Mike in the Wild

Migratory birds were on my mind when I visited the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix on Monday morning.  But it was still a little early in the spring to see black-headed grosbeaks or Bullock's orioles, two species I've witnessed in the park before.  Someone on eBird reported seeing a black-chinned hummingbird there recently but I failed to encounter it.  Instead, I settled on photographing an Anna's hummingbird feeding her two chicks in their nest.  I also captured some shots of two quite common winter visitors to the local deserts: an orange-crowned warbler and a yellow-rumped warbler.   The next day I found myself much further away from the Valley's urban sprawl at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area.  Cave Creek was flowing through dense groves of cottonwood and mesquite trees, all framed by a landscape of saguaros rising up steep hillsides painted with wildflowers.  Only a biting chill delivered by relentless gusts of wind marred the pristine...

Throughout the seasons, you're guaranteed to spot an abundant variety of butterflies across Arizona's wide and diverse landscape.  But you don't have to brave extreme temperatures and rugged terrain to see some of the local stars of this colorful insect family.  You only have to visit the autumn exhibit in the Butterfly Pavilion at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.    Within just a few thousand square feet, the protected shelter houses almost a dozen species of native butterflies at any given time.  They flutter amid and feed upon a number of cultivated plants and flowers, along with plates of fresh fruit.  A path meanders one-way through the greenhouse-like garden, assuring some human safety during the COVID pandemic.   Butterflies, moths, and skimmers are all in the same order of insects, taxonomically known as lepidoptera.   Worldwide, scientists count over 200,000 species in this grouping!  (In comparison, there are only 1...

We're lucky to have in the middle of the Phoenix metropolitan sprawl a world-class desert plant museum and education center.  The Desert Botanical Garden's collections of cacti, succulents, trees and plants from all the globe's arid regions are arranged in a multitude of beautiful landscapes, habitats and gardens.  Unsurprisingly, the desert flora attracts a multitude of critters that include many birds, both resident and migratory. But the park of course makes money and needs to attract the people that spend it.  So the garden also has restaurants, shops, art galleries and regular events like the holiday season's Las Noces de las Luminarias when luminaria bags, strings of lights and live bands overtake the peace and calm you might associate with the grounds.  And over at least the last ten years there have been frequent but temporary art installations that have placed contemporary sculptures and lights throughout the desert landscape. As a wildlife and nature lo...

Spring's arrival in the Arizona desert shows itself in many ways: temperatures flirting with the nineties, innumerable cactus flowers, blooming palo verde trees, and nesting birds.   The colors of the flora are a visual delight while the warm and dry climate is usually pleasant enough for lots of outdoor activities.  But sometimes our avian friends are an affront to our hearing, especially when it interrupts our sleep. Northern mockingbirds are one of the most common birds in Phoenix's neighborhoods.  Normally their endless varieties of calls are a beautiful and melodious soundtrack to the outdoor landscape.  But in the spring their tweets seem to take on a frantic, incessant rhythm as they try to attract mates.  At one point, their songs start to puncture the calm of night, seeming to invite doves and grackles to the sleep-depriving cacophony. Nevertheless the noisy season is a celebration of life as many birds breed throughout the area.  In time ...

Millions if not billions of people suffer from the Monday morning blues, mourning the lost freedom of the weekend as they head back to work or school.  But a few lucky people anxiously await the start of the work week because it's an opportunity to join an enthusiastic group for their regular Monday morning bird walks. Held at the  Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, seasoned birders escort a group throughout the museum's grounds, making frequent stops to identify both common and rare birds.  Counting all bird sightings for future reference, they share facts and details about every species spotted.  For example, on my recent visit they positively identified a blue gray gnatcatcher, a bird I'd have otherwise thought was the more common black-tailed species.  They also pointed out where the last sightings of a western screech owl were, and sure enough, he was home in one of them!   And the tour's leader quickly triangulated the unique tweet of a pyrrhu...

There are a number of cardinal species in the Americas, with the brilliantly red-colored northern cardinal being the most famous in the United States.  But the Arizona deserts are a year-round home to another cardinal, the pyrrhuloxia.  Gray with red highlights, while sporting a pointier crest and stubbier beak than his famous cousin, he calls the American Southwest and the deserts of central Mexico home. Phoenix doesn't get a lot of sightings of the pyrrhuloxia, unlike Tucson's surrounding deserts almost a hundred miles to the south.  But a lone male seems to have taken up residence at the Desert Botanical Garden in the center of the metropolitan area's urban sprawl.  He seems to thrive in the acres of habitat that showcase the world's heat-loving and drought-tolerant flora. And this desert cardinal as he's sometimes called seems to be living at the northern-most limit of his species' range, providing a lucky chance for Central Arizona's birders to conv...