The Desert Museum has to be Tucson's biggest asset. Icky arranged a behind-the-scenecs tour of the hummingbird avaiary Monday and we were there at 6:30 (hard to believe Icky was up at 5:00). the docent was great; a 15-year employee of the Museum and very knowledgable.
We were able to see two nests, one with newly hatched hummingbirds. Evidently when they first hatch, the new chicks are barely the size of a raisin. The Museum has 17 hummingbirds in their Avaiary and since they breed them, will often give them to other institutions like the San Diego zoo. Very cool and worth getting up early for.
There is so much at this museum that we were there nine hours. It's a large piece of property so the gardens are extensive. But they also have great exibits on geolgy, and, since they have animals, it is also a zoo of sorts. It gets a lot of visitors this time of year so I'm glad we went early.
Took a quick trip to Saguaro National Forest west unit at the end of the day and will do some hiking in the east unit befor heading north to Phoenix tonight.
more photos...
Wish we could have been on this trip with you. The observatory and the museum look fascinating. I would love to see the raisinettes.
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