It’s that time of year, and the Swainson’s Hawks are starting to pour across western skies on their way south to South America for the winter.

The specks above were part of a migratory flock containing at least 78 individuals, drawn to a field being disked on the Santa Cruz Flats this afternoon.
Any flock that size [...]

After yesterday morning’s visit to Whitewater, we headed north by way of the Sulphur Springs to Willcox, hoping for a better shorebird selection: Whitewater had produced only Killdeer and a gang of four Solitary Sandpipers.
Smelly Lake Cochise wasn’t very much better, though as the image above shows, there were a few birds, mostly American Avocets [...]

Late August is not the season to go looking for thrashers, so Darlene and I were more than delighted this morning to run across this fine fellow perched up and singing at Whitewater Draw. Just twenty years ago, Bendire’s Thrasher was thought to be purely a winter resident in the Sulphur Springs Valley, but we now [...]

An unusual view of  a Cassin’s Sparrow.

Not only are those legs something else, but I love the way that the newly molted feathers show the diagnostic patterns for the species.

Snouts are very abundant right now.

This senna brightened the wash considerably.

The queen.