to me...The Western Tanager,

 The Stellar's Jay is not new to me, but I haven't seen one in awhile.

 A Black-headed Grosbeak.

 On the way to the afternoon Raptor Free Flight, we passed some Desert Bighorn Sheep.

 And a Collared Lizard

 At the 2nd Raptor show we met a Gray Hawk,

 I love his striped bloomers.

 And a Barn Owl

That's not all....We did not see it all. You can not see it all in a day. And you can go every day and see something different. But that's all for now. Good Night!