Carpe Diem! Birding and Hiking, what a Nice Reprieve!
3/15/2025
by Liz Melville
I have been working hard at taking action, but with all that is happening in the world, it often feels like I am throwing pebbles into the ocean trying to make the water rise.
I am reminding myself that I can throw pebbles, laugh, sing, and play -- all at the same time.
Please enjoy reading about some of my funny adventures that led to mini-lessons on a recent trip to Arizona.
Lesson 1: Traveling in a new place is challenging
My partner Ben and I enjoyed a direct flight from Spokane to Phoenix. As we took off, I watched a ribbon of light curl up from the horizon as I settled in with my iPad to write. Later, as we descended into Arizona, I looked down on what looked like red and yellow roof tops divided by wavy roads that I knew must be riverbeds flowing in and around the Grand Canyon. So much beauty, so much glory.
But that was the end of the morning travel glory. After our arrival, we got on the wrong train out of the airport, waited in a long line to get our rental car, and then had to wait again in the long line because the car we were assigned was not in its parking spot.
After getting our rental car we spent much of the next hour driving in circles around what seemed like an endless landscape of cement, asphalt, and ugly buildings. Using Google Maps we finally found a strip mall that had restaurant options that would work for both of us.
Lesson 2: Just Because Something Is Ordinary, Doesn't Mean It Isn't Extraordinary.
"awhhh EECK, awhhh EECK, awhhh EECK," I heard as I stepped out of our rental car.
Suddenly, the hectic morning and my empty stomach seemed less important. Ben proceeded to the In-N-Out burger to get something to eat, and I followed this new bird call hoping to see a new bird.
The noise led me across the parking lot to a line of trees in a small strip of grass between the parking lot and the street. Here, I spotted a sleek black bird with a long beak and a rooster tail. He sat on a low-hanging branch and looked at me before again calling:
"awhhh EECK, awhhh EEK."
His antics made me laugh. It was as if his raucous call crescendoed to an exclamation point, and to make his point, he would open his mouth as wide as possible before yelling his final EEK.
As I watched him, a few of his relatives flew to the tree to join him. Some of these birds also were decked out in shiny black suits, while others wore dark brown coats over olive-tinged brown undercoatings. The latter sported shorter tails.
Using the sound recognition feature on my phone's Merlin application, I learned that I was watching Great-tailed Grackles. The black bushy tailed birds were the males, and the lighter colored, shorter tailed birds were the females.
Ben and I saw these mischievous raucous birds throughout our trip. I watched them in the desert forests, in the grassy areas by our condominium, and in parking lots where they were often scavenging for garbage. I wondered if Arizonians viewed the Great-tailed Grackles a bit like some Northwesterners view house sparrows, Canada Geese, or common pigeons that often take over city landscapes and ponds -- as nuisance birds, who are common and uninteresting.
I have always admired the resiliency and adaptability of these "common birds" and was delighted to list the Great-tailed Grackle as my first Arizona bird sighting.
Great-tailed grackle, photo by Alan McCoy
Lesson 3: Stay on the Path.
After watching the Great-tailed Grackles and eating lunch, my boyfriend and I chose to spend the rest of our afternoon at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. It was an outdoor museum of sorts where different trails (Discovery, Desert Lives, Sonoran Desert, and Desert Wildflower) led to different exhibits.
It was in the Butterfly exhibit, a sub-garden on the Wildflower trail, that I spotted the Costa Hummingbird. He was sitting high in a branch of a tree where the other visitors didn't notice him. I stood quietly hoping to observe him more. Once I was alone, the tiny bird with the bright purple hat and bib started zooming back and forth right above my head from its perch on the tree to a nearby bush. I was enjoying this interaction until more people joined me and he flew away.
The gardens seemed to be a hub for many cool birds. Throughout the gardens packs of red-capped Gambel's Quail would run out from under a bush while following the flips on their heads as if they frantically needed to go somewhere. While running around they would call: "Ka KAA ka, Ka KAA ka," which I translated to "HeLLO there, HeLLO there."
It now felt as if Lady Universe regretted her earlier tricks to test my patience and was making it up to me by showing me many wonders of the Arizona Desert. After seeing Great-tailed Grackles, a Costa Hummingbird and Gambel's Quails, I spotted what looked like a nest in the middle of a large cactus. I wanted to investigate further, so I stepped off the path and leaned ever so slightly into a small forest of cacti plants to take a picture of the ball of grasses hidden there. But as I snapped the picture, I felt a hot stinging sensation in my arm.
I stepped back onto the path and Ben said, "Wow, you have a cactus on your back. He pulled off the pieces that were loosely attached to my clothes, but when he pulled on the prickly head that was now attached to my arm, my skin and flesh around the cactus spines moved outward with the stout prickles.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch," I cried out. "Stop. This is not going to work."
""You need a professional," Ben told me.
I agreed, but I didn't want to start my first day of vacation at the ER, so we found the office for the visitor center and asked if she had any advice for us.
"Oh, you got attacked by a Jumping Cholla," said the young woman who opened the door. "I will call the ranger. You can wait two doors down by his office and he will find you shortly."
By this time Ben had started to take pictures of my arm and was trying to hide his smirky face.
"Don't you go spreading these pictures all around," I told him. "This is my story to tell or not to tell."
He was rescued from my wrath when the ranger showed up. He was young, handsome and kind. He had me sit down and took out his first aid kit.
