Another lovely spot

Thursday's sunset was a beauty, right out Beluga's front window.   We had a number of them and we never take their beauty for granted or fail to photograph them!  (pay no attention to the stupid dirt smudges inside my old camera....)

#27

 Friday afternoon we left our peaceful spot at Usery Mountain Regional Park and moved a short distance to another favorite, Cave Creek Regional Park.    These Maricopa County Parks are lovely and quiet, especially during the week.    They're close to everything one could want, but feel very removed from civilization.  Perfect combination.    They don't offer sewer hook-ups and some of the sites are not perfectly level, but neither of those things overshadows their charm for us.

In our years of traveling we've discovered which sites get good Verizon signal and plenty of OTA TV channels and are set up so we get morning sun, afternoon shade and lovely sunset views.    As in all these parks, birds abound.  

 At Usery we set out apples for the birds to enjoy and when they were finally all used up we tried an experiment with a banana.   Do desert birds like bananas?

Not really.    This female Gila Woodpecker sampled one end but decided it wasn't her cup of tea.   A couple sparrows tried but rejected it as too mushy.    Otherwise it was ignored.    It did seem to draw a few interesting observers, however.   A courting couple came, looked it over carefully then cuddled together above it for a long while.   Who knows what an experiment will accomplish?

Peach-faced Lovebirds

So, back to Cave Creek Regional Park......(I'm having trouble organizing these "stories" in their proper order since I can't figure out how to remove a picture that I've already inserted.   You'll have to just work it out, sorry.....) 

Happy Hour view

 

Cactus Wren watched our morning's Second Cup

    

Last week we did a little exploration around the Salt River area (looking for the Salt River Band of wild horses) and Saguaro Lake.       We also attempted to drive the mostly unpaved 40 mile scenic Apache Trail through the Superstition Mountains to Roosevelt lake, but the road was closed at Fish Creek Hill Overlook.    Signs on the barricade told of severe damage from the Woodbury Fire and the resultant flood danger in the scar area.      We were sorry we couldn't complete the entire loop trail but were happy to get as far as we did.   We left the Jeep for a short hike to look down into the Fish Creek canyon.   A little Wren accompanied us.

 Here are some pictures from last week.

Salt River

Saguaro Lake

one of four hunting Harris Hawks

one-legged hawk

Superstition Mtns.

Canyon Lake

synchronized swimming practice

Black Phoebe

Fish Creek Overlook

Today we loafed around, enjoying the beautiful day.   We sat in the sun and read, we took a long walk, we watched the Covid delayed Masters golf tournament, did a little future planning.    Just what we wanted to do.