A rich, deep warble just now announced the arrival of Purple Martins in the neighborhood. Unlike eastern populations, our southwestern martins are the last of the hirundinids to arrive in spring, and they set up housekeeping as scattered pairs in saguaros and cottonwoods rather than breed colonially in boxes.
Only Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher make [...]

It’s always a delight when one’s judgment in friends is confirmed–and how.
Our friend Darlene is the 2008-2009 recipient of the Linnaean Society’s Natural History Service Award, bestowed in honor of her work to open the natural world to easier access for birders with mobility and endurance limitations. Darlene’s efforts have been conducted on both a [...]

A Wood Sandpiper photographed in Delaware is, if rightly I remember, a second record for the eastern United States. I wouldn’t want to live in the mid-Atlantic again, but every once in a while something like this happens….

What a day in the history of Arizona birding. An American Swallow-tailed Kite was seen moving north over Tucson this morning, and this afternoon brought news of a Yellow Grosbeak and a TUFTED FLYCATCHER in the Chiricahuas.

Michael put me onto this title while I was planning our Camargue trip, and I can’t recommend it enough: not only does it have a fine set of clearly described itineraries for birding the most important sites (one of which we lifted nearly wholesale for this year’s trip), but this attractively produced book also provides [...]