Joe and Mary Ann's personal web site

Dave, Fr. Charlie, and I went to Mingus Mountain on August 11, 2022. It’s a 2 hr drive from Fr. Charlie’s place, and we got there at about 8:30 AM. It was my first trip to Mingus Mountain. We wanted to find some cool weather, and we wanted Dave to finally see the Red-faced Warbler, so Mingus Mountain fit the bill. Mingus Mountain is just off Highway 89A, between Prescott Valley and Cottonwood.

Fr. Charlie and I went to Woods Canyon Lake on July 7, 2022. The lake is on the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 7,500 ft, so it’s a nice place to get some cool weather on an unusually hot day in Phoenix. It’s a two hour drive, and we got there at about 8:30 AM.

I’ve been asked about our fig tree, and pruning it, so I thought I would do a post. If you’re not interested in fig trees, then you won’t be interested in this post.

Mary Ann, Fr. Charlie, and I went to Mt. Ord on June 16. We got to FR1688 (Forest Road 1688) at about 8:20 AM. We met Ann Leight there, who is a prolific birder and posts a lot on ebird.org. She is a regular at Mt. Ord.

Mary Ann, Fr. Charlie, and I, went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum (BTA) on May 23, 2022. We got there at around 8:00 AM, and left at about 11:30, and then had lunch at Los Hermanos in Superior. I dropped off 19 ‘Birds of Boyce Thompson Arboretum’ posters at the gift shop for them to sell (for more details on the poster see here).

This post covers the third, and last, day of our trip to SE Arizona. We went to Portal, Arizona, which is a popular Arizona birding spot. It appears to me that the town’s main business is birding. Portal is in the Chiricahua Mountains, and it is home to birds whose range overlaps with Mexico. One of the attractions is the different species of hummingbirds. Fifteen species have been reported, of which about 8 are commonly seen there (depending on the time of year).

This is my second post on our trip to southeast Arizona. This one covers Aravaipa Canyon, which was the main reason for our trip.

Mary Ann and I made our annual trip to Aravaipa Canyon. We went to the east side trailhead, and, as in previous years, we decided to go to Safford, spend the night, and go to Aravaipa the next morning. We took advantage of that first day by visiting Roper Lake State Park, which is near Safford. We left at 7:30 AM and got to Roper Lake State Park at 10:30 AM.

Tuesday, April 26, was Tony and Christy’s last day during their trip here for Aaron and Maria’s wedding. We decided to go to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch (RPWR), which is close to where their RV park was located (Monte Vista Village Resort, at the 202, north of Guadalupe). We arrived at around 8:00 AM, and left at around 10:00 AM.

We went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum (BTA) with some family members who were in town for Aaron and Maria’s wedding. My brother Tony and his wife Christy, and Mary Ann’s sister Jane and her husband Albert, went with us.