Mike in the Wild

Why I visit the Grand Canyon only occasionally is a mystery to me.  It's only a two hour drive from my summer place in Prescott, the destination is a stunning natural wonder, the South Rim lies at an elevation of 7,000 feet, and the surrounding pine forests are cooler and frequently wetter than those immediately around my cabin.  Finally the bird life, while familiar in many ways, always includes some noteworthy encounters. Walking through the pine forests bordering the rim, I was initially struck by how familiar the birds were to those in Prescott's own woods.  Pygmy nuthatches prattled in small, animated groups while their bigger white-breasted cousins foraged individually.  Pairs of scrub jays flashed bright blue over sheer cliffs and acorn woodpeckers squawked from the dizzying heights of ponderosa pines. But the Steller's jays reminded me I wasn't in the forests near my cabin.  These dark birds do indeed populate the higher elevations of Prescott and occasi...

Fighting late day traffic through north Phoenix in order to reach Prescott has its rewards.  Most notable is knocking 25 degrees off the thermometer's record  temperatures. (Yes, it was 110 when I left the desert last Thursday but was not even 85 in the pines less than two hours away.)  There are sometimes even surprises waiting for me up there in the form of rain, thunder, hail, and, last week, a bat.   Of course bats are common across Arizona's night skies.  Mostly visible at dusk, they zigzag overhead as they hunt insects.  However where I never see them is in my deck furniture.   I use a shade umbrella to block the morning sunlight and to keep my Prescott porch cool throughout the day. During the wettest periods of the summer I'll even sit under the wide cover and enjoy the cool raindrops enveloping me. Tall ponderosa pines add to the refreshing atmosphere but the bird activity in the trees contributes to accumulations of twigs, bar...

I had heard about it, but I never envisioned contacting it in my own backyard.  Of course I was lucky in a way because I observed it mostly from inside of my house.  But it was still a shock to come face to face with the parasite taking advantage of a favorite Phoenix bird, the Abert's towhee. Before I make this sound even more dire than I already have, the towhee and I were not in any physical danger.  The invasive creature in my garden was actually just a  juvenile brown-headed cowbird.  This species is sometimes referred to as a brood parasite because it lays its eggs in other birds' nests.  The cowbirds then leave the responsibility of tending the eggs and raising the hatchlings to the nest-building birds, like the Abert's towhee that I found feeding the young cowbird in my backyard. Unfortunately the baby cowbirds outcompete any other chicks - like the towhees - that also hatch in the nest.  As a result the adult towhee might end up raising an ali...

I started the weekend in Prescott determined to photograph a band-tailed dove.  Flocking in large numbers, the species is supposed to nest in the forests around Prescott during the summer.  I've most likely ignored them on numerous hikes because I've assumed they were mourning doves, among the most common birds across Arizona.  After so many slights, I decided it was time to finally pause and appreciate the band-tailed variety. On a recent run through the woods near my cabin, I possibly spooked a few of these doves as I approached them.  The problem is I can't be sure I saw the namesake white bands on their outspread tails as they quickly flew away.  However I'm pretty sure these feathers had a wide, flat shape in sharp contrast to the pointed outline of the mourning doves'.  Alas, even had I lugged my heavy camera and lens along on my run, I'd not have been fast enough to snap an identifying shot. Last week, on another run, I noticed a pair of large pigeon...

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 ...

On rare occasions a visit to Watson Woods is a disappointment: not a singe blue grosbeak, summer tanager, great horned owl, wood duck, or bobcat in sight.  Of course there are always some birds - you can certainly bet on seeing lesser goldfinches.  However the preserve has accustomed me to regularly being wowed by a brand-new discovery and an exciting story to recount, like on a single outing to the park in June when I encountered a whopping three of the four tanagers and grosbeaks that call the area their summer home.  Yet two weeks ago I almost called it a day and left after only finding blue grosbeaks, beautiful but not out-of-the-ordinary subjects lately.  But then there was a sign from above when I looked up and saw a flock of over two dozen ibises soaring overhead. I had actually ended up at the northern end of Watson Woods, crossing under Prescott Lakes Parkway where Granite Creek was a mere trickle despite the recent rains.  Not usually exploring that a...

I always dreamed that the first time I explored the Verde River would be via kayak, perhaps on a Sierra Club outing where bald eagles soared overhead and red and yellow birds filled the tree canopies.  However July's abundance of monsoon rain reminded me that extremely high conditions along the waterway are dangerous, so I wasn't at all disappointed to explore the river from its safe and muddy banks.  And it was about time: after driving over the Verde on many bridges hundreds of times during the past thirty-three years, I'd finally be stopping to really experience a small section of it.  I started at Tuzigoot National Monument, the site of the partially reconstructed ruins of an ancient pueblo.  First occupied almost a thousand years ago, the dense adobe complex of one hundred and ten rooms sits on a hilltop that's an easy walk to the Verde River.  The apartments were the center of a village where the Sinagua population could farm, hunt, and forage near a peren...