Mike in the Wild

Recently I succeeded in spotting one of the roseate spoonbills that's been living in the Phoenix area since late last summer.  He's a vagrant, a very rare visitor to the area, and it's anyone's guess how long he'll stay or how he'll manage over time in the desert.  At his home-away-from-home -  Gilbert's Riparian Preserve at the Water Ranch - I missed another rare visitor, a brown pelican.  Both birds' long flights from their nearest coastal habitat along the Sea of Cortez were probably aided by monsoon storms that pull tropical moisture up into Arizona. They are in the same group (technically called an order ) of birds known as pelicaniformes , which also includes white pelicans and white-faced ibises.  These latter two species actually regularly migrate through the state.  Other members of the order are the quite common varieties of herons and egrets that populate the Riparian Preserve and Arizona all year round. It's impossible to visit Gilbert wi...

One rewarding aspect of birding is looking into a flock of birds that initially appears to be comprised of individuals from the same species and discerning a bird of a completely different breed.  During Phoenix' winter months I'm occasionally  treated to spotting a lone northern shoveler or a wood duck in a group of mallards.  But these individuals contrast vividly with their more common water bird cousins, so identification is not especially difficult. I recently spotted for the second time ever a male lesser scaup among several male ring-necked ducks on one of Papago Park's lakes.   These two species look quite similar so identifying the scaup was exciting for an avid birder like me.  Researching some details on these birds, I've discovered that the two breeds are in fact close cousins.    They are both members of the large family of birds that includes geese and swans, in addition to all ducks like the before-mentioned shovelers, mallards a...