"How is your pain tolerance?" he asked me.
"Ok, I guess," was my reply. But I wished he hadn't asked me this question.
He tugged a bit on one of the spines and then found some clippers. He methodically clipped one cactus spine at a time away from the green cactus head. Once the spine was separated from the cactus, he picked up his pliers, held my flesh around the spine down and quickly jerked the spine out of my arm.
While he clipped and pulled, he told us a bit about the Jumping Cholla. He told us that this cactus got its name because it seemed to jump onto any animal that barely touched it. This mean trick was a survival skill; its way of using other creatures to spread its seeds. He also told us that the cholla spines had barbs on the ends of them to ensure they would travel a long way with their carriers.
These barbs had made it almost impossible for Ben to remove the spines, and these barbs were the reason that each tug made my arm hurt like hell. And of course, these barbs were Lady Universe's method of teaching me the lesson to follow the rule that was posted all over the Botanical Gardens stating: STAY ON THE PATH.
The cholla in my arm, and the nest in the middle of a Jumping Cholla cactus. I learned later this nest was most likely made by a Cactus Wren.
Ouch
Jumping Cholla
Cactus Wren, photo by Alan McCoy
Lesson 4: Be Thankful for a Rescuer Who Is Not also a Preacher.
I am pretty sure if I had stuck my arm in a cactus as a kid, my supervisor, whether it be my mom, dad or a teacher, would have said something like:
"Well, this is what happens when you don't follow the rules" -- as if I was not smart enough to figure that out for myself.
My knight in boots and a ranger shirt, had the decency to only say:
"Good luck, enjoy the rest of your trip."
Lesson 5: Don't just Look at the Big Words Like: "Condominium" and "Pool" before you hit RESERVE.
I told Ben I would take care of the room reservations. He liked to reserve rooms in a hotel, and I liked to reserve places through Airbnb. The main reason I liked to reserve through Airbnb was that I liked to have a kitchen and a homey environment. In the past, I had great luck with these reservations. This time, I didn't do so well.
Finding the place I had reserved was easy. We followed the directions from our host and drove past an old hotel to the condominium complex behind it. We parked in an uncovered parking spot, and picked up the fob that allowed us entry into the building from a small locker.
I pretended that the dirty gray carpet and the dingy dark hallway didn't bother me as we walked towards our room. It was clear that this condominium complex must have been a cheap hotel. I crossed my fingers as we opened the door, thinking maybe there would be a hidden gem behind it. But Lady Universe seemed to want to continue teaching me lessons. This was not a classy condominium with a kitchen, but rather an old hotel room with two beds, a microwave, a small refrigerator and a bathroom containing four thread-bare towels: two white and two mint green.
As disappointing as the room was, we were at least in a quiet, somewhat isolated location with an outdoor patio that was connected to a grassy area that lay between the hotel and our condominium.
Here, while sitting at a little table, I saw my first Verdin. Often when I use my Merlin application, I only hear the birds, but this time I spotted the tiny little bird with a yellow mask and a red spot on its side at the same time that I heard her song.
Verdin, photo by Alan McCoy
Exploring, I found that if I walked on the grass in one direction, I came to a little outdoor sitting area, and walking in the other direction, I came to the hotel's pool, which the condominium owners had access to. The pool was surrounded by grass, big trees, and some bushes; it was a green space in the middle of the city. Here, I saw more flocks of Gambel's Quail and Great-tailed Grackles, as well as Black Phoebes, Northern Mockingbirds, House Finches, and even a Gila Woodpecker.
The room might not have been a great place to hang out, but I got lucky to find an almost abandoned building that had been re-occupied by the birds.
Lesson 6: Destination Seeking Shouldn’t Be My Goal.
Prior to my interest in birding, I would always want to hike fast so I could get my heart rate up and get to the final destination. But now that I wish to learn about birds, I am learning to stop often, stand still, and listen.
On this trip while on the Chuck Wagon Trail leading to the Devil's Bridge Trail just outside of Sedona, I heard a high-pitched "Chip," "Chip," "Chip." I stood still and tracked the sound. Soon I saw a little black and white woodpecker sporting a red mohawk. It looked like a smaller version of the Downy or Hairy Woodpecker (I can't tell the difference) that I have seen in the Inland Northwest. Merlin told me it was a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, the female of which has no red mohawk.
Ladder-backed woodpecker, photo by Anish Lakkapragada on Unsplash
And on another day, while hiking at Pinnacle Peak, I saw an Anna's Hummingbird.
My new listening skills and willingness to slow down, have opened up a whole new world for me.
Lesson 7: Travel with a Planner.
My partner Ben is a planner. Before our trip he researched points of interest and made a list of things to do, from which we chose to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens, the Frank Lloyd Wright Museum, Pinnacle Peak, the Devil's Bridge, and a pre-season Mariner's game.
If I was planning this trip, I would have been looking up options on the internet after our arrival and most likely woul not have gone to nearly as many cool places.
Lesson 8: Put Away My Phone and Be Present.
Lesson 9: Wait Your Turn.
This lesson was not really learned on my trip, but I am including it as a reason to show a funny picture of my chickens. Our chicken coop has four nesting boxes, but Penelope and Nimbus only like to use the end box. Sometimes they impatiently wait for the other to lay an egg and sometimes they just sit on top of each other.
Photo by Liz Melville
Lesson 10: Breathe, Laugh, Spend Time with Friends, and Cherish My Now.