As a follow-up to my last post about the tardiness of migration this last spring, I wanted to use our trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument as an example. Lang Elliott and I recorded recorded here in late March of 2017. The expected compliment of birds was there, behaving as I’d come to expect […]
Late winter soundscape in the Sonoran Desert Read More »
The dawn chorus is a wonderful, natural phenomenon in which many birds do most of their singing at or before the first light of day. It is most obvious during the spring, as birds set up territories and go about attracting mates. In southern Arizona, the resident birds begin singing in February, and many are
Chasing the dawn chorus Read More »
It’s been a warm spring here in the Sonoran Desert. Temperatures have been running 10 to 15 degrees above normal for weeks. The super El Niño we were looking forward to moved up to the Pacific Northwest, leading to disappointment over the prospect of a super flower year (although I hear parts of central California
Spring in the Sonoran Desert Read More »
The birds around my house are really getting fired up. A week or two of seventy-degree weather (albeit interspersed with snow squalls) seems to have sent them into overdrive. They start chirping at first light, and by 6:30 am the dawn chorus is in full swing. Unfortunately, that is also when my little community on
Early Spring in the Sonoran Desert Read More »
