desert | kritterspaw

Tourists seeking warmer weather aren’t the only ones wintering in Arizona.

An increasingly common sight from Avondale to Tucson are the American white pelicans, normally seen in coastal waters around Mexico and California. These large clumsy birds normally migrate to Great Salt Lake and the west coast of Mexico, but hurricane storms, mild temperatures, and man made lakes & ponds stocked with fish have made Arizona a desirable stopover.

The pelicans typically head to their breeding grounds in Canada and Upper Midwest in March, but more are expected to migrate to the Phoenix area in winter months.

Even the more ‘out of place’ brown pelicans have been found to escape coastal storms and enjoy Arizona’s mild climate.

We saw these brown and white pelicans hanging out enjoying ‘chilling’ in the waters of Alamo Lake. They seemed out of place in AZ, but apparently are becoming more commonplace, as they too find being a snowbird in AZ has its advantages.

This time of year the snow is melting up North…. and the sun is shining in the Valley. We have become pretty acclimated to the cooler temps… so HOT HOT is just HOT, as it was when we went down this past week and experienced a whopping 87F. Ok, I know we’re spoiled… but we’re toughened up by our winters.

We went to see the flowers, but in truth, while we got into a couple small pockets, it was already late in the season, as most were already gone.

We enjoyed those we did see, and soaked up the heat. But enough is enough, so we took the appropriately named, Desert to Tall Pines Rd (SR 288) back to the snow.

In a matter of hours we were back in our comfort zone, with snow on the ground, amidst the forest and Tall Pines.

We ventured to Workmens Creek, outside of Young, and enjoyed the cascading water from their snow melt.

Ahhhh….. how refreshing. : )

kritterspaw

Tag / desert

Snowbirds

Desert to Tall Pines