Mike in the Wild

Record cold temperatures in the Phoenix area coupled with a strong and wet storm brought snow to the higher elevations of the surrounding Sonoran Desert.  The moisture is a welcome feature of this year's El Niño weather pattern that frequently causes the wetter than normal winter that Arizona and the surrounding region has experienced.   Any snow pack that accumulate in the state's highest mountains eventually feed the rivers, reservoirs and aquifers that quench the population's insatiable thirst.   But these high ranges are quite far from the bustling Phoenix metropolitan area, so it was a treat for highway commuters to see a white landscape closer to the urban sprawl's perimeter.   However the freezing late February temperatures that guaranteed the snowy vistas is not what attracted most of us to this sunbelt city - it's heat we crave. Nonetheless water in any form - even snow - gives life.   And as these pictures from Spur Cross Ranch ...

Swallows are especially swift and efficient flyers, feeding almost exclusively on insects as they catch them in flight.   What you most notice about them when they're perched are their very long wings, often reaching below their tail feathers.   But it's usually in flight that you most recognize these birds as they use these sleek appendages  to  quickly fly, dive and turn in pursuit of a meal  But trying to photograph a swallow in flight might be a fool's errand.  They are diminutive birds, so you've got to be close to them with even a zoom lens.  And as they fly so quickly, maintaining a focus for a shot is very difficult.  But on a cold and cloudy winter day at Phoenix' Granada Park I nonetheless endeavored to photograph some local northern rough-winged swallows while they were airborne.  A few successful high speed captures quickly showed the agility and grace of the swallow as it seemed to mostly glide on its wide wingspan. ...

I've enjoyed writing about many of the avian winter visitors to the Phoenix area in a couple of recent posts.  For the most part, these snowbirds are varieties of ducks like mergansers and shovelers, all frequenting the area's waterways and lakes.  But it's not just water birds that migrate great distances to escape the snow and cold in the North; a number of sparrows make the same journey. Last year I was happy to regularly encounter green-tailed towhees at Phoenix' Desert Botanical Garden.  With some of its plumage as bright as a parrot, it's a colorful member of the usually drab sparrow family.  Another species sports a more standard palette of grays, blacks, whites and browns but nevertheless still stands out because of its sharply contrasting pattern of head feathers.   Aptly named, it's the white-crowned sparrow and it wears its bold black and white rows of top feathers proudly.    This more common bird is easily identifiable in the...

Apparently all birds molt to some degree, shedding and replacing their feathers in various stages over certain periods of time.  Feathers are critically useful but nevertheless dead appendages that wear out and become damaged, so regular replacements benefit the animal. Having observed hundreds if not thousands of birds in the last few years, I've only noticed the molting process a couple of times.  Most notably, I've seen a great-tailed grackle without his namesake tail.  During the short period without this appendage he still seemed to be able to fly. Early in January I photographed a male Costa's hummingbird at my Phoenix home's sugar water feeder.  Studying the pictures, I noticed the bird's bright amethyst colored gorget feathers were either damaged or missing.  Having seen some diseased hummingbirds at my feeder in past seasons, I feared maybe he was sick.   Not finding a lot of time to research a new avian disease, a few weeks later I phot...