Dave and I went up to Mt. Ord on Wednesday, May 3rd. There were reports of Grace’s Warblers and Red Crossbills there.
We left at about 8:00 AM, and reached Forest Road 1688 at about 9:00 AM. This is where the Grace’s Warbler has been seen. We weren’t disappointed, and got a lot of shots of the GW. Unfortunately, I had a photographic blunder. On my shots of the GW I didn’t have the lens zoomed all the way in, so the magnification was only half of what it could have been. What a big dummy! I’d like to go for a re-do 🙂. We also saw the nesting Plumbeous Vireos there.
We then proceeded on FR 626 to the top of Mt. Ord where the Crossbills were reported. We didn’t have any luck seeing them, though.
I got some more Arizona wildflower shots, and some butterflies. I’m also including a panorama I took at the top. I need to figure out a better way to show the panorama on the website. As it is, it is twice as wide as my other photos (if your browser is big enough), but at that width it’s only 98 pixels high!
4 Comments
Love the photos. They look close enough to me!?
Phoenix Rising?
I’m glad you liked them, Jill! It’s the ones you don’t see that didn’t come out . I got a ton of shots of the GW in nice poses etc, but I couldn’t use them because of my blunder. Even the one I did post required more cropping than I like. I thought the dead tree looked kinda like image you see of the mythical Phoenix bird as it rises from the ashes. Maybe too much of a stretch?
Oh, I get it now, you left out a lot.
I figured that was what you were thinking on the Phoenix Rising shot. Yes, a bit of a stretch. Looks more like it when I see it small in the group of photos.
Well … I always leave out a lot. I usually pick the best one or two of a species. I guess my point is that I had what I think would have been better shots of the GW to choose from if I would have zoomed in like I should have. I had to settle for one that had a lot of cropping, so it’s not as sharp, and the details don’t ‘zing’. Anyway, I’m happy I got at least one that came out OK. The Grace’s Warbler is a pretty bird.