The mis-named Arizona Woodpecker is largely a Mexican species; its range barely extends into the sky islands of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, and even in those areas it’s uncommon. It’s in the genus Dryobates, with the more familiar Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, but unlike those species it has a brown back and brown…
WC returned from Southeast Arizona with about 2,800 photos. They aren’t all processed yet, and won’t be for some time. But here’s a second sampler of the region’s species that WC was able to photograph. (Click on an image for a larger view.) . It will be weeks before WC can determine what the total…
WC and Mrs. WC, with their Missouri birding buddies, spent about nine days birding in southeastern Arizona. There’s a double handful of bird species found there and nowhere else in the United States. While we didn’t find all the birds were were looking for, we did see enough to satisfy that spring birding itch. Photos…
One of the pleasures and attractions of birding away from your home patch is discovering the common birds at the places you visit. In Southeastern Arizona, a very common species is the photogenic and very intelligent Mexican Jay, a species whose range in the northern half of Mexico extends into the “sky island” mountain ranges…
Every birder has a target species, birds they would really like to see. For a lot of North American birders, that would be the Elegant Trogon. It’s a Central American species whose range extends into the very southeasterly corner of Arizona. It’s cryptic, present only in small numbers, and usually in difficult terrain. WC birding…
The word “grosbeak” traces to the late 17th century: from French grosbec, from gros ‘big, fat’ + bec ‘beak’. A Grosbeak’s bill is indisputably big and fat in appearance. Including the Black-headed Grosbeak’s bill. Many bird species, not all of them closely related, have evolved this tool to mash hard seeds. It’s evolved in cardinals, finches and several Old World…
Birds of the World says, Fighting begins with mutual threat and progresses to striking with wings and kicking. Eventually one bird grabs the other’s beak or snood and birds entwine necks, pushing against each other with breasts. Fights usually end by one bird gaining advantage and getting beak hold on skin of back of opponent’s…
WC didn’t just photograph rocks on that recent trip to Owhyee Reservoir. Although the birding was sketchy and spring birds hadn’t yet arrived, photos of birds (and porto-birds) were taken. Here’s quick sampler. We saw several pair of Killdeer, as you’d expect in an area with lots of gravel surfaces, parking lots and sandbars. They…
HPAI is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, specifically HPAI A(H5N1), a virus that is spreading around the world at an astonishing rate. The primary vector for the spread of this strain of HPAI is wild birds, resulting in peak infection rates at the time of spring and fall migration. As bird migration surges, HPAI spreads, More…
Camas Prairie – the one in southcentral Idaho; there are three “Camas Prairies” in Idaho – isn’t a prairie at all. It’s a rift valley, oriented east-west, just under a thousand feet higher at the west end than at the east end. As you’d expect, spring comes a lot later and takes a lot longer…
The Ramphastidae is a family of some 36 species spread across 5 genera. All of the species in the family have . . . generous-sized . . . bills, but the seven or so members of the genus Ramphastos, the Toucans, are the undisputed champs. Fans of the Old World Hornbills may try to argue,…
A reader noted that almost all of the bird species in Saturday’s regular Return of Bird of the Week series are species of Least Concern according to the International Union for Conservation – one of the organizations that attempt to monitor endangered species. What, that reader asks, are some of the species that are not…
There are a lot of duck species. WC hasn’t begun to photograph them all, but has more than can reasonably be shown in a single blog post. So here’s a third and final set, another 17 species, in no particular order. Notes follow the photos. (Click on an image for a larger version) Notes: WC…
WC and Mrs Wc are volunteers for a raptor research project. Our volunteer work requires us to count raptors once a month along part of the Snake River Valley, from a few miles east of Marsing to a few miles west of Murphy, driving along Idaho Hy. 78 and some of the spur roads off…
There are a lot of duck species. WC hasn’t begun to photograph them all, but has more than can reasonably be shown in a single blog post. So here’s the second set, another 21 species, in no particular order. Notes follow the photos. (Click on an image for a larger version) Notes:
There are a lot of duck species. WC hasn’t begun to photograph them all, but has more than can reasonably be shown in a single blog post. So here’s the first 21 species, in no particular order. Notes follow the photos. (Click on an image for a larger version) Notes: WC will continue work on…
We’ve been Very Serious here at Wickersham’s Conscience lately, dealing with Big Issues and Serious Problems. Sometimes the Magpie Principle steers WC wrong. Let’s take a break. The Toucanets, as the name implies, are the slightly smaller, slightly less mandibly-gifted cousins of the Toucans. The Saffron Toucanet is a near-endemic to Southeastern Brazil, and WC…
This post resumes a semi-regular series, Most Memorable Moments, featuring some of the most memorable natural history experiences that WC has been lucky enough to enjoy. Sometimes nature can be magical and memorable, and, yes, it’s still magical even when you know how and why it works. In 1999, WC and Mrs. WC were lucky…
Winters in Boise, Idaho often involve long stretches of gray, dark skies, gloomy light and mixed rain and snow, sometimes for weeks at a time. Combine that with news that ranges from bad to terrible, and it’s easy to let yourself get depressed. Readers know that WC’s sovereign remedy for that depression is photos of…
A two post day. A Burrowing Owl apparently expressing his opinion of sports ball, on the Atlantic shore of southeast Brazil, near Ubatuba.
