Roadrunner Quest

With my parents and brother visiting this past weekend, we have tried to gear our activities to accommodate two bird watchers. My father and brother have both gained a love for watching and photographing birds. So yesterday, we took a day trip to Tucson, with hopes of finding a roadrunner to photograph. Dad wanted to visit the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson because it is a very large natural habitat park with lots of paths, birds, and other interesting things to photograph. We had a lot of fun! On the way there, dad spotted a roadrunner sitting on a fence post, but going 75 mph, we couldn't very well stop in time to get a picture before it dashed off at a quick 17 mph while we turned back the half mile to find it. So we kept going.

After getting lost only once we finally found the moutain road to the park. It wound around a beautiful Sojuaro forest on some very narrow roads. Amelia yelled at me numorous times from the back seat to not drive off the cliff. Thanks Amelia! Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time for a show featuring roadrunners and other interesting birds due to our confused directions and freeway closures, but we did see some fun things. I'll post pictures from my dad and brother's camera later to show the amazing things they found. Here are some other photos from our day.

This Lizard was found just bathing in the sun along one of the trails. It was huge!

This was Amelia's favorite part. There was a tunnel so small only kids could fit through, and maybe tiny adults, winding up and down and around... but there weren't any roadrunner's in there.
Nope, not a roadrunner. Lucy really wanted to hold this little owl, it looked so cute and soft.

Don't take my picture mom!

We were very hot and tired by the end of our very long day. And just before leaving reservation land and entering back into the Phoenix area, I spotted a roadrunner run right across the road in front of our car! Dad pulled over, jumped out with camera in hand to chase it down. Darn those roadrunners for the speediness. All he ended up with was a pretty bad glare from the Native American whose land he must have been on while looking for his fast feathered friend, no picture. BUT we SAW one! Beep-Beep...