Difficulty: Easy (Just over a mile walking on excellent surfaces.)
Join Rich Bailowitz, author of the “Field Guide to the Damselflies and Dragonflies of Arizona and Sonora” at this artificial wetland perfectly situated for a wide variety of dragonflies and damselflies. We’ll also come across some great birds too! Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 20 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 12 participants.
Image by Kendall Kroesen
Difficulty: Moderate (Some mild slopes and a mixture of rocky, sandy, and road surfaces.)
This state park on the northwest side of Tucson sits adjacent to the western slopes of the Coronado National Forest’s Santa Catalina Mountains and contains a good mixture of desert scrub, mesquite bosque, and riparian vegetation. Join podcasters Hannah and Erik Go Birding and explore these habitats which support a varied mix of bird species including Brown-crested Flycatcher, Rufous-winged Sparrow, and Northern Cardinals. $10 parking fee. Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 40 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.
Rufous-winged Sparrow by Jim Burns
Difficulty: Easy (Flat walking surfaces, with less than two miles covered)
Lakeside Park in southeast Tucson is a great place to get to know your urban birds and it’s possible to get some early fall migrants as well. Join Tucson Bird Alliance volunteer field trip leader, Christina Klock, on an outing designed for those just getting into birding. We’ll explore the lake and the adjacent lawns and ball fields with likely sightings including Black-crowned Night-heron, hummingbirds, Vermilion Flycatcher, Cooper’s Hawk, and swallows. Drive time to park and meeting location is about 15 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.
Black-crowned Night Heron by David Kreidler
Have you ever “woken up” in the middle of a bird photography outing only to realize your internal dialogue is louder than the symphony of birdsong around you? Between the pressure to capture competition-worthy images and the uncontrollable movements of our feathered friends, bird photography can feel more stressful than soothing. With all the gear and technical settings, and the unique challenges of fast-paced bird photography, is a mindful approach even…possible?
During our Gentle Gaze photography excursions, your guide, Susan J. Preston (often in partnership with mindful birding network facilitator, Dr. Holly Thomas) will create a supportive, non-judgmental environment with a focus on embodied presence and wonder as antidotes to fear and artistic (and birding) perfectionism. Please join us for a chance to explore the gifts of paying attention with a reverent and creative approach to bird photography that can be applied to any area of your life!
Please note that this is not a technical workshop, so be sure to bring a camera that you are familiar with to prevent equipment-related distractions during our time together. We encourage both advanced and amateurs to join us. All that is really required is an open heart. If you have any questions please be in touch with Susan on Instagram: @susanprestonstudio or BosqueWinterWings.com.
Abert’s Towhee by Lois Manowitz
Difficulty: Easy (Flat walking trails in the city park)
Have you ever experienced the joy of birding without binoculars hanging around your neck or packing a camera? Join Rick Wright at Fort Lowell Park, one of the locals’ favorite birding destinations in Tucson, to experience birding in a new way. Optics, including cameras, are absolutely prohibited, on pain of possible mockery. Instead, let’s test our ears and eyes and memories by getting to know some of our commonest desert birds without technology, focusing instead on all the little clues that can help us identify birds without the need to see fine details. Drive time to the meeting location from the festival venue is about 10 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.
Vermilion Flycatcher by David Quanrud
Difficulty: Easy (some mild slopes–mostly flat ground and good surfaces)
For visitors and those new to the Sonoran Desert, Tohono Chul’s easy-walking trails and gardens provide close-up looks at many of the desert specialties. Of the more than 500 bird species that spend time in Arizona during the year, 140 are known to have visited Tohono Chul, and on any given morning you might see up to 15 species here. All year long you can watch our state bird, the Cactus Wren, flit from cactus to tree and back again, chattering as he goes. Observe the Curved-billed Thrasher, with its saucy two-part whistle, scrabbling on the ground or nesting in cholla cactus. Enjoy our two year-round resident hummingbird species, Anna’s and Costa’s, as they dart about, feeding among the many colorful flowers. And be sure to look upward for a glance of our majestic Cooper’s Hawks, a pair of which has nested in the gardens for each of the last four years. Meet at the Tohono Chul Admission Window. Limited to 10 participants.
Costa’s Hummingbird by Francis Morgan
Difficulty: Easy (some mild slopes–mostly flat ground and good surfaces)
We’ll visit Mission Garden (at the base of “A” Mountain) which revives Tucson’s history through garden plots representing four millennia of multicultural and gastronomic history. Find some of the same birds that have been visiting Tucson gardens for 4,000 years! Drive time to the meeting location from festival venue is about 15 minutes. Limited to 10 participants.
Cactus Wren by Mick Thompson
Difficulty: Easy (mostly flat ground and good surfaces)
Located on the site of the historic Porter property, Tucson Botanical Gardens (TBG) is a five and a half acre collection of 20 gardens in the heart of Tucson, Arizona. A true urban oasis, Tucson Botanical Gardens was selected #4 in USA Today’s 10Best Botanical Gardens Readers’ Choice Awards, 2 years in a row. 20 curated gardens including the Cactus & Succulent Garden, Barrio Garden, Zen Garden, Bird Garden, and many more, showcase a diversity of plants both native and those you wouldn’t expect to see in the Sonoran Desert. Drive time to the meeting location from festival venue is 10 minutes. Limited to 15 participants.
Broad-billed Hummingbird by Greg Lavaty
Are you a birder and would like to learn more about your camera and how to capture your own photos? Join professional Nature Photographer Krisztina with KS Nature Photography for a casual session of birding with the added bonus of photography. This program is open to all ages, birders, photographers, and anyone who would like to learn more about the birds and about basic camera techniques for bird photography. Bring your binoculars and any camera, if you like (point and shoot, DSLR, Mirrorless – and any lens). To read more about Krisztina, please visit www.KSNaturePhotography.com. Specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 12 participants.
American Kestrel by Krisztina Scheeff
The McNew Lab studies disease ecology of birds and their parasites and pathogens, and this will be your chance to see this work in action. This research specifically investigates associations between birds in ticks in the region, so we will be mist-netting and banding birds, checking them for attached ticks, and taking small blood samples to test for tick-borne diseases. The working group will demonstrate the techniques that are being used and discuss the research. We’ll meet at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds and specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Drive time to the meeting location from the festival venue is about 70 minutes. Limited to 10 participants.
Northern Cardinal by Mick Thompson