Last Wednesday, a customer was sharing with me her excitement about having a pair of cardinals in her yard. At home the next day, I was sitting in the den reading when I heard the unmistakable sound of a cardinal singing.
I spent most of last week down in Tubac participating in the HawkWatch event. It was a very enjoyable experience — kind of like a working vacation. Watching birds and selling Swarovski optical products is not a bad gig!
I have been down in Tubac, Arizona this past week in the capacity of a Swarovski Optik vendor at the annual Tubac Hawk Watch event. The hawk watch is held at the Ronald R. Morriss County Park, directly adjacent to the Santa Cruz River.
Our new store location off of Black Drive has a beautiful conference room that we are using to host a variety of free workshops and presentations. This past week I taught a class on shorebird identification.
In my weekly column last Thursday, I mentioned how we’ve been receiving reports from customers of newly arrived hummingbirds. The day after my column ran in the paper, I led a store sponsored bird walk to Willow Lake, and we saw five or six Anna’s hummingbirds in the wild.
While the calendar shows it is only February, over the last week we have received several reports of a variety of different hummingbird species showing up in the Prescott area. Apparently, hummingbirds don’t look at calendars.
On Feb. 23, 1994, the month of February was proclaimed as National Bird-Feeding Month by Congressman John Porter when he read a resolution into the Congressional Record.
This past week I received an email newsletter from the National Audubon Society titled, “When it’s okay (or not) to feed birds.” Feeding wild birds, properly, can provide a benefit to many bird species.
This past week marked the 20th anniversary of my writing this weekly column for The Daily Courier. In honor of this event, I thought it would be fun to re-run my very first column.
Many people set aside some time at the beginning of each New Year to be reflective and perhaps even write down a list of specific goals. Maybe you have a bucket list of new things you would like to do in the coming year.
This past week, I attended the first birding and nature festival of 2024 in Arizona — the Wings over Willcox Festival. I drove down on Thursday, and the weather was wild, just like it was here last Thursday. It even snowed in Willcox!
This past week has been a cold one! Two mornings in a row, our home weather station read 12 degrees when I got up! I am not a big fan of cold weather; in fact, I’m not even a little fan.
Happy New Year! I am looking forward, with great anticipation, to new birding adventures in 2024. Guess what I did on January 1st?
As another year comes to a close, I feel extremely grateful for the blessings that have been showered down upon our business. There have been a lot of challenges, but there have also been tremendous blessings.
I was in Granite Basin earlier this week, and boy was I surprised by the avian find I stumbled across! I heard a noise ahead of me, and when I came through a narrow spot in the brush...
I was in Granite Basin this past week, and was surprised to see a greater roadrunner there. The range for roadrunners is extensive.
Last week I led a store-sponsored bird walk to Granite Basin, which happens to be my assigned area each year for the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC). With the CBC right around the corner, it was really nice to spend some time scouting my area.
My trip to Corpus Christi, Texas last week was such a sweet experience.
For over fifteen years our store has been an authorized Swarovski dealer, selling binoculars, spotting scopes and tripods.
This past Friday I spent over two hours birding at Watson Lake and saw 55 species.
Our mild—even warm—fall weather has impacted backyard bird feeding activity.
I had several nice birding experiences this past week. On Wednesday, I participated in a Prescott Audubon Society Chapter sponsored bird walk to Watson Woods Riparian Preserve and the Peavine Trail. In a little over an hour of bird watching we saw forty different species!
When I was about twelve years old, I built my first bird blind for the purpose of doing wild bird photography. This, of course, was back in the days of film.
This month marks our 20th year in business, and later in the month we will be hosting a series of events to mark this special occasion. From our humble beginnings in a 575-square foot “garage”, in the back of Watters Garden Center, to our new location on Willow Creek Road, we’ve experienced a lot — and grown!
When I came home from work one day this past week, I walked into the garage and heard a faint bird call. Listening carefully, I quickly realized there was a bird somewhere inside the garage.
