Day 31--Grand Canyon Next

Today was both a birding and driving day. I was up by 6 AM and birding at 7:30 in search of the always difficult to find leconte's thrasher--a bird of the low desert chapparal. There is a location about an hour southwest of Phoenix that is the right habitat for the leconte's. I spent 3+ hours looking for it, but the only thrashers I found were a sage and a crissal. It was a beautiful morning to walk around in the desert, so missing the bird was not so bad, and I did see 3 new year birds.

Then I drove up to Flagstaff to visit with a friend of mine. She has lived in Flagstaff for several years now, and I try to stop in to see her whenever I am in northern Arizona. We caught up on our lives, and had a good meal at a place called Salsa Brava. From the name you would be correct in assuming that it serves Mexican food.

I then drove on up to the Grand Canyon to be ready to bird here tomorrow, picking up 3 more birds for the year list. It was near the end of the day, and I snapped the picture above of a single mountain that you see as you approach the park on Hwy 64. The day's birding provided 9 new birds for the week list, and 6 new birds for the YTD count. Today I added a new feature on the right hand side of the blog. I have listed all the January YTD birds seen. And tomorrow may give me a condor. Stay tuned!