I love showing people birds, and I really like it when my clients come with a “wish list.” But there are a couple of species that make me cringe: rare birds, reclusive birds, tough ones. Luddy has had great luck with his targets the last three days. But there were still two to clean up […]

We were pretty tired after yesterday’s exertions, so decided to take it easy and drive around southeast Arizona today. I met Luddy at the luxurious hour of 6:30, and we set off south for Kino Springs. It’s still on the early side for the ponds to be at their peak, but we were not disappointed: […]

It’s raining this evening, and Luddy and I have decided to take the night off, postponing our owling until tomorrow. We’ve had a busy, and very productive, couple of days!
Yesterday morning, June 28, we made the long drive to the aptly named Pajaritos, the mountains of the little birds. Sycamore Canyon was as beautiful as ever, […]

I sometimes feel sorry for the young reporters assigned the “bird beat”: their editor hears about a field trip or a birding festival, and before you know it the new kid finds herself getting up in the dark and stumbling onto a bus with a bunch of chattering birdwatchers (”birders,” as they politely insist). And […]

So the 2006 ABA Convention is history! It was a great time, not just for the birds but for the birders I met or saw again, some of them for the first time in years. The convention trips as a whole turned up something like 185 species, and I saw (or heard: blasted vegetation!) around […]