Had a blast yesterday in Bisbee, Arizona, representing the American Birding Association at Southwest Wings. Alison and Darlene generously came along, letting me slip away from the busy table once in a while to chat with friends old and new and to admire the materials on offer at this excellent festival.<\/p>\n
The ABA table was directly across from an exhibit of live animals of the southwest. For the most part, they were what you’d expect, skunks and such;\u00c2 among the partly rehabilitated birds on display were a Great Horned Owl, a Swainson’s Hawk, and a\u00c2 Western Screech-Owl.\u00c2 Less usual, though,\u00c2 were\u00c2 a Burrowing Owl, a Merlin, and (get this) a Black-crowned Night-Heron.<\/p>\n
The heron was tethered to a carefully constructed miniature habitat group of fake cattails and bulrushes, and perched in motionless splendor, it looked exactly like a very well-done mount. Taxidermy turned on its head: a live animal made to look like a dead one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Had a blast yesterday in Bisbee, Arizona, representing the American Birding Association at Southwest Wings. Alison and Darlene generously came along, letting me slip away from the busy table once in a while to chat with friends old and new and to admire the materials on offer at this excellent festival. The ABA table was … <\/p>\n