Beautiful Night

Eight of us set out this evening for an Aimophila Adventures owl workshop, starting in Tucson and ending at a crowded and noisy campground a vertical mile above the city. The owls were reticent–we heard only Flammulated and Whiskered Screech-Owls–but the owling was fine, with good company and temperatures eventually 30 degrees F lower than what we had started with in the lowlands.

The highlight for me was the Mexican Whip-poor-will concert in Bear Canyon, as many as four of the burry buzzers chanting at once from the pines. A close second: a ringtail disappearing ‘neath the guardrail as we came back down in the dark–the only way I’ve ever seen this mammal has been by owling the Catalinas in May!