My blogging has been non-existent because I am the anti-bear.
I have a body metabolism that runs quite hot. So. Where do I live? Saskatchewan? Caribou? Stockholm? No. Arizona. From June through September I hibernate.
Last year, I compensated by birding at our highest elevations -- Mt. Humphreys in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff rises to well over 12,000 feet. Niche birds there: Clark's Nutcracker, Three-toed Woodpecker, Blue Grouse.
Not this year. I got my ya-ya's out pretty well in France, so hibernation has been nearly total.
But you know how it is. You can't just not bird. Especially when you just got new binocs, like I did. So, on the rare occasions when I've been sighted in the wild, I've been concentrating on the last possible lifers among our local breeding birds. Went to Mingus Mountain and got great looks at Greater Pewee. Spent a sweaty, frustrating afternoon looking for the near-mythic Mississippi Kite pair rumored to nest on the Verde River. And two days ago, I spent two hours squinting up tree trunks in a ponderosa pine patch on Mt. Kendrick fruitlessly searching for the Mexican Spotted Owl all of my birding friends have turned up. A 55-mile trip to the patch. Tough beat.
And now, not only is it 100 every day but the humidity's rising as we build to a(hopefully virile) monsoon season. Our area hasn't seen a drop of rain since April 24.
We're scouting now for prime locations to attract southbound shorebirds. But it's gonna have to be something really good to lure me out of my cave.
Posted by MadMonk at July 13, 2004 03:48 PM