Mike in the Wild

Recognizing the call of an individual bird species is an exciting breakthrough in a birder's favorite pastime.  I can't count the number of times the metallic toot of a pair of cardinal's beckoned me from the house into my Phoenix backyard this past winter.  Just last weekend a much less familiar call - more of a quick, double-chortle than a tweet - quickly drew my attention to the other side of my Prescott home's screen door.  There I spied a male summer tanager nibbling at the suet feeder.  But not all sounds associated with birding are as alluring.  Window strikes are often cited as one of the leading causes of bird deaths, and, unfortunately, I've got firsthand experience with this occurrence.  Just two weeks ago, while busily typing on my computer in Phoenix, a thud over my shoulder startled me from my work, reminding me that my own garden and home might be an unwitting killer.   Outside my office window, splayed on the patio, an Abert's ...

Late last year I wrote about scattering seeds in my Phoenix backyard in order to attract some neighborhood birds, in particular a couple of northern cardinals.  From November until very recently this showy pair made regular, frequent visits to feed on the sunflower seeds that I laid a few at a time on my block wall or that I tossed among succulents in a long, raised planter.   I had figured out early in the year that these birds liked that seed and didn't live exclusively on the millet and other tiny grains that served as the basis for most generic bird seed blends.  As a result I was able to keep the more common and much more numerous house sparrows, house finches and mourning doves to a minimum by providing the sunflower seeds in very limited quantities to my unique and welcome guests.   The cardinal seems quite adept at eating the sunflower seed, as it synchronizes  its large beak and dexterous tongue to  crack open the shell in i...

I write quite a bit about the birds I see from my deck in Prescott and from my patio in Phoenix.  In fact, one of the messages I like to spread on "Mike in the Wild" is that the wonder and beauty of nature is right outside our windows, or at least just a short distance off our porches. At my mountain home I entice my feathered subjects with several attractions: three feeders filled individually with seeds, suet and nectar; a ceramic bowl where I replenish freshwater; and small piles of peanuts for the jays.  As a result, last summer from the Fourth of July weekend to the fourth week of August, I identified almost forty individual bird species visiting my forested property.  In contrast, I only maintain a hummingbird feeder at my Phoenix home where I usually see the Anna's and Costa's varieties.  My ten year-old cat has frequent access to my walled-in yard so I don't want to inadvertently set traps for other garden visitors.  Of  shocking concern, house ...

Besides the ever-present rock pigeon, house sparrows might be the most common bird that the majority of people see in their everyday lives.  It's impossible to enjoy a lunch al fresco at your favorite restaurant without one of these persistent birds begging for crumbs.  But as widespread as this animal is in North American cities, it's not a native.  In fact it's not even a sparrow as Americans know them. The house sparrow was introduced to the continent first in the nineteenth century, and after several additional introductions spread from as far north as Canada into South America.  It's in a family of birds known generally as Old World sparrows, as opposed to the many more species in an entirely separate family often referred to as New World sparrows.  In this latter group are a wide-ranging variety of birds that include towhees, juncos and many with a last name sparrow but with descriptive first names like green-tailed, rufous-crowned or black-throated....

All went very well with my Jake tour of duty - he was his normal affectionate, playful, hungry, pooping, peeing jock-like self every time I checked in.   My visits to my vacationing friends' three-year old indoor cat, Jake, were by 9 am every morning, so I had to fill their backyard stray's food and water early.  Apparently this outside cat comes around dinnertime, so I never saw Bella, as she's been named. Yesterday, I noticed as I was checking all the door locks just before leaving, that something had gotten into Bella's food bowl in the twenty minutes since I'd filled the empty container.  It appeared as if a visitor had made a running leap into the table-top bowl as there was an impact crater-like depression and scattered bits of kibble about.  Who did this?   Another cat, a roof rat, a bird?  I needed to find out, but as I was running late for that day's other appointments, it would have to wait until tomorrow.  But my bet was on the st...