Mike in the Wild

After spotting my first hermit warbler on Saturday, I came to the realization that it takes a very active outdoorsman to see this family of birds.   As much success as I've had attracting a multitude of birds to my feeders in Prescott, only the yellow-rumped species of warbler has ever joined in the food frenzy.  The many other varieties elusively hide in the surrounding forests, above the hiking trails, and far from the comfort of my cozy cabin's deck. The easy-to-spot yellow-rumped actually winters across much of Arizona.  Several other warblers, like the American yellow, black-throated gray, red-faced, and the painted redstart breed in our state's higher elevation forests over the summer.   Meanwhile Townsend's, MacGillivray's, Wilson's and the hermit are on stop-overs as they migrate through the state.  I've stumbled upon every one of these warblers by chance as I've traversed the many mountain, creekside, and wooded trails around Prescott and the ...

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 ...