Superior, Arizona.

One of the places we had on our list to visit when in Arizona was the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. When we stayed in Buckeye, it was over a 90-minute drive one-way, and we never decided to head in that direction. On our way to Scottsdale last February, we passed the entrance and realized we would be much closer to the preserve. I put it on our agenda. Coincidentally, 2024 was the arboretum’s Centennial Year. Our timing couldn’t have been better.

The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is Arizona’s oldest and largest botanical garden and one of the oldest such institutions west of the Mississippi River. Founded in 1924 as a desert plant research facility and “living museum,” the arboretum is located in the Sonoran Desert on 392 acres along Queen Creek and beneath the towering volcanic remnant, Picketpost Mountain. It’s about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Superior, Arizona.

The arboretum features a variety of gardens, trails, and exhibits that showcase the unique beauty and diversity of the Sonoran Desert. The lake in the Boyce Thompson Arboretum is called Ayer Lake. It’s not a natural lake but a man-made reservoir completed in 1925, one year after the arboretum was founded. Its purpose is to supply the arboretum with irrigation water for the diverse plant life it cultivates.

Col. William Boyce Thompson made his fortune in the mining industry. In the early 1920s, enamored with the landscape around Superior, Thompson built the Picket Post House, a winter home overlooking Queen Creek.

Flowing through the arboretum, Queen Creek provides crucial habitat for various wildlife species, including birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. The lush vegetation along the creek offers shade, shelter, and a reliable water source, especially during the hot, dry summers. The main trail winds its way around the desert areas and provides many views of Queen Creek.

Among the many gardens, the Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden, located just past the main entrance, attracted my attention. I recently acquired a Nikon 200-500 mm lens for use with my D500, and I wondered if I would see many birds. I was not to be disappointed.

I captured many images of the hummingbirds I saw. I set the lens to wide open, the shutter speed to 1/2500 for most shots, and let the Auto-ISO control the exposure. In the bright sun, the ISO of the image above is 2200. The D500 handles noise quite well, and both Luminar Neo and Adobe Lightroom Classic worked equally well to diminish the noise in the darker areas of the image.

We saw a few other birds on our main trail walk through the park, but despite having competent equipment, I didn’t have nearly as much success photographing them. I need a lot more practice if I am going to be a “birder.”

Of course, birds aren’t the only flying species in the gardens. This visitor was captured at f/5.6, 200 mm, shutter at 1/1000, and a camera-selected ISO of 200. I watched some YouTube videos featuring reviews of the Nikon 200-500 mm lens, and from there, I learned a technique that works well for bird and wildlife photos. Most DSLR cameras can be manual for both aperture and shutter speed, with the ISO in automatic mode. The only thing to watch out for is high noise levels if the lens is set to a high aperture number or the shutter speed is too high. Even if there is some noise in the background, noise removal tools in modern digital processing tools can bring the noise down to minimal levels. If you’d like to take a closer look at these images and see several other photos I didn’t post here, check out my Flickr site here. On my Flickr site, you can use pinch-zoom to look at the pictures even more closely.

The arboretum has a visitor center, gift shop, research offices, greenhouses, a demonstration garden, and a picnic area. Over 2600 species of arid land plants worldwide grow at the arboretum.

The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is a great place to learn about the Sonoran Desert and its plants and wildlife. The arboretum is open to the public and offers a variety of educational programs, including guided hikes, classes, and workshops. Adult admission at the time of this writing is $24.95.

Regular visiting hours are different in the summer months. From their website: May to September: 6 a.m. – 3 p.m.; October to April: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. They also have special times and hours on certain days. Check their website for details here.

John Steiner