DARE TO BIRD

Ilya came up with the idea to do a hike for White-tailed Ptarmigan.We decided to hike up to First Pump Peak at 1407m elevation on Mount Seymour. I started helping him invite people and soon we had 16 people signed up! Brian Stech and Dorothy Copp, George Clulow, John Reynolds, Carlo Giovaella, Jeremiah Kennedy, Ian Thomas, Yousif Attia, Quentin Brown, Rob Lyske, Liron Gertsman, Peter Candido, Daniele Mitchell, Andrew Foxall and Ilya Povalyaev and myself. The more the merrier when you are searching for an all white bird in snow. Ptarmigan do occur on the local North Shore Mountains but sightings are few and far between and there are actually more recorded Rock sightings than White-tailed strangely enough. Danny Tyson had been successful in the past and so had Arman and myself  in winter so we decided to try again. This winter was mild and most of us were able to climb the mountain with hikers without crampons or poles. I was feeling pretty ill that day but dragged myself up the m...

I got to go to Arizona this family long weekend with my sister and got to spend some of my free time birding. One of the first birds I saw when I stepped off the plane was a Gambel's Quail. These beautiful birds were all over Central Arizona .  I had a great success seeing  many owls in Arizona this trip. I got to see an uncommon Whiskered Screech-Owl. I just stumbled on this tiny little owl while hiking in Southeastern Arizona. He was roosting in the daylight in a Sycamore tree. Several people passed by this tree without noticing him but I knew to check out cavities. I was actually looking at a Arizona Woodpecker when I turned around and spotted him in this Sycamore tree. These tiny owls are rarely seen in the daylight and are only found in Southeastern Arizona and Mexico in North America. The same day and a few hours apart I found a Western Screech-Owl, he was also roosting in a Saguaro Cactus. This little owl had his eyes partially open at times but most of th...