The month of September has resulted in some fantastic birding opportunities here in the Arizona Central Highlands. All kinds of birds have shown up — many unexpectedly.
I enjoyed my trip to Payson this past weekend for the annual meeting of the Arizona Field Ornithologists organization. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to do any birding, as I was busy staffing my optics vendor booth!
About a year ago I signed up for a guided birding trip to Chihuahua, Mexico. I’ve birded in Mexico on several occasions, but never in Chihuahua.
Bird observations can be a sign of the changing seasons. Depending on what bird species you are seeing in your yard, you can know not only what time of year it is, but potentially even what month it is.
Several months ago, I had numerous conversations with customers about hummingbirds. Back in April, May, and June, one customer after another was lamenting that they didn’t have as many hummingbirds this year as they did last year.
I’ve received several reports of lazuli buntings at seed feeders this week. Lazuli buntings are seen more frequently in the spring as they make their way north during migration.
I was down in Sierra Vista for five days last week attending the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival. Each day, before and after the vendor booth hours, my store manager, Ryan, and I were out birdwatching.
I am in Sierra Vista right now, attending the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival. While attending festivals is a lot of work, it is also kind of a working vacation.
As mentioned in my column last week, this week is the 9th Annual Hummingbird Festival at the Performing Arts Center in Sedona, at the Sedona Red Rock High School. We will be attending as a vendor with a wide assortment of hummingbird products.
Last week I led a store-sponsored bird walk to the Cottonwood Peninsula on the west side of Willow Lake. We had a wonderful bird walk and saw a good variety of birds including a great horned owl, swallows, Bullock’s oriole, summer tanager, and more
As a follow up to last week’s column, we had a wonderful road trip. We spent time in Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado, before returning to Prescott, driving over 3,200 miles.
In 2010, my wife and I drove with our two youngest children to South Dakota so our adoptive daughter could visit her biological mother. As you might imagine, I did quite a bit of birding on that trip.
I have noticed a variety of baby birds in my yard this past week, including white-breasted nuthatch, mountain chickadee, American robin and Gambel’s quail. Based on the size of the babies, I believe we have three distinct quail families visiting our yard.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been fielding the same question over and over again here at The Lookout, “Where are all of the birds?”
I have a dear friend who recently shared how he was at species number 499 on his life list and he wanted the Elegant Trogon to be species number 500.
In January I rolled out the Jay’s Bird Barn 2023 Birding Challenge to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of our business. Since it is now June, I thought it would be a good idea to do an update on the Birding Challenge.
I mentioned in my column last Thursday to be on the lookout for baby quail. The day after my column ran in the paper, I had three people reach out to me reporting baby quail sightings, and I’ve had several more reports since then.
This past week I had the opportunity to participate in the Ute Mountain Mesa Verde Birding and Nature Festival in Cortez, Colorado.
I led a guided bird walk to the Watson Woods Riparian Preserve, including the Peavine Trail and the southeastern edge of Watson Lake. Our three-hour bird walk was super productive — we saw 53 species!
This past week I led a private guided bird walk for the Natural History Institute. Our walk took in part of the Watson Woods Riparian Preserve, the Peavine Trail, and Watson Lake. We had a wonderful morning, observing forty-four species, and hearing many more that we didn’t see.
This past week I attended the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona. I participated as a vendor, selling binoculars and spotting scopes, as a guide, and as a speaker.
In spring, the one habitat where songbird migration is most easily detected is in our riparian areas. A simple definition of the word riparian means “stream side habitat.” In Prescott, this includes areas such as Watson Woods.
My wife and I made a quick trip back to Oklahoma over the Easter weekend to visit family. Our trip was just a little over 48 hours, but we packed a lot of activities into Saturday and Sunday.
While bird migration has been underway for several weeks, there is a significant uptick in migration activity during the month of April. Longer, warmer days, and more abundant food sources for migratory birds.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to walk the Peavine Trail a couple of times. With migration underway, it is interesting to see what is still at Watson Lake in terms of water fowl.