Mike in the Wild

The start of my summer in Prescott - unofficially Memorial Day Weekend - is quite often a slow birding time for me.  It's the time of year when I begin making regular weekend escapes from the hot desert and follows a long spell when I don't visit for months at a time.  As a result the neighborhood birds are slow to investigate my yard as they've learned to survive elsewhere, in places without handouts of suet, seeds, peanuts, and both fresh and sugar water.   I was heartened to witness a flock of black-headed grosbeaks, long-distance migrants, gathering in the canopy of tall pines on a lane above my street.  Year-round residents like mountain chickadees flitted between oak tree branches near my neighbors' front door.  Even western bluebirds darted overhead as I jogged through the grounds of a nearby Christian retreat camp.  However after a couple of days, the feeders immediately off my cabin's deck still remained mostly quiet.  Acorn woodpeckers d...

Birds sport every color imaginable and then even more because our feathered friends see ultra-violet light, invisible to our own human eyes.  But sometimes it seems that when we observe bird life in live action, it's a lot like watching an old movie, filmed in black and white, detailed only in hues of gray.  Of course there are a few colorful regulars at my Prescott seed and suet feeders, like that scarlet-headed male house finch.  And the male lesser goldfinch shines like a lemon drop sugar candy, brightly disproportionate to his diminutive size.  But the most notable visitors are the bushtits, titmice, nuthatches and woodpeckers that are either black and white or, excuse my plagiarism, many shades of gray.   So it was especially exciting on the last day of August when I discovered some eye-catching birds at Granite Basin Lake Recreation Area, just a few miles away from my home.   The morning actually got off to a very slow start in terms of ...

Every competitor wants to soar with eagles, reaching the pinnacle of success in their pursuits.  It's why our televisions are tuned to bake-offs and sports competitions; we want to see the very best cooks and athletes.  And it was this trophy bird, the bald eagle, that was my target when I headed over to Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale.   The wash is actually a greenbelt of parks, golf courses, bike paths and lakes that comprises eleven miles of a flood diversion channel.  A couple of years ago a pair of bald eagles nested in the area and promoted birdwatching to the list of activities available in the development.  But it seems the eagles have moved on to a less crowded habitat as I can't find a record of their sighting this last year.  And I didn't spot them myself in the little corner of the park I visited yesterday.  However near Indian Bend Road, close to the Silverado Golf Club and the Arizona Canal, three different species of flycatchers...

While photographing birds is a fun hobby, identifying and categorizing them is a science.  I wish I had paid more attention to the classification of animal life during my mandatory junior high school biology courses.  My interest in birding, and specifically in the flycatcher family, has given me a deep dive into avian taxonomy. When you start paying attention to birds and their names, you run into new and unfamiliar words like passerines and empids .  I  noticed quickly that these words were being associated with a number of birds that were called flycatchers.  Growing up in the northeast, I was familiar with blue jays, chickadees and robins but not at all with this new species.  When I embraced this new pastime here in Arizona, one of the first birds I shot was a male vermilion flycatcher.   Scarlet like the very familiar cardinal, he's one of prettiest and brightest birds in our desert.  It turns out that he's not only a flycatcher, but he's...

Botanical gardens abound in the desert, almost in defiance of the preconception that life doesn't thrive in arid climates.  Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, Arizona's oldest and largest, takes the idea to another level.  It makes a point to feature not just native Sonoran Desert flora, but plants from all the dry landscapes of North and South America, southern Africa and Australia.   Spread over close to 400 acres, the park's paths meander through endless collections of cacti, agaves, trees, bushes and flowers.  The preserve owes its existence to mining magnate Colonel William Boyce Thompson, who donated his winter house and its surrounding garden to the arboretum in 1928. Nestled along Queen Queek, below scenic Picket Post Mountain, the park is an easy one hour drive east from central Phoenix into Tonto National Forest.  It features various biomes, including a eucalyptus forest, an expanse of the Chihuahuan Desert, a grove of fruit trees and a man-made ...