White-Winged Dove

Memories of the Anza-Borrego Visitor Center
Memories of the Anza-Borrego Visitor Center

With more than 600,000 acres, Anza Borrego Desert State Park has many areas worth exploring. But for the sheer convenience of meeting the widest array of species, both plant and…

Memories of Scissors Crossing
Memories of Scissors Crossing

2013-03-26 Thrasher Hunt County Road S-2, or the Great Southern Overland Stage Route, runs along the desert floor at the foot of the local San Diego mountains. The route is…

Memories of Red Rock Feedlot
Memories of Red Rock Feedlot

Red Rock Arizona is in Pinal County, located off the I-10 between Picacho and Marana. There is a feedlot two miles east of town that sometimes hosts rare doves and…

2024-05-07 Davis Mountains
2024-05-07 Davis Mountains

Following the past few enjoyable days at Kickapoo Caverns, I continued moving west toward my San Diego home. However, I had not quite finished with Texas, and Texas had not…

Memories of Redington Road
Memories of Redington Road

In 2004, I was just beginning my education about birds and how to capture them in my images. It was an exciting time for me. Many of my meetings with…

Memories of Marathon Texas
Memories of Marathon Texas

My first Texas Birding expedition began in 2020, with an ill-planned visit to Big Bend. I learned that because of Spring Break, all camping spaces in the park were occupied,…

Memories of Kickapoo Caverns State Park
Memories of Kickapoo Caverns State Park

In October-2022, I spent two nights at Fort Clark in Brackettville Texas. It was my base camp during my tour of Kickapoo Caverns State Park, about 30 miles away. In…

2023-07-13 Paton’s In Patagonia
2023-07-13 Paton’s In Patagonia

My day at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds Thursday was lovely. I came early and stayed late. I spent some quality time with the site manager. He provided me with…

2023-07-04~08 In The Davis Mountains
2023-07-04~08 In The Davis Mountains

I stayed four nights at Davis Mountains State Park. For $20 a night with electricity, it was a bargain. I hoped it would give me a chance to make progress…

2023-Early July At Kickapoo Caverns
2023-Early July At Kickapoo Caverns

As I write these notes, I have returned to my southern California homestead. The past three weeks have been so hectic, I have not had time to properly tell the…

2022-10-04 Davis Mountains
2022-10-04 Davis Mountains

Davis Mountains State Park has its origins in the 1930s as a Civilian Conservation Corps project to help lift the broken economy out of the depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps…

2022 September at the National Butterfly Center
2022 September at the National Butterfly Center

During the last week in September 2022, it was my pleasure to spend several days with friends and visiting wildlife at the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas. I spent…

2022-08-30 at Laguna Atascosa NWR
2022-08-30 at Laguna Atascosa NWR

Monday, I drove to Estero Llano Grande, one of the premiere birding destinations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. I rode my bike over several miles of trails there, but…

2021-05-10 National Butterfly Center
2021-05-10 National Butterfly Center

I couldn’t think of leaving Texas without seeing my friends at the National Butterfly Center (NBC) one more time. My planned route carried me through Mission anyway, so it was…

2021-05-04,5,6 SPI: The Big Fallout That Wasn’t
2021-05-04,5,6 SPI: The Big Fallout That Wasn’t

This is a three day post. With my 2021 visit in South Texas drawing to a close, I’ve been pushing my limits to maximize my opportunities to meet migrating birds.…

2021-04-25 “Big Sit” At The National Butterfly Center
2021-04-25 “Big Sit” At The National Butterfly Center

Sunday’s Big Sit event at the National Butterfly Center was such fun. As part of the Great Texas Birding Classic put on each year by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department,…

2021-04-17 SPI, Great Birds, Lousy Weather
2021-04-17 SPI, Great Birds, Lousy Weather

Well friends, I said I would limit my photo shooting time in the field to half days. The strategy would allow me to process my images and tell my stories…

2021-01-02 Big Bend’s Ross Maxwell Drive
2021-01-02 Big Bend’s Ross Maxwell Drive

New Year’s Day and Saturday night, I stayed in Terlingua (Texas). I waited there until I could take advantage of my Sunday night reservation for camping in Cottonwood. Saturday morning…

