After my luck yesterday with the trogon, I headed to the same area of the woods to see what I could find. The Cassin’s Kingbirds continued their avoidance of me and I didn’t get any great opportunities with birds. However I had the good fortune to run into some wonderful people who were out leading a guided bird tour at Patagonia Lake State Park. They graciously offered for me to join along and I was happy to spend the morning doing some birding with the group. The group was excited to hear about the trogon, although we didn’t run into it. The leaders were wonderful people and very helpful in telling me about some of the good sightings and locations in the area. I had a great time with both them and the rest of the group. After the tour ended, I swapped my gear to a macro setup and headed back in since by now, the lizards were active in full force. My first few lizards were a bit shy and then I ran into a curious fellow. It ran away when I first approached it. With lizards, if it runs away once, it usually is worthless to try again. But after he ran a few feet away, he stopped in his tracks. He heard the flies and gnats that were buzzing about me and turned around and came back. He then proceeded to run right up to me and spend nearly half an hour just inched from me. It was a great opportunity to frame this juvenile Elegant Earless Lizard in many different compositions and angles. He just seemed to be relaxing as if he was the coolest lizard on the block.
Beauty shot of an Elegant Earless Lizard
The day had some more wonderful surprises in store for me. I spent a little while photographing the same cooperative Say’s Phoebe I had last night as it did some more insect hunting over the riverside areas. And then the most unexpected thing happened. For my entire stay in Arizona, I had not seen a single cloud. This makes for landscapes that have an empty feeling to them if you include much sky. But as the sun started to go down, a band of clouds appeared near the horizon! I had almost forgotten what clouds looked like. As I made my near the waters edge, I was treated to a show of color as the clouds gave a dazzling reflection in Patagonia Lake. What an ending to a great day!
Sunset over Patagonia Lake