Mike in the Wild

I hadn't seen an elegant trogon in almost four years - not since I'd spotted a nesting pair in Cave Creek Canyon located in the far southeastern corner of Arizona.  Before that, it was six years ago in Madera Canyon that I'd encountered one of these beautiful migratory birds.  In fact, in that sky island habitat only a two-and-a-half hour drive south from my Phoenix home, I hadn't seen any trogon at all on my last visit four years ago.  Nonetheless, I remained hopeful that I'd spot one when I returned to Madera over this past weekend. This spring was an especially excellent time to visit the mountains of southern Arizona because melting snowpack has been feeding streams at the same time migratory birds have started arriving from Latin America.  Lots of water meant lots of blooms and bugs and the birds that feed on them.  Madera Creek was actually flowing as strongly as ever while the towering peaks of the Santa Rita Mountains, rising over 9,000 feet, shed the la...

Half Moon Cay is popular with cruisers that sail on Holland America Line's ships.  The long beach on Little San Salvador Island in the Bahamas is the beach most people dream of when escaping to the Caribbean: sugary sand, mostly uncrowded, and rum drinks easy to order.  The destination is also private, only hosting passengers from the line's cruise ships, usually just one ship at any given time.  Sometimes an additional ship might stop, as the Rotterdam did when I visited off of the Nieuw Statendam early in April. My ship offered a guided snorkeling excursion off the island, however the tour was cancelled when the boat that was supposed to take passengers experienced some problems.  But there was a solution for many of the disappointed tourists; join me on a mile hike down the beach to the western end of Half Moon Cay.  From this uncrowded corner of the isle, it was an easy swim to where the tour boat was originally headed.     Like most of a ship...