Mike in the Wild

After encountering my first bear in Arizona last weekend -  click here to see that story   - writing about finding a new bird seems rather dull.  But even though that excursion culminated in my first real bear story, it started off in its own right as an ambitious trip to a birding hot spot.   As I noted in that post, I was only several feet into my hike on the Dandrea Trail in the Bradshaw Mountains when I had my very first encounter with a red-faced warbler this far north in its range.  And like with the bear, this find came as a total surprise. I think I've seen one before in Madera Canyon, two hundred miles to the south.  Like many songbirds, it winters in central and southern Mexico and comes north in the summer to breed.  The red-faced warbler likes high mountain habitats for breeding and  lucky for us the peaks of Arizona and New Mexico are included.  Until now I thought they were limited to the sky islands in our state's s...

Dandrea Trail leads to some of the highest peaks in the Bradshaw Mountains, and on a hot day in June it might be one of the coolest hikes in the Prescott area.  I first hiked this heavily forested and bird-filled trail at the very end of summer last year, so it seemed like a fitting way to start a hike early this summer season.  While I was expecting to see the rich variety of birds I saw last year, I harbored a not-so-secret wish to see a bear for the first time.  Little did I know it would be a dream come true! I was reminded just how remote the trail was when I arrived on a hot Saturday at the trailhead and saw only one other parked car.  Spotting my very first red-faced warbler just several feet into the morning hike was yet another reminder of the area's rich birding habitat.   But it was higher up the trail, just before reaching  a saddle with its crisscrossing paths to higher peaks, where I had my once-in-a-lifetime encounter. Black bears po...

There is no better inspiration for a blog post than a first-time encounter with a new bird.  And it's especially true when the sighting and photographs help me dig deeper into the fascinating field of ornithology. I recently made a trip to the Simi Valley area of Southern California and managed to pick up where I left off on a birding trip to the same location last year.  On that trip, I observed that some common birds in California were closely related to some common birds in Arizona, but that the geographically separated birds were in fact unique species within their respective families.  As a result,  Arizona has  Woodhouse's  scrub-jays,  canyon  towhees and  juniper  titmice, while California has  California  scrub-jays,  California  towhees and  oak  titmice, living on opposite ends of a vast landscape of deserts and mountains. On my first birding trip to the West Coast, I mostly ignored the quails...

Everyone is familiar with doves and pigeons, especially the mourning dove's gentle coo and the crowds of rock pigeons teeming in every city.  Also in this family of birds is the white-winged dove, both a resident and visitor to the American southwest.  It's a sure sign that the summer heat is approaching when Phoenicians hear the "Goob, goob, g'joob" rhythmic calls of this large dove.   While I recognize The Beatles in the cadence, others hear "Who cook's for you?"  Whatever the chorus reminds you of, these sounds at the end of spring mean that the white-winged doves in your neighborhood are starting their breeding season. At the moment, my backyard is home to at least two nesting pairs of the dove, a species that is known to mate for life.  Their breeding apparently coincides with the availability of local flowers' nectar and more specifically Arizona's massive saguaro cactus' blooms and fruit.  While June's heat scares away many...

Every voyage to a distant land is an opportunity to see exotic animals in the wild, as I discovered on my recent trip to Germany.  While a trip from Phoenix to Europe is indeed a long trip, you don't expect to find tropical birds in German trees.  But in fact the voyage gave me a chance to see a feral population of colorful rose-ringed parakeets in an adopted homeland. These bright green birds are native to equatorial Africa and the Indian sub-continent, and sometimes go by the name ring-necked parakeet.  While they are popular pets for parrot-loving people, I soon discovered on my trip to Zweibrucken, Germany that escaped or released individuals have colonized the same towns and cities as their human collectors.    They have actually also been seen closer to home, in Phoenix, but I've never spotted one.   Another released parrot, the rosy-faced lovebird, is more common there.  In any case, the parakeets are a colorful and exotic addition to t...