Saturday, 06 February 2010 16:32

Yuma Birding

Today we went birding in the Yuma area. We found a list of six places, all but three were closed or inaccessible, one was too busy. The Quechan Indians, have the land north of the Colorado and run the Paradise Casino. RVs can boon dock free. They seem to be developing a wetlands park along the river, but it was closed. We drove the gravel North Levee Road. This is where I took the picture of the Kestrel. The side of the road away from the river was a grapefruit and orange orchard. They were just finishing up the harvest - no free samples.

However, our last stop, the Yuma Wetlands made up for it. We saw a black-throated hummingbird among several other woodland birds - Bendire's Thrasher, White-crowned Sparrow and California Towhee. The hummingbird was such a threat. Their iridescent gorget is a brilliant violet. You only see it when the bird is facing you. We didn't quite completely get it in the pictures.

We rode our bikes between two major parks, naturally along a canal - actually several canals.

Later we walked around their civic area. Yuma seems to be a city in flux. At the parks and the civic area there are mature, beautiful desert plants. The Yuma Wetlands, along the actual Colorado River, is a former landfill. The landscape seems mature and it is well cared for. Everywhere there is construction on parks and highways. Yet there seems to be a great deal of ugly neglected areas also.

Many homes seem trashy & neglected. People are living in in trailers that are fifty years old and there is trash everywhere. You see signs for cheap housing - rent by the day $10. The wooden frames on doors and windows is frequently rotting away. In the same area there are attractive, yet simple homes. We haven't found the area where snowbirds might live.

In the civic area at least half the stores are unoccupied, yet there were three dance clubs; one a community center for teens, the Tropicana, a Latin dance club and a place catering to music from the 1950s and 60s. We know who which audience they are catering too. There is the Red Dog Saloon - downstairs and dark; and the promise of a night club that will open soon. Several other places that looked like they had been high end restaurants where empty and up for lease. The majority of the other places that were still doing business were "antique" shops, many of which looked like high-end flea market items. There were two alley shopping areas - more yuppified - ice cream treats, make-up tattoos, tea shop, gourmet food etc. You didn't know if this area was on the way out with so many stores closed or on the way up with new art projects on the street plus lovely old fountains.

I took a picture of San Carlos Hotel, build in art deco style in 1930.Terry had read about it and it was the scene of a movie called "".

Another interesting building is the Gowan, a former post office.