After the dismal bricking of my phone yesterday, we made a bunch of phone calls, but it was quickly clear that we couldn’t get a replacement in less than three days. Fortunately, my traveling partner was so determined that I get a solid dedicated birding experience on this trip that he downloaded the Merlin app and let me share his phone for his camera, too.

Watson Lake

We chose the Peavine Trail along the east side of the lake, a nice broad rail trail with lots of birds but, much easier to photograph, also a profusion of wildflowers!

We heard and saw lots of different kinds of birds, but I wasn’t able to get many useable pictures. Instead, I’m reduced to stealing them from the Internet….

It was a beautiful day, hot but not too hot, the rail trail was an easy stroll, but we stopped so much for photos and to listen on the app that we didn’t get very far before we decided it was time to turn around and come back, if we wanted to be free to take our usual leisurely, stop-often-for-photos pace home.

Another time, I’d love to get closer to some of the fantastic rock formations at the top of the rock … and all over Prescott, frankly!

Prescott National Forest

We took a scenic route up over some mountains through Prescott National Forest and stopped several times for birds, photos and a little geocaching.

Again, lots of birds that we saw and heard but couldn’t capture pictures of. Here’s the ones we added to the list from earlier in the morning.

As for the rest of the trip home, well, as we were reminded up in the canyon, it is monsoon season. We powered through some serious doozies of downpours as we wended over hill and under dale back to Tucson!

Despite the rain and other technical difficulties, it was a wonderful trip, a great tour of Arizona to give us something new to look at before buckling down for the semester and academic year ahead.