Mike in the Wild

Americans love to visit Europe for innumerable reasons - history, language, art, food, birds.....  Birds?   Well, just like the culture, the continent's avian world is varied and  magnifique . On a recent visit to Western Europe, with stops in Germany, Luxembourg and France, I was able to spare a few minutes from biergartens and cafés to train my lens on some bird species I've never taken the time to observe or identify before.  While there were lots of familiar ones - rock pigeons, house sparrows and mallards - I was excited to see some fascinating new subjects. Fortunately there are lots of green spaces not just in the European countryside but in their many city parks.  And a proud tradition of local agriculture and family farms creates habitat and space for even more wildlife.  So enjoy several photos of the new birds I got to meet. Grey heron at the Schoss Bruhl in Germany. European robin at the Schloss Bruhl in Germany. Western jackdaw in Nancy, France.

My first trip to Watson Woods in Prescott was almost a year ago.  It seems that every one of my visits since to this restored native preserve along Granite Creek and adjacent Watson Lake has guaranteed a breakthrough moment in my birding adventures.    The list of exciting new encounters is still growing as attested in my finding my first western tanager in the park over the weekend.  But a year's time has brought many other firsts, including bald eagles, wood ducks, white-faced ibises, violet green swallows, summer tanagers and blue grosbeaks.    And as the following collection of photos from Sunday demonstrate, any walk in these woods is a feast for the nature lover.  Male Wilson's warbler. Female Wilson's warbler. Blue grosbeak. Yellow warbler. Male Bullock's oriole. Red-tailed hawk. A type of flycatcher, probably a western wood pee-wee.  One of several deer crossing the trail. Violet-green swallows. Distant bobcat

Maybe lightning does strike twice in the same place, or at least when it comes to spotting new cardinals in the wild.  After finding my first lazuli buntings migrating through my Prescott neighborhood last weekend, I was fortunate to find western tanagers in nearby Watson Woods.   While the buntings were indeed a first for me, what distinguishes my encounter with the tanagers is I actually got my first good photographs of this colorful bird.   The western tanager migrates from Mexico and Central America like a lot of cardinals, and like the blue grosbeak this species regularly breeds in the Prescott area.  Over the past couple years I've seen several flashes of yellow high in our cottonwoods and even once got a distant and grainy shot that showed his flaming red head.  But Sunday's walk in Watson Woods rewarded me with several encounters with at least one male that was patient and close enough to let me get my best photographs yet.   An interesting fact is that he breeds fa

I first heard the expression "bluebird day" on a ski trip, when a ski resort wanted to advertise a picture perfect day of fresh powder snow  with clear, sunny skies.  But I was reminded of the term in another way when I encountered a new blue-colored bird for the very first time. The lazuli bunting is a member of the cardinal family, but is not the bluest of these birds.  Its cousin the blue grosbeak takes that prize in Arizona, even though he's not named after the lapis lazuli, a semi-precious gemstone. Any first time sighting of a bird is always an exhilarating moment, especially when you've targeted him on your outing.  I had heard this bunting was in the area from Jay's Bird Barn, the local seed store, so I made a point to be on the lookout during a Sunday morning outing.  I quickly saw him in the grasses and reeds growing in the mostly dry Willow Creek near my Prescott neighborhood, and managed a few distant but grainy shots.   A couple hours later I no