I had my normal breakfast then we left in the Jeep at 7:50.

We went to the Portal Library and set up our hummingbird setup nearby because yesterday the librarian had invited us to do so. A Magnificent Hummingbird was flying around as we started to set up, but no hummingbirds came to the feeder. A local birder talked with us and said it would be OK to photograph in the neighbor's yard next door where there were several feeders. So, we moved the setup to a neighbor's yard around 9:30. I set it up where an existing hummingbird feeder was located and where a Blue-Throated Hummingbird was perched in a tree above it. Unfortunately, that Blue-Throated Hummingbird wasn't interested in feeding at the feeder, it just wanted to keep other birds from feeding there. I took a break and photographed the Cliff Chipmunks that were in the yard. The three young ones in the image below left were right outside the entrance to their den in a hollow in the crook of a tree. Because the Blue-Throated Hummingbird didn't even come down to feed at our feeder while I was photographing other subjects, I moved the setup to another area in the yard and used one of the feeders that the hummingbirds were actually feeding from — how's that for being observant. :) Soon, I was having lots of hummingbirds come to the feeder to get their pictures taken. :) There were Black-Chinned, Blue-Throated, Broad-Billed, possibly a Lucifer, and Magnificent Hummingbirds. My favorite image was of a male Magnificent Hummingbird with his gorget all lit up (below right). I like the "tree leaf" background better than the black hole, but still not great. Over the last few days, I've ben taking out of focus shots of foliage so we can make matte prints of them to use as backgrounds next year. I had had Clif Bars for lunch while shooting.


I went to the Portal Cafe & Lodge around 12:10 to see if I could get online through their WiFi. I could, so I was able to get my email and upload the blog entry that was ready to post.

I went back to the yard to photograph the hummingbirds some more, then started to pack up around 1:50. We left at 2:15.

We drove through the other two campgrounds on the way back to ours.

We returned to the RV around 2:30 and I started to make a batch of my chili. We left in the Jeep around 3:15.

We went to the Cave Creek Ranch where there are lots of bird feeders. We had heard rumors that coati frequent the yard too, and we were especially interested in photographing them. We asked in the office about the best time to see the coati, and they generally arrive in the morning but haven't been seen for the last couple of days. We decided to stay and photograph the birds because the environment was much better for photography than Dave Jasper's place yesterday. We saw White-Winged Dove, American Goldfinch, Mexican Jay, Gray-Headed (Dark-Eyed) Junco, Yellow-Eyed Junco (near left), White-Breasted Nuthatch, Saw Bullock's Oriole, Scott's Oriole, Gambel's Quail, Curve-Billed Thrasher, Bridled Titmouse, Acorn Woodpecker (far left), Ladder-Back Woodpecker. We checked our email using their Wi-Fi network before we left. What a great place!
We returned to the RV around 5:50. I downloaded the images I took today then downselected them in iView.

We had dinner around 6:40 of my chili and a Greek-like salad.

After dinner, I downselected the images some more in iView then in Capture One (C1). I processed four images for the blog before going to bed.