Early April is a great time to visit the Tucson area. It is not uncommon for the desert to bloom with all kinds of color. I asked a new friend with whom I birded a few days ago how long the desert would be green. The answer was by early May the flowers would be dead and the grasses brown. However, for the moment the desert is awash in color. This morning I bicycle over to Catalina State Park and arrived just as the sun peaked above the mountain ridge at 6:45 am.

My first stop of the morning was visiting two barn owls. Once again, although no photos I had great views. After that experience I split my time between birding and taking photos of the desert bloom. By 8:30 I called it quits as I wanted to get in more miles on my bicycle before the temperatures rose.

The Desert in Bloom (The yellow flowers are Mexican Poppys. The blue flowers are my friends from Texas … Bluebonnets. I have no ID for the purple and lavender flowers. Sorry)

Crissal Thrasher (lifer)

Vermilion Flycatcher

Broad-Billed Hummingbird (lifer this trip … pics from Madera Canyon)