Drive By Birding

It was so blasted hot!  And it's October!  But the need to bird is constant and never letting up.  With windows down at 5 mph, Kathie and I take a slow drive through Saguaro National Park.  Can you believe I had never been?  It's desert and I've seen it all before.  But I hadn't.

Antelope Jackrabbit

"Can you turn the radio off?"  Yes.  I'm such a dope.  If you're birding, you need to listen for birds.  Duh!  But I was in my car....a place one normally doesn't bird(in my mind). Yet on my drive to and from work what do I do?  Look at birds. But to bird from the car.....It was strange and so much fun all at the same time.    So we listened and drove slowly.

This is going to be fun.  Kathie and I have had some incredible journeys into the strangest places.  Places that I'd normally overlook.  Drive and bird?  Who does that?  "Chris, can you turn that a/c down more?"  But it's hot Kathie:) As I whine to myself in my brain.  It's like a bazillion degrees outside.  And we're birding......

Black Throated Sparrow

And it's incredible fun.  We see a Jackrabbit and for the first time in my life, I realize that I've never seen one before.  How many years have I lived here?  So I've been seeing the Peter Cottentail types.....but never a Jackrabbit.  And it's exciting.

Eventually we stop the car and begin to walk and bird.  There's activity in the hot desert.  Amazing that anything can survive these temps.  And yet they are.  Soon the sun begins to set and time is limited and there are birds out there.  We see and hear them.  They hide from our gazes.  But we walk sandy washes watching for snakes.  It's a total thrill.  We count many birds which include a Turkey Vulture, Red Tail Hawk, Gambel's Quail, Black Throated Sparrow and oh so many more birds.   For my plant friends, we find a Christmas Cholla and many Hackberry bushes loaded with the orange berries....and popular with the birds:)

I'm going through something in my life.  I can't explain it.  But it's powerful.  It was always there but I've let it come to surface over these past couple of years.  There is a calm and peace from it all.  It's more than just some hobby.  It's a passion.  A calling.  All I have to do is take that first step, but I'm scared. I speak Spanish.  I have a plant and wildlife background.  I have an education background.  But I need to learn to shoot a firearm. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true.  That's what is holding me back.  If I can do this, I can make a career change happen.  I did it once when I wasn't so settled and invested.  While "Drive By Birding", we notice a Border Patrol agent checking out something suspicious in the wash.  Incredible wild terrain full of dangerous things.  Over the past several years, one Park Ranger was killed on the job and of course, several border patrol agents and a rancher were shot dead.  As of this write on October 2nd, a border patrol agent was killed this morning. It has hit Southern Arizona pretty hard.....yet again.

Before I pursued education, I sat in a Ranger booth and welcomed visitors to the park in Wisconsin. Then teaching called.

But Kathie pulls me out of my deep reverie and this stupid midlife crisis and we search for birds.  At the end of the night, we sip wine on her balcony enjoying the beautiful night sky of Arizona.  A perfect way to end an amazing weekend exploring Southern Arizona. And speaking of driving, this is one of my songs I'm liking right now on the radio.  There is language so you've been warned:) Stay tuned for more....