Somewhere over the Sonoran Desert, a Harris Hawk is on the hunt. These magnificent raptors hunt in a group. You can see them along with other raptors at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum’s Raptor Free Flight. But if you’re going to make the trip to one of Tucson’s most popular visitor attractions, you’ll want to do it by April 2, the last day of this season’s performances. A winter attraction, the flights will start again in October and twice a day at 10 AM and 2 PM, audiences will thrill to the sight of these beautiful and graceful hunters. You can visit the museum year round. It is only the raptor flights that are scheduled in the cooler months.

The beautiful shading on the barn owl is often invisible as this raptor is a night hunter. I recommend the morning show for two reasons: The crowd is slightly smaller than in the afternoon, and if you, like me, want to capture great images, the sun is in a better position in the morning. Having said that, both visits I made were for the 2 PM performance, and I was quite happy with the resulting photographs.

A Gray Hawk surveys the desert landscape during the demonstration. The audience gallery is standing room only. If you are vertically challenged as I am, you will want to get there early enough to stand by either outside rail. The birds fly overhead and very close. Spectators are asked to keep hands, arms, cameras and children below head level as the raptors often stay very low as they fly over the spectators. Indeed, I had a Harris Hawk brush my hair with his wingtip as he flew over.

Several bird handlers and volunteers station themselves at key points on either side of the spectators and the program progresses as the raptors are directed to fly over the spectators while a narrator describes the birds, their habitat and their hunting processes. It’s a fascinating show and it doesn’t cost any extra to view the Free Flight demonstration. This show is about flight. The gallery of images below features raptors in flight. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

I would call it misnamed. The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. OK, so it’s in Arizona and it’s in the Sonoran Desert. That’s fine. It’s the word “Museum” that I think doesn’t fit. Botanical Garden? Arboretum? Zoo? Wildlife Park? Nature Conservancy? How about all of the above?

This year we discovered the Museum quite by accident. We planned a visit to Saguaro National Park, and we knew there would be more to do in the Tucson area than the National Park. The Interweb told me that just down the road from the Park are two popular attractions, the Old Tucson Studios Theme Park and the above mentioned Desert Museum. Drilling down on the museum’s website, I discover they also have an art gallery, natural history museum and aquarium. I will have to check them out on our next trip. The zoo and botanical gardens became the focus of our two visits there.

The opening image and the image above both feature views of the nearly 100-acre (40 ha) botanical garden with a myriad of interpreted walking paths through various desert habitats. The views of the surrounding desert were shrouded in clouds on our first visit there, giving respite from the normally strong desert sun. Slather on the sunscreen anyway, you can be burned through even these layers of cloud.

The museum hosts several Live Animal Presentations. Their website provides a schedule of activities. Plan your visit in the winter, October through March for one of the best, the Raptor Free Flight presentations. During each show, at least three varieties of raptors provide demonstrations of their flying and hunting skills. Twice a day, visitors are treated to close-up demonstrations of these beautiful birds. In the image above, one of the trainers provides a reward to a Harris Hawk while another hawk lands on a saguaro. Next week, my entire Travel Tuesday post features a large gallery of images from the Raptor Free Flight shows, and a couple of tips on how best to enjoy the presentation.

This post features a gallery of images captured in the natural habitat zoo. The view of most animals is unencumbered by the view of an enclosure. The animal living areas protect the animals from the viewers and vice versa. The coyote exhibit houses several specimens including this beautiful example in the image above.

Sometimes you have to look hard in the enclosure to find the resident at home. There are “private” areas and there are areas of shade that protect the residents from the hot Arizona sun. The mule deer was standing just behind a large planted area in the photo above.

The bobcat exhibit is tall and rocky. At first I thought the two bobcats were out of view in their private area. Then I noticed some of the other visitors pointing up along the high rock wall. Tucked into a crevice, a bobcat was resting in the shade of a giant boulder. The gallery of images included here feature only a small percentage of the animals in the museum’s zoo area. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

This week, Ben Huberman asks us to share something that exists harmoniously with its surroundings. He writes, “Gracefulness is a tricky quality – it manifests itself as an effortless, subtle harmony between a subject and its environment.” You can read the entire challenge post here.

In the image above, two Harris Hawks float effortlessly on the air currents as they hunt for prey. Birds on the ground can be pretty ungainly, especially some species that jut their head to and fro with every step they take. But give them some space and a little bit of sky and they can soar for hours in the sky. The gallery below features a few images captured at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum where during the cooler seasons they feature a raptor flight demonstration. Harris Hawks fly in “wolf packs”, always looking for a meal. Each bird in the family takes turns feasting on the catch. They only stop hunting when the last bird and last chick have been feed. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner