We began our trip on 26 April when we flew from London to Phoenix with British Airways, an airline we chose as they were the only one that had a non-stop flight between the two cities. We had a good flight, and after we picked up our Hertz rental car we drove to our hotel where we were to stay for the next two nights, the Springhill Suites close to the airport.
On our 2010 trip we’d really enjoyed our time at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden so we decided to pay another visit during our full day in Phoenix (27 April). The gardens are an excellent place to visit if you’re interested in the desert flora, as you can see the hardy flowers, trees and cacti that are found in the hot and dry desert environment. You can also see a good range of birds that have adapted to these harsh conditions.
It soon gets very hot in Phoenix so we made an early start and arrived at the garden well before it opened at 8 AM when the light would be good and the birds would be most active. We had hardly parked our car before we started to see interesting birds in front of the main entrance to the gardens.
Once inside we walked a number of the trails that wind around the site, which pass through cultivated areas and also more barren parts where the large cacti dominate.
A birding highlight was seeing a Gilded Flicker, which was a lifer for us. The Gilded Flicker looks very similar to the northern Flicker, but has more brown on the top of the head.
We had a very enjoyable morning in the Desert Botanical Garden and photographed many of the common birds of the region that we would see a lot more of over the next two weeks. By early afternoon it was very hot and the birds were less active so we drove north to Scottsdale and had a late lunch at the excellent Brio Tuscan Grill before taking it easy ahead of our drive south the next day.