Spectacular views going up the road to Mount Lemmon 

A day of good birds and spectacular scenery. From the foothills on the edge of Tucson City it’s 35 miles to the summit of Mount Lemmon, at just less than 10,000 feet. The journey takes you through five distinct bio-types, with different plant and bird communities in each. The views were stunning and the temperature was a very acceptable 75 degrees – 25 cooler than the plain below. At the top is a small ski village where we had an excellent lunch. With nearly ten hours of birding it’s not surprising that we added several trip ticks but, frustratingly, we didn’t all get on to everything. Our target bird, Olive Warbler, however managed to elude us all.

Our only new collective America List tick of the day – Grace’s Warbler

Another Great Horned Owl, found snoozing in the late afternoon sun