Had my normal breakfast. Started to work up a blog entry. We left at 8:31 in the Jeep.

We stopped at a McDonald's drive-through to pick up a Breakfast Burrito for J.

We reached the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum at 8:58. The same docent as yesterday was holding the western screech-owl outside the gate, and we bypassed her this time. After showing our membership pass and going through the gate, J took me to where she had photographed an American kestrel yesterday. A different docent was holding the male American kestrel in the same area. Unfortunately, the kestrel was in mixed light and the docent "wasn't allowed" to move from behind the table where she was stationed. I was about to move on when the docent figured out that she could hold the kestrel in the shadow of her own body. It wasn't the best condition, but it's not every day that one gets to photograph a kestrel at point blank range (left)!

The kestrel had to go back inside, so we stopped photographing him and went to check out the bobcats. They were about where they were yesterday, and J stayed to photograph them and I went to check out the river otter and coati. The coati were out, but most of the time they were partially hidden among the brush. :( J came over and we photographed the river otter for a while.

Then we went straight to the raptor free flight program with our 500s. The main handler remembered us from yesterday, and we chatted for a while before the program began. They flew the same birds as yesterday: two Chihuahuan ravens, a great horned owl, a gray hawk, and a ferruginous hawk.

We left at 11:15.
We returned to the RV at 11:35. I downloaded the images I took, then had lunch of ham and Swiss on rye followed by a banana and apple. It was good Private Selection (the Kroger brand) Black Forest ham. :) I finished the blog entry, then left in the Jeep by myself at 1:05.

I returned to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and headed straight to the raptor free flight program area with my 500. They flew two male and two female Harris's hawks, bringing one out at a time until all four were out at the same time. Harris's hawks are unique because they are social and live in family groups. I didn't get any good flight shots, but got some nice images when they perched (left).

I went back to the Jeep and traded in the 500 for my zoo macro setup: Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, 90 TS with extension tubes and a rubber lens hood, two Wimberley F-2 macro flash brackets (M-1 and M-4 modules), and Canon Speedlight 580EX II (master on an off-camera cord) and 550EX (slaved). I also brought along the 180 Macro in my fanny pack, and went to the reptile building. I had a blast photographing the hypomelanistic diamond-backed rattlesnake, northern Mojave rattlesnake, and speckled rattlesnake like I did yesterday as well as the Sonoran desert sidewinder. The Sonoran desert sidewinder is one of my favorite snakes, and it was in a great position to get a head shot with the 180 Macro (below left).

Then I went to the walk-in aviary and photographed Inca doves (below right), mourning doves, Gambel's quail, pyrrhuloxia, northern cardinal and pyrrhuloxia hybrids, and curve-billed thrashers.

Then I photographed the desert bighorns and river otter before leaving at 5:00.

I returned to the RV at 5:20, and filed down the knob on the Wimberley M-1 bracket so it would tighten on the bottom of the Kirk L-Bracket for the Canon EOS 1Ds MK III. The M-1 bracket and 550EX flash had slid off the Kirk L-Bracket this afternoon as I was changing lenses in the reptile building. Fortunately, the camera was on the floor so it didn't do any damage, but it prompted me to fix it!

We had dinner at 6:00 of J's chicken enchiladas and fresh guacamole with some Tostitos tortilla chips. It was delicious as ever.

After dinner, I showered and J finished making her "surprise" — carrot cake! I did the dishes, then did a quick downselect of the images I took today in iView — I threw out the images that were definitely bad. Then I downselected the images further in Capture One (C1) — I threw out images that weren't sharp enough. We had some of J's carrot cake, and it was most tasty! I selected four images for the blog and processed them in Photoshop. Then I did some computer work before going to bed.