Mike in the Wild

While I love birdwatching, it's safe to say I don't love every bird I encounter.  For example, house finches are a species that have never been high on my list of favorites.  It's probably because they're everywhere.  Or it's because they're not especially attractive with their plain features and dull colors.  So, bah humbug to the house finch! They join the mourning doves in being the two easiest native bird species for any birder to find in the wild.  (Of course a person living in a city will have no problem quickly identifying house sparrows, starlings, or rock pigeons: all introduced from Europe.)  And when it's time for you to take your interest in our feathered friends to a higher level (e.g. installing a seed feeder in your backyard) I guarantee the finches and doves will be the first indigenous visitors.  Fortunately these birds are not endangered and are actually expanding their ranges and numbers in America.  As a result I'm not especial...

That tweet emanating from your backyard?  It's a house finch.  The crowds of birds flocking to your bird feeders?  They're house finches.  The birds building a nest in the cranny under your home's eaves?  Again, house finches.  And the birds who laid pale blue eggs in a completely different nest in the wheel well of your coronavirus-idled car?  Yep, still house finches.  Sometimes it seems like they're the only bird species in the wild. While quite common throughout many natural habitats in the western United States, they're especially prevalent in urban environments.  The males are more colorful than the females, who are drabber and lack the bright red plumage on their heads and torsos.  With such a multitude of them, they seem to join rock pigeons and house sparrows as quintessential city birds, scraping by on mankind's limitless detritus.   So I wasn't overly excited a couple of weeks ago when I noticed a small female ho...

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 ...

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...

Even after only a couple years birding in Arizona, it's not often that I encounter a new bird species in my home state, let alone in my very own yard.  So you can imagine my surprise after I recently identified my very first Cassin's finch at my weekend home in Prescott. I don't visit that area frequently in the colder months, but on my occasional winter and early spring visits I still fill the seed feeder that gives me hours of birding fun in the warmer weather.   Because it had been empty for a few weeks, most birds had wisely moved on to more dependable sources of food.   So I wasn't completely surprised - just a bit impatient - when the feeder still remained bird-less the day after I had replenished it. Eventually I noticed a few house finches stopping to feed, initially disappointing me because they are quite common birds in every corner of the state.   But before long, I was thrilled to see more unique mountain birds like chickadees, nuthatch...