Arizona weather, especially in southern Arizona, does not provide many clues to what season we are in. Happily though we planted some pistache trees on our property. At times, these trees can provide some colorful leaves. Its deciduous leaves turn beautiful red and orange colors.
Colorful leaves!
Being from northeastern USA though, I equate colorful tree leaves with the fall season. When living there, quite often we would take a road trip to visit areas with beautiful fall colors! Yet here I am in Arizona, in January and February, with these colorful tree leaves! The calendar indicates winter … we are currently after December 21. The weather though, and reality here … I’m enjoying fall! I don’t care what month it is; hope you enjoy the colors too!
Fall in January and February in southern Arizona, according to our leaves!
I am amazed for a trip, not being a birding trip, I saw 61 different species of birds while visiting Argentina! No surprise then for 37 bird species to be new ones for my life list of birds! Yes!
Here are some of the birds I saw. The Patagonian mockingbird reminded me of mockingbirds at my home. They are constantly calling and changing their calls.
Patagonian mockingbird
An easy gull to identify:
Brown-hooded gull
Shovelers have a distinct bill. I just needed to learn the one I saw is a red shoveler:
Red shoveler
Arriving at a lagoon, I saw this swan and immediately knew it was a new species for me!
Coscoroba swan, the smallest of swan species
I loved looking at this bird’s eye:
Spectacled tyrant
This bird I almost didn’t capture with my camera and knew it would be a new species for me:
Look closely in center for tufted tit-tyrant
I’ve seen ibises, but here was a black-faced ibis:
Black-faced ibis
There were many other birds I photographed; however, I would have loved my larger zoom lens to truly have better photos. Yet, it was not birding trip so I think my smaller zoom did okay! A great trip with my fellow travelers sharing in the joy of seeing birds as we learned about each country we visited. What fun each day! If you missed the birds I saw in Chile, then click here.
The next day we drove to Iguazú National Park to see the falls from the Argentinian side. Tourists are efficiently moved from one station to another on a single gauge railroad train. We hopped out to walk the Superior Trail. Later I walked the Inferior Trail while others took the boat ride into the mist of the falls.
There are 275 waterfalls within Iguazú Falls.A small part of Iguazú Falls with rainbow!Boat ride to the fallsIn the mist!
Our early arrival at the park allowed us easy viewing of the falls. In the area were coatis that look like cute animals, but they are not! These animals jumped on bags and tables wherever they smelled a snack or saw food! Warning signs were posted. These animals really wrecked a family’s picnic lunch!
Coatis… watch out!
I saw an unusual reptile which I first thought was a Gila monster. It was not. A black-and-white tegu just happened to be at the side of the trail:
Tegu
I wish everyone a happy new year as I return to my usual twice a week blog posts and enjoy time at home! May 2026 see you with good health and happiness! Namaste!
We left Torres del Paine National Park, Chile to drive to El Calafate, Argentina, but first I must share a photo of the view we saw when leaving the park!
Waving goodbye to park and rainbow!
It was a beautiful end to our park visit! We had quick border crossings at Chile and then Argentina and arrived along the bank of Argentina Lake at the town of Calafate. So, 12 years ago there was a population of about 5 thousand people. Now, 30 thousand! The town thrives on tourism! It looked so different to me since my last visit!
Our group visited a local estancia/Patagonian ranch to learn about the gaucho lifestyle. Our host talked of his family’s history on this ranch where he grew up, demonstrated the sheep herding routine with his dog and hand-shearing of sheep. While this happened, the BBQ fire was cooking the lamb we would eat a couple of hours later.
As he talked, he drank mate, from a gourd with a filtered, metal straw. Mate contains antioxidants and is a social ritual in this country.Lamb BBQ cookingLamb with vegetables served at our lunch at the ranch.We learned and tried to throw the bola. It is a weapon to entangle the legs of the animal you need to get. Quite a challenge throwing the bola with any accuracy and distance.At the ranch sheep area.
Back at Calafate, a couple of my fellow travelers joined me on a birding hike. The wind was constantly blowing so it was impossible to use Merlin ID for sound recordings. Fortunately I had my camera to photograph many. Of the 22 birds species we saw at Laguna Nimez Reserve, 11 were new birds for my life list. I’ll have a blog posts simply on birds another time.
Entrance to trail. A NGO has helped protect this lake frontage from wild dogs for the last 12 years. As we looked beyond the fencing, 2 dogs were wanting to get at the birds within.Important protecting this area for birds!
Santiago can be walked if you are a patient person. I decided to walk to the Costanera Center, the tallest building in the city and maybe in South America. Next door was a five floor shopping mall. I had no interest in going to the sky deck bar at the very top of the center to see the entire city. I continued my walk to a Japanese Garden, an area of the huge city park.
Tallest building from Japanese Garden
The uphill walk to the Japanese Garden was worth it. Long and hot weather today. Soon it will be summer here. At the Japanese Garden you walk along paths passing quiet pools of water with lily pads, waterwheels, streams and sculptured trees.
More of the Japanese Garden
Very pleasant place as I also listened for birds. Another new bird: white-crested elaenia.
A new bird for me!
On my way down the hill, I interacted with employees putting up insect traps in fruit trees. Not knowing any Spanish on my part, my apologies to them, I photoed an information sheet so I could know what fly they are trying to capture.
