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Of course, 60 miles down the interstate I turn to Sonja and ask a fateful question, "Did you bring the binoculars?"
D'oh!
Pretty sad that a pair of hard-core birders leaving for a birding trip forget to pack a pair of binoculars. Luckily, the lady at the front gate of the garden lent us what I am assuming at one time passed for binoculars...about eighty years ago. They worked... sort of. And it certainly was nice of her to let us use them. At least we had remembered to bring a bird guide. In fact, we brought two of them, just in case.
Anyway, we were hoping to see a reported Rufous-backed Robin, a rare visitor from Mexico that had been spotted in the garden a couple days ago. No such luck, although we both got some lifers (me: Black-tailed Gnatcatcher; Sonja: Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Inca Dove, White-winged Dove, and Western Tanager).
Despite the heat (it was well over 90 today in Phoenix) it was a really fun and interesting place to walk around. However, we were very disappointed and shocked to see three domestic cats wandering around freely outside. The staff at the garden all knew about them and even defended the fact that they intentionally allow them to wander around the entire garden. For a place whose mission is to "advance excellence in education, research, exhibition, and conservation", seeing their blatant disregard for the safety of all the wild birds that depend on the garden to survive was very, very disheartening. The fact that the staff saw nothing wrong with letting the cats roam freely really pissed me off, too. We had been planning on spending a fair bit of money in the cool gift shop they had, too. Suffice to say, they will not be getting any business from us until they keep the cat inside.
I know people get really defensive about their "right" to allow their cat outside, but you know what? Tough. Keep your freakin' cat INSIDE! Domestic cats are responsible for killing an estimated 2.5 BILLION songbirds in the United States EVERY SINGLE YEAR. They do NOT belong outside! Don't get me wrong, I love cats (and many of you know we own one ourselves). But you will never see us let her outside, unless she is in our arms or on a leash (with the sole exception of a single time a couple weeks ago when we woke up at 2:30am to a cat meowing outside our bedroom window...only to discover that it was a mildly terrified Annie, who had snuck out the back door seven hours earlier without us noticing).
Ok, enough ranting. Here are some pictures from the day. The desert is in full bloom right now, making the walk very colorful and exciting.
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2 comments:
The first butterfly is a Zebra Longwing. The second one I'm not so sure about... probably an American Lady. (Yes, that's an actual butterfly)
I had the same cat experience at Longwood Gardens in PA. It's a HUGE botanical gardens located on land owned by the Dupont family. They actually had signs talking about how they let cats roam around the property to eat mice and other pests. I don't know how much of an effect mice have on ornamental plantings, but I'm sure these cats don't restrict their diet to only mammals. Ugh.
Nice BT Gnatcatcher sighting! I missed that bird in AZ when I was there a few years ago.
I wish they had that kind of butterfly here in Big Lake, MN!!! Looks like ya had FUN!!! Poor Annie!! guess she learned her lesson! I really liked that purple headed humming bird you had a picture of!! Have a great weekend!
LUV YA!! Janine, your favorite sister! ;o)
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