Arizona, boon or bust?

John slept at a Motel 6 in Casa Grande last night but will sleep in the car on the air mattress tonight, he says. He has milk and cereal for breakfast and granola bars and nuts for snacks. I forgot to buy Cokes but he can pick them up wherever he buys gas. He will get along fine without me. :-( I will paint some doors, lead some school nature tours, and pack for my flight to Minneapolis next Saturday.

John will be trying for the Streak-Backed Oriole and the Black-Capped Gnatcatcher today. Gnatcatchers would be a lot easier if they would only display their tails more.

In the 70's, we were at the Patagonia picnic table and found out that the BCGN family that had nested there had been collected to determine if the adults were both BCGN or were cross-breeding. Science must be served. But no wonder they are still hard to find in AZ.

At some point, he will be hiking back into Florida Canyon to try to find the Rufous-Capped Warbler. Hope he has better luck than we did in early January.

Once he is successful, or gives up, on all three, he might go by the Salton Sea on his way home. 

Then he plans to go to Northern California until his flight to Minneapolis February 15th for the Sax-Zim bog festival. We both bought snow boots. Wishful thinking.