The Experience of Birding
The Santa Cruz Flats, along the river downstream from Tucson, are a great place for a peaceful day afield this time of year. Raptors, today including Ferruginous Hawk, are starting to pour in, and sparrow numbers are slowly building. The resident birds aren’t bad, either. This was one of eight Burrowing Owls we ran across …
Continue reading “Winter Arrivals on the Flats”
Marion and I spent this gloriously summer-like St. David’s Day along the lower Santa Cruz. It’s not winter down there any more, and the great raptor shows of the cold season are done with; but we still tallied a fine adult Peregrine Falcon, several Harris’s Hawks, four Northern Harriers (including two dazzling silver males), and …
Continue reading “Grasshopper Sparrow”
The birds weren’t overwhelming, but the birding was great on the Santa Cruz Flats Saturday morning with Michael. We started out with the largest flock of Eurasian Collared-Doves I’d ever seen in Arizona, 260 birds perched on wires in Marana. It was a puzzling sight at first, but the nearly total absence of that species …
Continue reading “The Santa Cruz Flats”
Jack and Shirley and I enjoyed one of those magical days on the Santa Cruz Flats–sandwiched between paying our respects to the Catalina State Park Rufous-backed Robin (thanks, Sara!) and the Casa Grande Northern Jacana. We had about 80 species for the day, and if only there’d been a few more hours of daylight, we …
Continue reading “January Raptors”
Like many clubs around the country, Tucson Audubon runs a “birdathon” fundraiser every spring. This year, Aimophila Adventures and WINGS donated a prize: a day’s guided birding in southeast Arizona. As I pondered the category in which the prize should be awarded, though, it occurred to me that the birders who usually emerge triumphant in …
Continue reading “On the Flats with Carsten”