Photo Gallery Coronado National Park

The natural beauty found on the Sky Islands found in Cochise County of Southeast Arizona - of Carr Peak and Mount Lemmon within the Coronado National Park

Sorry, but my pictures of birds is blurry. It's a lot easier to take a photo of a flower than it is a bird. I have real respect for those photographers who have sharp clear pictures of birds. Your camera always has to already be 'on the ready' and hope the bird drops into your frame.

That is hardly likely with a Hummingbird - unless you have a hummingbird feeder. Those birds are super- sonic fast . I saw a hummingbird - that was so fast -it went vertical straight up towards the sky of about 30 feet in less than a half a second.. Hummingbird's impossible aerial maneuvers make them the 'UFO's" of the birds. Notice my hummingbird is on a tree branch.

The search engine of WhatBird starts off with 924 birds. Then the list is narrowed down with each value entered. The interactive search engine is used by checking off basic attributes such as location, size, bill shape, bill length, and wing shape to narrow down choices to see and compare photos. I tried under 'hummingbird-like', green, very small but all the hummingbirds had red throats which my little green guy does not have.

So I redid the engine from the beginning and chose different kinds of attributes to ID my bird - which was the following; Needle shaped beak, bill length longer than head and chose small (5 - 9 in) instead of very small. and it came down to one bird that is supposed to have blue highlights.

I don't place great trust on the search engine that give you different birds depending on the order of the attributes entered but it's the best search engine found for ID'ing a bird without any technical knowledge. It is very easy to use.

According to the engine the green bird is a Blue-throated Hummingbird that spends winters in Mexico's lower elevations during winter. There is no blue so if what to make sure can send photo to ask the experts. In order to upload need to join the forum and can have a blog for all your future bird watching. The quality photos of birds on that website are excellent.

At Colby.edu there is a world wide flower plant family identification search but there are no pictures and the user would have to know the language of describing plant attributes.

At MountainNature.com the search engine can be started in different ways but it is still not as easy to use as the search engine at WhatBird. Mountain Natures search weans out by color, then flower and lastly petals. There were no images at all - zero. There are a lot of dead links, no blog, and the search engine for plants asks to select common or Latin name - if I knew that I wouldn't be using a search engine. Not a good place to ID plants by photos.

I'm still looking for a good plant ID website and a blog option so that my memories of the beautiful Coronado National Park will live on forever in a certain way on this website.

On the USA border, the park is safe to travel to. The increased violence of northern Mexico has been a deterrent of illegal immigrants who have to cross the gauntlet of cartel territory before entering USA.

There is a unpaved road of 6 miles that takes about a half hour. The road is scary because it's narrow and the is no gutter except for a steep drop-off. A regular 2wd car with high clearance can easily drive on it. 4WD only roads are marked on the map that you can get at the Ranger station for free a mile from Carr Canyon road on 92. For more information on camping, trails, road conditions, etc. in the National Forest, contact:

Sierra Vista Ranger District
5990 S. Hwy. 92
Hereford, AZ 85615
(520) 378-0311

Mushrooms and flowers are easier to capture images of than hummingbirds. A hummingbird feeder is a must if which to capture images. These images of hummingbirds taken at the Carr House were taken with a Canon PowerShot A2000 IS. I had the highest camera speed of 3200 ISO, but it was a partly cloudy day and the blurred images of the birds wings is visible at 1/500 shutter speed.

The only clear image of the humming birds wings was when the sun broke through the clouds and I was able to get a 1/1600 shutter speed. Even at these very high speed camera settings, the hummingbirds wings are still blurry except for when the wing changes direction. That's why all the hummingbird images you see in field books are showing the wing all the way back or full forward to capture a non- blurred image.

Carr House is open on weekends only and has a humming bird feeder. The air was full of humming birds. The volunteer docent Alan told me that the birds don't mind noise but must be very still to take pictures.

I sat down on the red wooden staircase that was next to the feed and but my camera up on the railing. Remaining very still, pre-focused the camera towards the humming bird feeder set for multiple shots.

The red-necked hummingbird came hovering directly in front of my face about a foot away. It was as if the hummingbird was daring me, laughing at me, knowing I was too slow to swat a fly that a fraction a speed of this bird.

Photo identification of hummingbirds are online but a field book is easier to flip though. The lustrous irdescent coloring is not done justice by the photographs. The plumage in reality is much brighter than images from books or websites.

An excellent website with 4 pages of hummingbirds pictures is here.

List of breeding birds found in western United States:

Allen's Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Berylline Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Blue-throated Hummingbird
Broad-billed Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Costa's Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Lucifer Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird

Don't waste money on buying costly store bought hummingbird nectar. If competing with a neighbors' hummingbird feeder then whoever has the most sugar will attract all the birds. Use water that is free from chlorine or fluoride, the recipe is 1 part cane sugar/ 4 parts water. For more information of maintaining your feeder go here.

I am not naming the birds I saw because I'm not an expert. The broad-tailed and Ruby-throated look alike. If any bird experts out there can help me label these birds please write in comments so that I label the photos.

OK. I know a place where you upload a picture of a insect and people will identify the bug for you - for free - sometimes in minutes! But I am unable to find such a service for identifying mushrooms.

Please help me to learn where and how can ID mushrooms. Mushroom in Arizona. But isn't it call the "Arid Zone" for a reason? Yes, but the very high mountainous areas that are located in various places along the border country are called "Sky Islands" because it is so much cooler.

Phoenix and Tuscon might be 115 degrees but south towards the Mexican border the elevation of the land at Sierra Vista is ten degrees cooler. Coronado National Park that is bordering Mexico is at least 20 degrees cooler than Tuscon.

So please ID my Mushrooms. The mushrooms on 8.10.2010 at the Miller Peak trail in the Coronado National Park in Arizona. During this time southeastern Arizona experiences a Monsoon season. The high peak make their own weather and daily thunderstorms occur. That is why the active Army Intelligence Base if called Fort Huachuca because Huachuca means 'thunder' in Apache. This is where the Chiricahua Apache Geronimo, hid in the hills and made his last stand.

Mount Lemmon is part of the Santa Catalina Mountains of the Coronado National Forest constellation in Arizona. The ski resort and observatories are located at an elevation of over 9,000 feet means that it is an escape from the stifling heat of the city of Tucson. The beautiful winding 23 mile long well paved road is called the Catalina Highway on the map , Mount Lemmon Highway by locals and the Hitchcock Highway on the roadside signs. It is called the Sky Island Parkway because the elevation gives a different environment that is totally different than the surrounding high desert of Arizona.

At the elevation of about 8000 feet is Whitetail Campground nestled within the Ponderosa pine. All the campsites have no hookups and no showers. The best thing about Mt. Lemmon other than the coolness is driving and with every curve of the twisting mountain road there is a new vista.

Regional North America United States Arizona Localities Sierra Vista Travel and Tourism