About 100 miles east of my former home in Tucson, Arizona, and well south of Interstate 10 is the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, winter home to roughly 30,000 sandhill cranes. Interestingly, the number of sandhill cranes at the much more famous Bosque del Apache National … Continue readingWinter Afternoons at Whitewater Draw
My first memorable encounter with an owl was on a winter dawn in the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve just off Skyline Boulevard above Portola Valley, California. It was December 31st, 1990. It was still very dark as I walked downhill down the path with … Continue readingRuler of the Night
Bobcats aren’t the only predators that frequented our yard in Tucson. Cooper’s hawks were common in our neighborhood, helping to keep the population of doves and other small birds from getting out of hand. While it is not clear that they were totally successful, we … Continue readingBirdbane
After 29 years living in Tucson, Arizona—and 20 years in the same house—we moved to Colorado this past January. Now that I am caught up on blogging about my trips to Santorini and Andalucía, I decided to write some posts about our old home and … Continue readingHoliday Bobcat
This past winter in Tucson was disappointingly mild. Certainly every winter in Tucson is mild by most measures, and not a winter at all for Minnesotans. But usually there are some respectable hard freezes and last winter it even snowed. … Continue readingSweetwater March
Last weekend I drove west over Gates Pass in the Tucson Mountains in the hope of finding an interesting location to photograph the sunset. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I was interested in photographing at sunset … Continue readingPeeks at Tower Peak
It is a three hour drive from Tucson to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. For someone that has driven from Tucson to Vermont and back with a wife and four children under 12, that is not a long way. But it is long enough that driving out then back with a few hours to explore in between is going to take the whole day. In 26 years, I had not found that day. Until last month. … Continue readingBelated Visit: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
The summer monsoons are frequent visitors to Tucson during July, August, and September. … Continue readingSunset Punishment
Story Last month I decided to explore the Painted Hill Trail in Tucson, Arizona, and take some pictures. It is only a couple miles from my house, but was new to me. It is a recently-developed trail and loops over and around some small hills … Continue readingSurrounded!