Mike in the Wild

Four years ago I wrote about my determination to find a band-tailed pigeon in the wild, and until very recently I was still, sadly, failing in that endeavor.  But then this month my luck suddenly changed when I had two, or possibly even three, encounters.  And they demanded hardly any effort at all, just casual observations from the comfort of my Prescott home's deck.   In very early September, just beyond my front yard, I noticed a flock of doves take off together from a tall ponderosa pine and quickly fly away.  The birds appeared much larger than mourning doves, and I could see that their outspread tail feathers were broader than the pointy ones of doves.  But I wasn't sure about the namesake dark band stretching across their tails, which is why it always helps to catch a photograph of my subjects. I was luckier in my next encounter a few days later when I witnessed an especially large dove perched high in a pine tree in my front yard.  The bird gav...

I reliably see four different species of woodpeckers throughout the long summers I spend in Prescott.  In fact, every day I bear witness to the northern flickers, acorns, hairys, and ladderbacks that visit my yard's suet feeders.  The only other one I've seen on my property has been a red-naped, and that was during autumn several years ago, as the woodpecker foraged high in a ponderosa pine.  But then yesterday, on my only visit to Granite Basin Lake all summer, I encountered an entirely new species, the Lewis's.  The only other time I've seen a Lewis's woodpecker was just over a year ago, along the Animas River in Durango, Colorado.  I was struck by it's unique coloration, not exhibiting mostly black and white like almost all of its local kin but showing a unique greenish backside and a torso splashed with winey red.  And true to its reputation, the bird was acting more like a flycatcher as it made forays from a lamppost in its hunt for insects. At Granite...