If non-birders think about sparrows at all, they think of them as LBJs, Little Brown Jobs: Drab, boring and all the same. It’s not true, but there are 132 recognized species of New World Sparrow, the Passerellidae, and in juvenile plumages some can be tough to identify with certainty. For WC it adds to their…
If non-birders think about sparrows at all, they think of them as LBJs, Little Brown Jobs: Drab, boring and all the same. It’s not true, but there are 132 recognized species of New World Sparrow, the Passerellidae, and in juvenile plumages some can be tough to identify with certainty. For WC it adds to their…
Volcanoes erupt. An irruption is something different, an irregular event in which large numbers of a species move far beyond their normal range. That’s distinct from migration, which is an annual movement common to all or almost all of the members of the species. Migration is normal for about 18% of the world’s species. Irruption…
Okay, they aren’t really “chickens;” that’s birder slang. And despite their similarities, they come from different families. What they have in common is a large size, especially for a bird; a relatively primitive development; and, except for one, being tough to find. Here are some of the “Big Chickens” from Brazil. Notes follow the photo…
Most readers are likely familiar with the plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: Juliet, to avoid marriage to a man she doesn’t love (and committing a bigamy she cannot disclose), takes a potion that makes her seem dead. Romeo, finding her cataleptic, thinks she is dead and takes poison and dies. Juliet, waking from the…
It’s an over-used metaphor today. But, until 1986, it was a real thing: canaries were used to detect toxic gases, especially carbon monoxide, in underground mines. Songbirds have high metabolic and respiration rates, making them more sensitive to toxic gases. Canaries adapt well to caged life, and have a pleasant song when off-duty. So underground…
WC was filling a photo request for a client recently. There’s no reason why WC can’t share some of those images with readers here. These are photos of Boreal Owls, all but one of them from a nest box on property WC and Mrs. WC owned out Chena Hot Springs Road, east of Fairbanks, Alaska.…
It’s time for another mental health Rx courtesy of Wickersham’s Conscience. Not all medicines come from a bottle, after all. And it seems right to start the New Year with a brief dose of WC’s sovereign remedy: photos of beautiful birds. This time we’ll have a tour of Trogons, a family of birds found on…
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Twelve Sage Grouse lekkingEleven ‘pipers pipingTen Pronghorn sprintingNine Cranes a-dancingEight Chukars chukkingSeven swans all flyingSix geese been layingFive golden wingsFour bellbirds callingThree FrenchglensTwo Emerald DovesAnd a Ruffed Grouse in a Chokecherry Tree Happy Holidays, everyone. (For an alternate version of this old chestnut,…
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Eleven ‘pipers pipingTen Pronghorn sprintingNine Cranes a-dancingEight Chukars chukkingSeven swans all flyingSix geese been layingFive golden wingsFour bellbirds callingThree FrenchglensTwo Emerald DovesAnd a Ruffed Grouse in a Chokecherry Tree
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