Loggerhead shrikes are more common in the winter out where we live in Cochise County, Arizona. Some winters and springs it seems there is a shrike on every other fence post or power line here in the grassland. A favorite field guide says they are an “uncommon to common transient in open situations throughout” southeastern Arizona. So it seems some shrikes will move about seasonally to different elevations in the borderlands. Must be nice.
I took the photographs of my Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds purchased in 1970. I was inspired to bring it out of retirement after doing some birding with my family and I realized that many of the birds we were seeing had checks by their pictures in this old guide. Some of the scientific names and even common names have changed, but the birds don’t know that and they still look the same. As you can see it has been rebound…did that myself… and it’s ready to go onto the truck seat with my binoculars.
The scientific name for Mearns quail is Cyrtonyx montezumae. The genus refers to its big claws for scratching around in desert soils. It has...
Surely I’m not the only person who sits around reading field guides by a warm wood stove. And our field guides do end up...
The Coachwhip snake is found all over southern Arizona in one color phase or another. I do remember finding a black phase Coachwhip years...
