Mary Jo's and the Lucifer Sighting on 8 11 2012

 There is always a start to any adventure and sometimes the end isn't when you expect it.  Early in July my husband and I went on a birding bonanza.  We saw many birds, but were saddened to learn that some of the rare birds we expected to see may not be there due to a fire in previous years.  So, when he spotted a report of the bird we missed, it was the perfect way to end that journey even if it wasn't when the trip had originally ended.
We called Mary Jo to try to figure out when would be the best time to see the bird.  After our conversation with her we decided to stay in town until the afternoon and make an afternoon run of it.
















We started off around 3pm and headed down to Southern Arizona once again.  We arrived after grabbing some McDonald's and parked in one of the birding spots.  The kids needed to run so we took turns going in to sit and watch the feeders and walk around the dirt road with the kids.










Mary Jo's was more full than it was on our original visit, both of people and of birds.  When my turn came it took all of about 10 minutes to have the feeders visited not just by the Lucifer(bird we came to see), but an Anna's/Costus Hybrid, a Lucifer/Costus Hybrid, an Anna's, and a Rufus Hummingbird!

 The people were all in great moods with spottings and feeder numbers being shouted our from time to time.

 Mary Jo herself looked and seemed gracious to have not only other birders to chat with, but her once lost friend back visiting her home.

Mary Jo and the Lucifer are usually talked about in the same sentence, since her home is normally where you go to see him, but do to the fire he didn't arrive on his normal time and it seemed he may have been lost to the fire itself with few sightings being reported at all.  

 I was happy to see the two friends back together and full-filled that we got to see a bird that made our original trip feel like the ending was more complete than it had been.

As usual other birds like this House Finch are also regulars at Mary Jo's.

 This Ladder-Back seems to have decided her home is a great place to stay as it is the second time with a month in between sightings in which I have seen one at her home.

 

 Here is our bird, the Lucifer!

 His purple throat glistened at times in the sun!

 I love this shot showing off his color!

He wasn't shy either, giving us a tweet here and there.  

 I think in all 2 males were spotted with a potential female lurking about.

  Check out the length of that bill!

 He gave us a bit of a show!

 Notice he is flaring his color out from time to time.

 This Lucifer not only put a cap on my hummingbird year, but also made my heart warm that even a catastrophic event can't come between friendship with the re-uniting of the Lucifer and Mary Jo's feeders!

 In addition to the Lucifer we also got to gaze upon the Rufus Hummingbird.

 I love the color of this bird.  He reminds me of a sunset that looks like it is setting the horizon on fire!

 Look at the ranges of rust and orange he has on his feathers.

This shot is posted because it's one of my favorite showing his throat off, lit up by the sun!















The even faded and it started getting dark.  Majority of the birders left and Mary Jo allowed us to bring the kids into her bird sanctuary where my daughter was excited to check out the birds.  She wore her little binoculars around her neck and kept asking to pet Mary Jo's pet birds whom prefer only to be petted by Mary Jo.  It was great to be able to share this with our children.  My son felt big as he got to sit in his own adult size chair looking about like his dad!  Who knows maybe these two will grow up to be birders and when they ask about the places they have gone to see birds we can share this story with them!  We said goodbye to Mary Jo and the birds and headed back into the now dusky night for home.  A little hectic but the perfect ending at an unplanned time to our bird bonanza.