Arizona Birding, Day 1 - Contretemps

I don't believe in bad luck. However, two eerie things happened on our first day of birding in Arizona. After checking in at our hotel in Green Valley, Cynthia and I went to check out the birds at Madera Canyon. My son, Kurt, who had been driving our rental car since early that morning, took a much needed rest so it was my turn at the wheels. After taking some photos of the Pyrrhuloxia and Phainopeplas, we got in our car and prepared to continue on to Proctor Road. It was then I noticed that the engine light was on. Worried that something worse might happen to the car if we continued up the road, my wife and I decided to return to the hotel asap. As soon as we arrived, I informed Kurt of the situation. He got in the car, turned on the ignition and...the engine light didn't appear on the dashboard. He tried several times and got the same result. As a matter of fact it never happened again the rest of the time that we used the car. Did I do something wrong while I was driving? was the thought that haunted me for a while.

As if that strange event wasn't enough, another mysterious thing happened that night. I wanted to review the Pyrrhuloxia and Phainopepla photos I took that afternoon. When I pressed the replay button on my camera I was shocked that none came out! I tried to upload the CF card to the laptop and was devastated to discover that the whole card was corrupted! To think that it included photos I took a couple of days ago in Orange County. Did I do something wrong with my camera? I remember resetting the date but could that have been the reason for this misfortune? (please see my previous blog).

Two unfortunate events highlighted the start of our birding trip to Arizona. I hoped and prayed that those would be the last.

Epilogue: Three weeks later, I was able to recover the photos from the corrupted CF card. Here are the shots of the Pyrrhuloxia and Phainopepla

Phainopepla 

Pyrrhuloxia