Mike in the Wild

We're well into winter in Phoenix, and I've become quite familiar with many of the migratory birds spending the season in my desert city.  It's usually the water fowls that I mostly notice, like the wood ducks, ring-necked ducks, northern shovelers and goldeneyes that frequent the canals and lakes that crisscross my neighborhood.  But just recently I identified a new songbird visiting the area: the western meadowlark. In my very unscientific calculation, white-crowned sparrows might be the most numerous of the songbirds, or passerines, wintering over here.  Early in the season I saw quite a few of their sparrow cousins, the dark-eyed juncos.  Any other visiting sparrows I'm observing are lone individuals of Lincoln's sparrows and green-tailed towhees.  Also, some warblers, mostly yellow-rumped, are appearing in the trees around town. Several weeks ago I noticed a number of starling-like birds gathering on the golf course up my street.  I saw them again on S...