The only thing I love more than the quiet of a desert night is the noises, and last night was a busy one for the animals we share our little scrubby lot with.
It was just past dusk when I got home yesterday evening from an airport run, and from the neighbors’ yard came the bubbling [...]

We had a great ‘classroom’ session yesterday in the season’s second Aimophila Adventures Hummingbird Workshop, full of provocative questions and good discussion. But even intensive work with books and photos can’t match a day in the field, especially when “the field” is Miller Canyon.
Blabbing away, I managed to miss one of the morning’s best finds, [...]

Just on the off chance, Alan and I slipped down to the euphemistically named Sweetwater to look for Purple Gallinules and other wonders over lunch. No gallinules, and few wonders, but lots of Song Sparrows, Yellow Warblers, and Mallards, including the type we call Mexican Duck. An adult Harris’s Hawk was panting on the telephone [...]

Kevin and I met at Proctor Road early this morning, where we decided to walk around on the off chance that the Black-capped Gnatcatchers might decide to re-materialize. Sometimes it happens, but not today, though we enjoyed the usual delights, among them a Crissal Thrasher, Varied Buntings, a juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and lots of Rufous-crowned, [...]

It happens every year about this time. I’m minding my own business at the hummingbird feeders, and suddenly there appears a feisty little orange male with a solid green back: Allen’s Hummingbird! Or is it…?
This morning’s mystery bird popped up during an Aimophila Adventures Hummingbird Workshop at Beatty’s Miller Canyon Guest Ranch, probably the single [...]