We've been in Portal the better part of 3 weeks and have had a wonderful time birding right in our own back yard. We spotted some new birds the week of Christmas and these birds are still visiting our yard every day. As I write this a Fox Sparrow (Red) is foraging for seeds right outside our kitchen windows, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker is chomping on the suet and an Oregon Junco is perched in the Wisteria, looking at me through the window.
We participated in the Christmas Bird Count for the Chiricahuas on Dec. 27th and in the 1/4 -1/2 mile from the Portal Store to our neighbors yard at the end of Rock House Road, we counted 44 different bird species. Among those were a Hammond's Flycatcher, the White Throated Sparrow, a Steller's Jay, a flock of Eastern Blue Birds, a flock of Cedar Waxwings, a flock of Robins and an Evening Grosbeak! Our neighborhood Great Horned Owls have been dueting late at night & early in the mornings, but we haven't seen them at the nest site yet and we couldn't find them the day of the bird count.
We go to the San Simon Cienega pond at least once a week and there are still 10 Snow Geese and about 200 Sandhill Cranes hanging out there. A couple dozen Mallards, but we haven't seen a Mexican Duck there.
We participated in the Christmas Bird Count for the Chiricahuas on Dec. 27th and in the 1/4 -1/2 mile from the Portal Store to our neighbors yard at the end of Rock House Road, we counted 44 different bird species. Among those were a Hammond's Flycatcher, the White Throated Sparrow, a Steller's Jay, a flock of Eastern Blue Birds, a flock of Cedar Waxwings, a flock of Robins and an Evening Grosbeak! Our neighborhood Great Horned Owls have been dueting late at night & early in the mornings, but we haven't seen them at the nest site yet and we couldn't find them the day of the bird count.
We go to the San Simon Cienega pond at least once a week and there are still 10 Snow Geese and about 200 Sandhill Cranes hanging out there. A couple dozen Mallards, but we haven't seen a Mexican Duck there.
Our Christmas with Melody, Matt and the boys was on Monday Dec. 22 and our gift to Wesley left him speechless! Wesley has a fascination with skeletons and enjoys the characters from Nightmare Before Christmas over Santa Claus and his reindeer. We got him a life-sized posable skeleton named Mr. Bones and when Wesley opened the box and saw the skeleton he got the biggest grin, grabbed him out of the box danced around the living room with Mr. Bones chattering utter jibberish! Mr. Bones is Wesley's new best friend and goes everywhere with him. He even went to Mt. Lemmon with them, but he waited in the car because it was too cold outside and he didn't have a jacket.
The community of Portal is great! We joined in decorating the Christmas tree in front of the Post Office and on Christmas Eve joined in the Caroling at the tree. A lot of folks were down with the flu and others were away for the holidays, but we had a decent turn-out. The tree decorations were not the prettiest, but we all got an "A" for effort and enthusiasm! The recent winds have sent a lot of the trimmings down the road or onto the ground. We'll be going back to Tucson, so I don't know who is in charge of undecorating.
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