It has been an incredible year for photographing wildlife in Cochise County, Arizona. Coues deer, with their delicate features and diminutive size, are always a highlight. These tiny whitetails, much smaller than mule deer, make even the largest bucks—around 110-115 lbs—seem modest, like a big dog with antlers.  

Sometimes they don’t want to be photographed and they let you know it. :-)

We’ve lived in the county for almost three years now and this was the first time I have encountered mule deer, I knew they were around the area but they have been elusive. Here’ s a nice buck and doe in the evening light. They were concentrated on a coyote crossing about 100 yards away from them. 

If you’ve never made the trip to visit Portal Arizona near the New Mexico town of Rodeo and you love nature, landscapes, or dark skies… you are missing out. It’s a beautiful part of the start not a lot of people know about.  There’s lots of wildlife and the mountains in the area are beautiful.  If you enjoy camping, hiking, or anything outdoors related, it’s worth a trip. 

Here’s the view when you first drive towards Portal from the New Mexico side. 

Once you pass the first mountain range you enter Portal, the views are stunning! 

A few shots of the local wildlife. 

The shots below are facing Naco Mexico, you can see the border wall between our two countries.  The sky this day was great, I snapped a couple of shots to capture the moment. A wide angle image and one shot with a telephoto lens to make the panoramic, the light and sky make the scene. 

I’ve run across a number of Gamble’s quail this past year, the populations appear to be healthy in numbers.

We made the move from Tucson almost three years ago to the county and prior to Tucson we lived in Phoenix for 15 years.  To actually have seasons here has been fantastic! 

Here’s one from a snow storm we had in January or February of this year. 

The hummingbirds this year were plenty, we would have 50-60 birds at the feeders at any given time. It’s a sight to see these little birds jockeying for a spot on the feeders. They are so colorful and a blast to photograph. 

Some more shots of the very pretty Coues deer we have around Cochise County.

The boys. 

The girls. 

The twins.
These two arrived around August and they are beyond cute! They visit the property on occasion. 

We had a number of roadrunners visit us this year, at one point we had four hunting in the front of the house.  Our lizard population took a significant hit. 

Thanks for taking the time to make it this far, Cochise county has a lot to offer, we live in a beautiful area of the state with wildlife galore and plenty of sights to see. 

Enjoy the day all.

Frank