February 2024 in Arizona

This post is mainly about our February in Arizona, but also includes some of the things we did in the beginning of January, since we didn’t report on them earlier.

Our first bike ride of the year was on January 3rd, to our regular spot in the Tortolita Preserve in Marana. It was comfortable riding in shorts and a t-shirt.

We did our annual hike to Panther Peak directly from our gate on January 6th. Here’s a photo from our approach trail. We headed to the pass that is directly above Wendy’s hat in the photo below. Panther Peak is hidden behind the peak on the left skyline.

The trail turns into a route through the boulders, on the way up to the pass.

Here’s a view looking east to Marana, Oro Valley and Tucson, taken just below the summit.

The next week , we hiked on the east side of Panther Peak, near Sanctuary Cove. Panther Peak is on the right in the photo below.

Here’s one last January photo of a huge saguaro in Catalina State Park. We had seen it many times from a distance and this time, we decided to get a closer view.

We love saguaros, especially the grove that is a fifteen minute walk from our place. We have included many photos in various blogs from this spot because we like it so much. We did most of our February walking on the trails in this area.

In the middle of February we drove about an hour north to Oracle State Park. We had never visited the park before and were impressed with the historic ranch house that serves as a visitor centre and museum. The Kannally family buildings and land became Oracle State Park. The four-level ranch house in the photo below was built in 1929-32 in the Mediterranean Revival Style.

We walked some trails in hopes of seeing a Crissal Thrasher, because the secretive bird likes the habitat of dense mesquite and brush along desert washes. We walked along a wash and saw a pair of the species. Alas, Doug’s camera battery died and the second one was in the charger at home, so no photo this time.

On February 17th, we attended a wine festival at Medella Vina Ranch on the southeast side of Tucson.

Here Wendy is waiting in line for a pour from an Arizona winery. The fellow ahead of her has a local radio show, so wanted to be “tagged” (#thetucsontastyshow). We tasted some good wines from Sonoita and Elgin, which are close enough to Patagonia so that we will plan a day of bird-watching followed by a wine-tasting someday soon.

The next weekend was the annual Tucson Quilters Guild quilt show. There were many amazing quilts (Wendy took photos of over fifty of them) and this quilt earned “Best of Show.” It’s called Montepulciano, and is an original art quilt by Kathy Adams. Wendy didn’t measure it, but she would guess it was about 36″ x 48.”

This photo shows some of the details. The artist wrote that she made lots of parts for the trees, bushes and grapevines using wash-away stabilizer, tulle, fabric and yarns.

The quilt show was held at the Pima County Fairgrounds which was quite close to the Pima Air and Space Museum, so that’s where Doug went while Wendy was at the show. Doug is standing in front of a retired spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird.

There was a special plane on display that has limited tours. Here’s his view while he waited in line of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The lab was housed in a Boeing 747 and was modified to carry a reflecting telescope.

The flowers were starting to bloom by the end of February. This Baja Fairy Duster is brighter than the local fairy duster, but since its range is in the Sonoran desert, it qualifies to be included at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum where we saw it.

Also at the desert museum was this cactus from the Escobaria family. It’s one of the first cacti to bloom.

These California poppies were near Picture Rocks Road and since we pass by them most days, we stopped once to get some photos. We suppose that the five days with rain at the beginning of February helped them bloom vigorously.

We’ll end the blog with the expected “sky” shots. Some days the sunset itself isn’t remarkable, but the alpenglow on the ridge makes up for it.

It’s the clouds that make the sunrise. This was taken on February 21.

Wendy walked a little ways off the patio, past the vegetation and into the wash to get this sunset photo. We needed to use our umbrellas when we were birding earlier in the day, but we didn’t mind the showers and the lingering clouds made for one of our best sunsets.

Part two: birding adventures will be posted soon.