This year I decided to expand the acoustic monitoring that I’ve been conducting at the River Fork Ranch in northern Nevada. The Nature Conservancy has been supported of my efforts by graciously providing access to preserves, so I decided to try to monitor at other TNC preserves. In April of this year, I headed south […]
Following my amazing southwestern recording trip with Lang Elliott, I stopped at Bears Ears National Monument on the way home. I had my sights set on two areas to explore: Comb Ridge and Cedar Mesa. I whet my appetite for the place with a recently released book, Behind the Bears Ears, by R.E. Burrillo, which
Celebrating Bears Ears Read More »
On our recording trip this last spring, Lang Elliott and I stopped by a beautiful area of Sonoran Desert, east of Roosevelt Lake, known as Cherry Creek. I’d never heard of it before, but was instantly struck by its rugged beauty. Cherry Creek, and nearby Coon Creek, are lovely drainages with rich riparian areas
Timings and transitions Read More »
Part of my recording tour of the southwest with Lang Elliott this spring took us to Big Bend National Park. From a westerner’s perspective, this is the end of the earth. It’s a long, long ways from anywhere, even by Texas standards. But this remoteness, incredible topography, and habitat diversity make it a good spot
The beaver pond at the end of the road Read More »
I recently returned from a 7-week sound recording expedition to the southwest U.S. From Carson City, to southern California, southern Arizona, southern Texas, western New Mexico, central and southern Arizona, a quick trip to Albuquerque to see friends, back to Arizona, and finally home through Utah and central Nevada. Almost 7,500 miles, and almost all
The dawn chorus is a wonderful, natural phenomenon in which many birds do most of their singing at or before the first light of day. It is most obvious during the spring, as birds set up territories and go about attracting mates. In southern Arizona, the resident birds begin singing in February, and many are
Chasing the dawn chorus Read More »
Just east of Tucson, a collection of small creeks come together to form Pantano Wash, which winds its way through Tucson before eventually joining the Gila River, which flows across the state to the Colorado River. Most of these little creeks only flow during summer floods or occasionally during a wet winter. However, one of
Where the water ends Read More »
An interesting article came across my desk recently. Entitled, “Ecological homogenization of urban USA,” it presented some recent research on landscape structure within some of the major US cities, compared to their surrounding ecosystems. In general, there is a great similarity among neighborhood landscapes, whether they are in Phoenix, Baltimore, Miami, or Boston. The “idealized”
Urbanizing the soundscape Read More »
