You could well be seeing this digitally-composed image of the Elegant Trogon, by area artist Gary Romig, on the new cover of The Country Connection, the region's local phone book directory for residences and businesses soon to be distributed to Patagonia, Sonoita and Elgin.Perhaps the image pays homage to one of the region's international, national and local watchable wildlife attractions for visitors here and has replaced the previous cover subject of the ranching traditions and grasslands. I'm told that the cover of the new edition of the phone book is brilliant red.
With the Summer Rains southeastern Arizona enjoys a second season of the landscape turning green: another "temporada" or growing season now through August and September that extends through October.
One of the first watchable wildflife excursion groups to offer a professionally guided tour in the area at the beginning of" August, with a one-day itinerary for Patagonia is Naturalist Journeys, Inc. based in Portal, Arizona.
See their offering here:
http://www.naturalistjourneys.com/jcalendar/jc_AZmonsoon09.htm
August is probably one of the best months to see "Hummers", called "flying jewels" by earlier people in the hemisphere, throughout Southern Arizona. There are a number of natural preserves that attract both the birds and avian adventurers like you, as well as marked and unmarked areas that are havens for Hummers.
It's cooler and greener than central Arizona and the region offers a number of bed-and-breakfast accommodations (See "Beds of Patagonia" listing here on this blog for easy access] for more than just a day-trip. Ask your potential proprietor for a three-day incentive if you find one you like and use that as your "nest" for a few days or longer. Or make a circuit of Hummer sights and stay at a number of offerings.
It's a great time of the year here in southeastern Arizona, nights are cool, the days become comfortably warm until early or mid-afternoon, and then the Summer Rains roll in to turn down the thermostat and oftentimes provide stunning lightworks in the panoramic skies.
Word is getting out about finding these small wonders in the big landscapes of The Mountain Empire and Southeastern Arizona.An article recently appeared in The Knoxville, Tennessee Times written by reporter Martha Davis for Birdlife http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jul/26/visitors-find-hummers-galore-in-southeast
You can hire local birdguide Matt Brown just like Photographer David McDonald to photograph area birds. Those results are posted on his blog:
http://lenslugger.blogspot.com/like the one of The White-Eared Hummingbird shown at right.
It's usually a resident of Mexico, but its habitat is expanding here.
The Patagonia Birding & Butterfly Company www.lifebirds.com/ - locally owned and operated by Matt Brown - offers guided tours by the hour and other arrangements for single or small groups up to six or eight.
Gary Romig is one of more than twenty-five loc
al/area artists who show and exhibit their works at Creative Spirit Artists Gallery located on 317 McKeown Avenue in Patagonia [sharing space with Mariposa Books and The Patagonia-Mountain Empire Visitor Information Center].You can purchase his bird portraits in different formats from 11x14" mounted prints to notecards and stamps of the same images.
You can view and place orders for bird portraits with this link provided here
http://personal.riverusers.com/~gromig/
Linda Gheen, the newest of the group of local artists to join Creative Spirits at 317 McKeown Avenue has a background in photojournalism and has taken to the backroads, trails
, paths, mountains and canyons to focus her lens on - what else? Birds!
Available framed and matted in different sizes at Creative Spirit Artists
Readers please note that a new link has been added in the left column for eBird [go to the link to see the site]
What is eBird?
Linda Gheen, the newest of the group of local artists to join Creative Spirits at 317 McKeown Avenue has a background in photojournalism and has taken to the backroads, trails
, paths, mountains and canyons to focus her lens on - what else? Birds!Available framed and matted in different sizes at Creative Spirit Artists
Readers please note that a new link has been added in the left column for eBird [go to the link to see the site]
What is eBird?
A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
 [Bird species, location and date are sited like the following, with a photo credit] |
| Adult Red-shouldered Hawk, Pt. Pinos, California, December 2006. © 2006 Brian L. Sullivan |
eBird's goal is to maximize the utility and accessibility of the vast numbers of bird observations made each year by recreational and professional bird watchers. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence. In the current month, for example Arizona reported 780 sightings.http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
For more about hummingbirds and wildlife viewing in Southeast Arizona visit the Web sites of the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival at www.swwings.org and the Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory at www.sabo.org.
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