Rancho Innocente road trip

Due to a bunch of work related commitments, Jeanne and I did not get out of town until well after 12:00, so we chose a relatively short road trip. We grabbed our Baja California SUR Almanac, pick a little black line ( un-improved dirt roads) and headed out. Todays exploration would be to Rancho Innocente, via El Rosario. Now, bear in mind the Mexican locals have a tendency to use the same name over and over. Roads, towns, rocky points, bays.....all having repeated names through out the country. There are a whole bunch of El Rosarios. Try as we might, we use the almanac to keep track of where we are, but once you are out in the Mexican desert, there are about 5 roads for ever one that is listed on the map! forks in the road become a true flip of the coin many times.
No matter what, the road trip was fun, and what I would consider a success. Perhaps you will agree, take a look below.....

We certainly see a lot of Roadrunners, doing just that running around the roads...but this guy was nearly 40 feet up sitting on a Cordon Cactus

He did let us a get a little closer....

I was excited to get to watch three (3) Harris Hawks in a bit of what I would call a mating display. Jeanne says that the two of the guys were just showing off to get a new girlfriend!!

There were actually quite a few hawks in this area. All of the Sparrow Hawks (American Kestrel) were very shy, but this Redtail Hawk was happy to have his picture taken.

During the last part of our road trip, we ran across a huge patch of what I call bottle brush flowers.....Usually we see a plant or two here and there. The nectar eating birds all love this flower as it is large, and ripens from the bottom up, so the "snack" season is quite long. This Female Xanthus's Hummingbird was in heaven.....

 

 

While I stood there, White-wing doves, Common Ground Doves, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Gila Woodpeckers, Verdin, and this camouflaged Orange-crowned Warbler were all flying around.

 

 

 

 

When you have that many flowers, all smelling sweet with nectar, you are going to have a bunch of flies!  Where ever you find flies you will find flycatchers. This Ash-throated Flycatcher could not have had it much better.