Southeast Arizona Bird Guide, Birding Tours SE AZ: Welcome to Fun Birding Tours in AZ with Richard Fray » insects

Pena Blanca Lake, Sycamore Canyon, California Gulch

Richard — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:32:14 +0000

A ZONE-TAILED HAWK was hunting over the valley midway to the gulch from Ruby Road. In the gulch, FIVE-STRIPED SPARROWS were vocal and reasonably easy to find. At least five birds were tallied between the first and second stream crossings, as well as a good number of VARIED [...]

No Solitaire

Richard — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:10:45 +0000

Southeast Arizona always attracts interesting birds from Mexico, but so far this year the birds have been surprising – a Gray-collared Becard (or maybe two, depending on who saw what) in the Chiricahuas, and now a Brown-backed Solitaire in the Huachucas, first at Miller Canyon, then at Ramsey Canyon (or are there two of these [...]

Two-tailed

Richard — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:46:53 +0000

[thumb:4219:r]A splendid addition to my home butterfly list today – a fine Two-tailed Swallowtail stopped by, a species more associated with mid-elevation riparian habitats than Tucson gardens.

And what’s more, it actually landed and allowed some shaky photos before it left. The usual Giant Swallowtails, which are in the garden almost daily, never [...]

Ecuador 9: Quebrada Honda

Richard — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:53:42 +0000

A bit like the day after Angel Paz, today was going to have a hard time living up to yesterday. But we were going to give it a good go anyway.

We spent the morning birding the famous Quebrada Honda trail. It was hard work! A Slate-crowned Antpitta was calling and Mr. Schofield led Rob and Micky [...]

Ecuador 5: Silanche is golden

Richard — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:00:24 +0000

[thumb:3661:r]Today couldn’t possibly live up to yesterday, could it?

No. But never mind, it was still good. We left the lodge early and drove to Rio Silanche, another great cloud forest reserve. We started at the tower, where our view of the canopy wasn’t interupted by much bird action, although we did see both [...]

New dragon

Richard — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:57:55 +0000

I went out into my new courtyard last night to do a bit of top-up watering, and disturbed this chap who was roosting on the drapes by the hose reel. It was, in fact, the same curtain that hosted a roosting Chipping Sparrow on migration in September, so it’s a curtain with a track record…

The [...]

The Stronghold

Richard — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:51:44 +0000

I spent the day around Cochise Stronghold B&B, in the Canyon and driving the surrounding high desert grassland in the Sunsites and Pearce areas of the Sulphur Springs Valley. And for once, the resulting photos were leaning from quantity and more towards quality. I think.

The highlight was a particularly obliging pair of Grasshopper Sparrows on [...]

Contrast

Richard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:06:31 +0000

From Vegas to the Sulphur Springs Valley and Dragoon Mountains in Southeast Arizona… from the ridiculous to the sublime? Or the other way round? I don’t know.

Anyway, I headed out on my own, leaving Melanie and Val to meet me later. I started at Sweetwater Wetlands again and amazingly connected with my target bird immediately – [...]

Phoenix

Richard — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:37:52 +0000

My sister-in-law, Val, is staying with us for ten days, so I took the chance to get out with the camera on the way to collect her from Phoenix Sky Harbor. It’s great having Val here, as it means we’ll be getting out to do lots of cool stuff in the next week and a half. [...]

Dangerous!

Richard — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:02:53 +0000

I’d managed to wangle a day off and my original plan was to go to Patagonia again and try to see the wren, but in an attempt to inject a bit of success into my birding trips I changed my mind at the last minute and opted for a day of checking watery sites. I’m better [...]