I first saw Eurasian Collared-Dove in Arizona in 2002, at Sonoita, and they have meanwhile become a familiar sight at feedlots and ranches around the southeastern part of the state.  But like birds elsewhere in their introduced range in the US, the Arizona doves have thus far pretty clearly avoided major urban areas.  And so [...]

Patagonia!  A magical name in the ears of birders, and this afternoon in ever-generous Mrs. Paton’s yard only confirmed the enchantment.  There were hundreds of birds at the feeders and around the edges of the yard, and it was hard to know sometimes which way to look.
The star of the show, of course, was Violet-crowned Hummingbird, [...]

Met up with Darlene, Denis, Scott, and Janine for an afternoon run to the Santa Cruz Flats, north and west of Tucson. In spite of the late hour, we ended up tallying 59 raptors of 5 species, including a single light-morph adult Ferruginous Hawk and 2 White-tailed Kites.
The most puzzling of our raptors was a [...]

Plans change, and instead of a morning at Kino Springs, my client and I ended up at Pena Blanca Lake, one of the most scenic, and sometimes the birdiest, sites in southeast Arizona. It was cold, ice sheeting the water, and it didn’t seem all that incongruous to watch Common Mergansers diving on the lake!
PB [...]

An amazing morning, a morning the likes of which most birders never see. Co-leading a SaddleBrooke Bird Club trip to Arizona’s Patagonia Lake State Park, co-birder Darlene and I noticed a large, broad-winged swallow over the marina inlet—and knew immediately that it was a bird neither of use had ever seen! For the next two [...]