Sometime when I wake up early in the morning I like to just grab my camera and go find some nature. Fortunately, we have a lot of nature pretty close to us here in southeast Arizona. This morning I jumped in the Jeep and headed down to the river.
It turns out I was a little too on the ball this morning, so I got to the river probably 25-30 minutes before there was enough light to get go pictures with this big lens. No worries though, I just wandered around for a bit. Sometimes when I’m out here I’ll walk 3-5 miles. Today it was just a quick 3/4 miles out and back. I ended up taking most of my pictures near the San Pedro House after the sun was a little higher in the sky. One of the things I was hoping to photograph today was hummingbirds.
I found some!
There were about a half dozen of these little rufous hummingbirds fighting with each other at the feeders. I found a bench not far away where I sat down with my camera. Over the next 15 minutes or so, I managed to capture a few images when they stopped to rest. I also had a couple of in-flight shots, but didn’t really like the way those turned out.
Of course there were also plenty of other birds …
In addition to birds, I also like to take pictures of butterflies and insects when I’m out on my walks. I had a couple of images that I kind of like. The first was this bumblebee pollinating some nice pink flowers.
Then I found this pretty interesting. Instead of just getting a picture of a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, I also managed to come across one of its caterpillars.
Last but not least, it wouldn’t be Arizona if I didn’t get at least on lizard picture while out on a nature walk.
I got back to the house just as everyone else was waking up and just in time to make some breakfast. Over the years, I’ve probably been to the San Pedro river about 100 times. But it’s still my go to spot when wake up early without a plan, as there’s always plenty of interesting stuff to take pictures of down there.
Do you have a favorite go to spot that visit over and over again?
Til next time,
Todd
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