Memories of Breeze Lake Texas
Memories of Breeze Lake Texas

My first birding expedition into Texas was in the spring of 2020. After being on the road since February 21st, on Monday, March 23rd, the world-wide panic from the pandemic…

2020-05-16: Recounting My Passage From Texas
2020-05-16: Recounting My Passage From Texas

During my first expedition into Texas in 2020, I learned that Texas Rest Areas and Picnic Areas could be phenomenal places to meet birds. I found this especially true of…

2020-04-17: Feeder Vigil in Brownsville
2020-04-17: Feeder Vigil in Brownsville

I believe I’ve identified the birds in the gallery below correctly, but I welcome any corrections that experienced Texas birders might care to share. I’ve always tried to be a…

2020-04-01 April 1st In Camp
2020-04-01 April 1st In Camp

I had done no bird photography since arriving in Brownsville on March 19th. With my backlog of stories about my birding adventures on the Central Gulf of Texas finished, I…

2020-03-19 Adios Corpus Christi
2020-03-19 Adios Corpus Christi

By Thursday I knew it was time to explore my way south into the Lower Rio Grande Valley. I’d had three days to explore Aransas NWR, and a couple of…

2020-03-07: Bird Adventures In Big Bend
2020-03-07: Bird Adventures In Big Bend

Prologue The Texas adventure I dreamed about for years began in California, but passed through Arizona and New Mexico before reaching the promised land. Preparations for my journey began in…

2020-03-04 Wednesday At Dripping Springs
2020-03-04 Wednesday At Dripping Springs

My stay in Las Cruces was extended several days because of issues I had to sort out with my RV generator. All is well now as I send this post…

2020-02-29 & March 1 At Mesilla Valley
2020-02-29 & March 1 At Mesilla Valley

Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park proved to be the best birding location in the Las Cruces area for my friend Jerry and I. I scouted the park briefly on Friday,…

2019-10-23 At The Boyce Thompson Arboretum
2019-10-23 At The Boyce Thompson Arboretum

I let myself get behind in my posting. Since leaving the “BTA” I’ve completed two more photo safaris, but it took me longer than expected to organize the photos and…

Catching Up With Old Friends
Catching Up With Old Friends

I met my friend Linda in 1978 while I was living in Missoula Montana. Without going into too many details, it was one of the most interesting periods in my…

2013-08-29 Arizona Trip
2013-08-29 Arizona Trip

One aim on this trip was to visit family in Northeast Tucson. While there I spent some time at Agua Caliente Park. It had been in my head for several years…

2013-04-27 Borrego’s Clark Dry Lake Birds
2013-04-27 Borrego’s Clark Dry Lake Birds

I made several fruitless thrasher hunts during the first half of 2013, and while I failed to locate the Le Conte’s Thrashers I had hoped for on these trips, I…

2013-03-26 Thrasher Hunt
2013-03-26 Thrasher Hunt

County Road S-2, or the Great Southern Overland Stage Route, runs along the desert floor at the foot of the local San Diego mountains. The route is one of my…

2017-06-17~20 Cottonwood Springs (Part 2)
2017-06-17~20 Cottonwood Springs (Part 2)

On my previous post I shared images of the players in the Rat Theater, but I also had some nice avian encounters during this expedition. Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves and House…

2017-05-05 Best of Arizona
2017-05-05 Best of Arizona

I spent from 2017-04-22 through 2017-05-04 touring some great bird locations in Arizona. The places I managed to visit during this time were Agua Caliente Park, Sabino Canyon, Mount Lemmon,…

2017-04-26~28 Mount Lemmon: Sky Island Heaven
2017-04-26~28 Mount Lemmon: Sky Island Heaven

Early Wednesday morning I set off to visit Mount Lemmon using instructions for locating birds on the mountain from local birder, Liz Harrison. Her instructions were invaluable and gave me…

2014 Late July At The Salton Sea
2014 Late July At The Salton Sea

Whoever said “you must suffer for your art” must have been thinking about photographing birds at the Salton Sea in mid-summer. Temperatures here often elevate to over 115°F in the…