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Owls, Owls, and more Owls in SE Arizona

10,000 Birds

The Great Horned Owls that live in the palm trees right above our RV have returned and brought with them a pair of fledglings. Last week, a good friend, Dan Weisz gave me a tip on the location of a family of Burrowing Owls that were extremely easy to access. That was no deterrent from landing right in the middle of the road.

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Arizona, or Central Mexico?

10,000 Birds

You fly to Phoenix, or Tucson, rent a car (or ride a bike cross-country, if you are Noah Strycker), drive to the tiny towns of Patagonia and Sierra Vista, and voila! A quick study as I researched this post revealed that fully 37 Arizonan “specialties” are common birds right here where I live.

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The Little Big Year-Week 44: Off to the islands ‘Mon

10,000 Birds

That was the best possible spot we could find from our Tucson base, and given our badly stressed budget. It seems his family of 5, had rented a condo that sleeps 8, at Atlantis Resort, on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas. This Black-throated Blue Warbler was a bird we missed while in Texas, so it was great to see one right off the bat!

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Thrashing XXX

10,000 Birds

In the right season, with a little luck, we often find it, and sometimes it perches high and long enough that we can admire its scimitar of a bill, its stern face pattern, and even the patch of rusty red on the undertail that gives the species its English and its scientific names. Wicked, right? Hat-tip to Stella.

2011 140
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Cow Birds

10,000 Birds

The naming of the hornbill family is a bit farther fetched. Wikimedia Commons Bucerotidae is etymologically opaque to most birders, I’d venture, but when Rafinesque described the family almost two centuries ago, he had kine on his mind. Wicked, right? Hat-tip to Stella.

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Arizona in Summer: It Ain’t All Hummers

10,000 Birds

The bird was a little harder to find than I expected; I needed to triangulate the sounds of the call and finally, after standing and looking and walking around the tree where the bird had to be calling from, I took a deep breath, looked again, and there it was right in front of me, actually at eye level. At least for birders.

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The Littel Big Year – Week 45: Wrapping up the Bahamas

10,000 Birds

We have escaped the clutches of the Bahamas, and are finally back “home” in Tucson, Texas. Our first stop was the Lakeview Drive Ponds, Corey’s primary birding location when he and his family visited the island a few years ago. We got a bit of a late start as the cruise ship does not unload its guests until about 9-9:30.

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