For the birding visitor to Provence, no city is better placed than Arles, a charming and easy-going town that just happens to feature some of the finest dining in France and some of the greatest artistic and architectural treasures in Europe.

The evocative ruins of the Roman theater are flanked by the colosseum–still in use two [...]

Like all  but the most sullen visitors to southern France, I fell in love with Provence the first time I laid eyes on it. I’ve been dreaming for years of showing this blessed countryside to others, hoping to give them a view into the uniqueness of a world that is as intensely cultural as it [...]

Transatlantic travel is always disorienting (the pun, of course, intended), and I was bemused and befuddled to wake up this morning to Tucson’s typical summer symphony–or rather a concerto, I suppose, with the insistent solo part played by a Brown-crested Flycatcher against an orchestra of White-winged Doves.
More anon about our 12 days in southern France!

Anna’s Hummingbirds are among the desert’s most conspicuous inhabitants right now, the females busy feeding plump youngsters and the males perched high, singing away in hopes of a second chance.
This distant photo shows the characteristic song posture of the male in his enthusiasm: head lowered, neck stretched, the very image of the “forward-leaning” young man [...]

We’ve all experienced it: sitting in a meeting, or out on the sidewalk, or over a meal, we glimpse something interesting and reach for our binoculars. They’re not there. And as birders we blush, as surely as if we’d been [...]