Although I’ve recorded in many parts of the southern half of Oregon, I’ve never visited the northeastern portion. This area is known to be home to some beautiful mountain ranges and lots of wildlife. I realized after my earlier trips this spring, that I’d fallen into a rut of visiting the same places again and […]
Exploring northeastern Oregon, Part 1 Read More »
I was cleaning up my archive of nature sound recordings and ran across a lovely pre-dawn recording from the mountains north of Mimbres, New Mexico. In this rather remote area between two large wilderness areas was a small USFS campground where I stayed for a couple of nights back in June of 2015. It was
The only constant is change Read More »
Spring has arrived full force in the western US, and with it the bird breeding season. Resident birds and newly arrived migrants are singing up a storm as they set up territories and attract mates, adding an incredible sonorous background to our daily lives. In early April, I headed over the Sierras to see and
Early spring in the Sierra Nevada foothills Read More »
As I usually do in early July, this last summer the dog and I headed off to the hinterlands of northern Nevada. The trip is timed to allow us to get far from civilization to spare Shadow the horrors of fireworks. This years trip took us across central Nevada to Ruby Lakes Wildlife Refuge, then
That time when the dog got stoned 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 »
As a follow-up to my last post about the tardiness of migration this last spring, I wanted to use our trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument as an example. Lang Elliott and I recorded recorded here in late March of 2017. The expected compliment of birds was there, behaving as I’d come to expect
Late winter soundscape in the Sonoran Desert 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
In far northeastern California lies a remote range of mountains known as the Warner Mountains. More than 90 miles long, they hug the California-Nevada border, and just cross into Oregon east of Lakeview. The peaks at the southern end approach 10,000 ft, while those in the north only rise to a little over 8,000 ft.
Exploring the Warner Mountains Read More »
In southern Nevada, a bit more than 100 miles north of Las Vegas, lies a mountain range known as the Quinn Canyon Range. I first became aware of it when I was pondering over some vegetation maps of Nevada, and noticed that this range had an unusually high diversity of trees. Some, such as white
Although I focused most of this summer exploring the Great Basin and its soundscapes, I also dabbled on it’s edges in northern California and southern Idaho. In early June, I detoured a bit from my search for Brewer’s sparrows to check out a small mountain range that borders the northern Great Basin. Waters on the
Spring in the Rockies Read More »
Spring is taking its good old time arriving in northern Nevada, and everything seems a bit behind schedule. I recently headed over to Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge to see how things were progressing. The birds at the refuge were not waiting – they were in full breeding mode, which means making a lot of racket.
Spring arrives at Stillwater Read More »