So many places to eat in the city! I settled on my tour guide’s recommendation for a meal: pastel de jaiba… a crab cake … and as I write this, the electricity went out in one-third of the restaurant. I have my water, bread with butter and salsa, wine and meal so I am set… and then the electricity was back on! Unfortunately the chocolate cake has strawberry layer within, so glad I mentioned no strawberry please, so I’ll finish my wine with flan. Ah yes, I now remember that dessert is a South American staple!
Quite the crab cake meal!
I walked to Parque Bicentenario where hundreds of start-up tech and other companies had displays. Further along I spent time at a pond. Much to my surprise, I saw a plumbeous rail walking along the pond’s edge onto grass. Rails are typically hidden from sight. To see this one so easily was amazing!
Plumbeous rail
Two other birds were new to me: yellow-billed pintail and yellow-winged blackbird … a male and a female. I was happy to have my camera available for these observations.
Then I was looking at this next bird wondering is that a mockingbird? Yup.
Chilean mockingbird
Finally, I had been hearing the rufous-collared sparrow and the noisy monk parakeets. Now I had photos! My bird life list has grown by 8 new birds. Soon off to Easter Island in the mid-Pacific Ocean!
Rufous-collared sparrowMonk parakeet landed on the ground. Usually in the trees.
I’ll be back in a few days after I discover Easter Island!
Chile is a new country for me to visit! Argentina is smack-dab right next door to Chile, just look at the map below:
Argentina hugs Chile, or is the other way around!?!
My last adventure to this area of the world was a hiking trip in Argentina where I fell in love with the mountains near El Chalten. This trip I’ll be in the Andes again with an opportunity to visit more of the area: Easter Island, Chiloé Island, Torres del Paine and Iguassu (Iguazu) Falls from the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. When I was in Buenos Aires, so many years ago, Pope Francis was selected Pope … and the people of his church celebrated here! I also remember seeing tango dancing and on this trip I may even get a tango lesson!
Plenty of history to be learned, wildlife to view, UNESCO sites to visit, hikes to enjoy, wines, craft beer and food to taste, local and indigenous people to meet, and new birds for me to discover! Now for the adventure to begin!
I went for a walk to bird watch, stretch my legs, and see if any other interesting animals were at Agua Caliente Park this month. As I approached my usual walking path, I decided to change things up. Often walking the same direction, why not change it; I’ll walk in the reverse direction in the park.
My brain is wired in a particular way, no doubt reinforcing my habits. So I got thinking about myself as a right-handed person and how different it feels when I use my left hand for simple tasks. Now how would I feel to walk in the direction opposite from my usual path?
Birds seen!
Walking in the opposite direction on the paths I have walked a hundred times at this park was at first strange. My brain prompted me to stop every so often and determine where exactly I was on the trail and to assess some of my usual birding opportunities from the different angle. It was an interesting time to realize how simply changing the direction of my walk offered me a different perspective on my outing. I enjoyed the walk and will continue to change things up as my walks continue here in the coming months.
Have you ever changed things up? Were there any advantages or disadvantages to the change up? Maybe you were forced to do things differently from your normal routine, share if you wish.
Nature abounds in our backyard as I watch almost 100 Western honeybees at one of 2 Baja fairy duster plants! Look closely to see a bee:
So many Western honey bees!
We are also very excited when we see hummingbirds stopping at our desert willow trees and Baja fairy duster plants. Especially when they rest on a tree branch since one rarely sees a hummingbird not moving. The javelina continue to walk past my bedroom window and coyotes are in the neighborhood, as are bobcats. I’m soon off on another adventure so I will return with backyard 2026 nature journals.
Our backyard has had a couple of different lizards scurrying around and an occasional butterfly. I wish I could capture a photo of a butterfly! Red-tailed hawks have flown overhead, as do common ravens. The usual birds are at the feeders or in the trees. My October nature journal:
Three high school students were peering into the water’s edge and calling out to each other, “There’s long neck. Look how large he is. This is the second day seeing him.” I frequent this park and could not imagine what they were observing. And to name an animal, “long neck”? So I went to where they were standing and asked what they were looking at in the water.
It was a turtle with a long neck! Yup, good name! I mentioned I had never seen one in all the years frequenting this park. Many red-eared sliders were in the water too. They were the usual, and most numerous, turtles for us to see. This long-necked turtle was new to me!
I immediately used the Inaturalist app with a photo of the turtle to determine what it was we were looking at in this water. We discover it is a spiny softshell turtle. These students, who were visiting from New Hampshire, saw the turtle the previous day too. Yes, this was a new turtle for me too! The students also now aware of the Inaturalist app.
I enjoyed talking with the students. They would only be in Tucson another day but had hopes of seeing a javelina. Unfortunately they missed the parade of javelinas through our yard last month. And they will not see javelinas at the Grand Canyon where they will visit next. But they are having an educational Arizona visit in towns and parks around the state.
As I walked the park’s paths this month, I saw my first phainopepla. Of course the Gila woodpeckers were busy and noisy as usual. The vermilion flycatchers with their bright red color is easy to see, just as a northern cardinal that also tried to hide itself in some shrubs. Off in a distance on an electrical power pole I saw what first looked like a black vulture. I did not have my camera that day, but after talking with another birder, I decided it was a juvenile turkey vulture. Few wading ducks, only a couple of ring-necked ducks. About 17 different bird species are usually seen. Now I can keep my eyes open for the spiny softshell turtle too!
The harvest moon and hunter’s moon, the rain and rainbows, and migrating wildlife this month has been fascinating to observe. Here’s my October nature journal for Agua Caliente Park:
