Archives: Festival Events

Difficulty: Easy. Mostly flat ground and good walking surfaces. Bathroom and water on-site.

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.

Abert’s Towhee, Greg Lavaty

Difficulty: Easy. Paved pathways and bathroom/water on-site.

Join keepers at the Reid Park Zoo for a tour of the South American and Flight Connection Aviaries, as well as visits to the flamingo and Abdim stork habitats. Please be prepared for moderate walking in the heat. Participants will meet keepers at the Zoo’s main entrance at 8am. Includes zoo entry fee. Limited to 15 participants.

Difficulty: Easy. Paved pathways with benches but there is some steeper incline. Bathrooms/water on-site.

Join docent and bird guide, Michael Sadat, for a guided bird walk around the beautiful grounds of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The Desert Museum is ranked on TripAdvisor.com as one of the Top 10 Museums in the country and also is home to many Sonoran desert specialties such as Costa’s Hummingbird, Gilded Flicker, and Pyrrhuloxia. Entry fee of $29.95 not included. Limited to 10 participants.

Pyrrhuloxia by Michael Sadat

Difficulty: Moderate. Mostly flat walking trails on some uneven and rocky terrain, about 2 miles total. Bring 1 to 2 liters water. Bathroom on-site.

One of the best known U.S. birding hotspots with tall cottonwoods and willows lining a perennial stream. Open fields, mesquite bosque and a cienega compound the habitat diversity that make it a birding paradise. Listen for the Gray Hawk’s whistle in the cottonwoods while looking for Common Ground Dove, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Thick-billed Kingbird, and more. Please bring $8 per person for Nature Conservancy fees. Be prepared to wear chigger protection. Drive time to the meeting location from the festival venue is about 70 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand.  Limited to 10 participants.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Martin Molina

Difficulty: Moderate. Mostly well groomed walking trails but may have some incline and may be on some uneven and rocky terrain for about 2.5 miles roundtrip. Bathrooms on-site. Bring 2 liters of water.

We’ll bird Sabino Canyon Recreation Area walking a loop that includes both Sonoran desert upland and Sabino Creek riparian area. Gila Woodpeckers, Purple Martins, and Cactus Wrens should be readily seen with other desert and riparian birds. Meet at the ramada by the Visitor’s Center at 5700 N Sabino Canyon Road. $8 parking fee. Return to car by 9am. Sunhat, water and walking shoes always recommended. Leaders are Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists. Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 25 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.

Purple Martins, Henry T McLin

Difficulty: Moderate. Flat walking surfaces, mostly packed dirt around the lake, with less than two miles covered. Fairly exposed so wear sun protection and bring 1-2 liters of water. Bathroom on-site.

This city park on the west side of town hosts two lakes, Silverbell and Archer Lakes, that provide habitat for herons, Neotropic and Double-crested Cormorants, a resident Snow Goose, hummingbirds, kingbirds, Lazuli Buntings, and more. Vermilion Flycatchers are all over the place and the water resources bring a variety of other bird species to the park. Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 20 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand.  Limited to 10 participants.

Vermilion Flycatcher, Greg Lavaty

Difficulty: Moderate. Around two miles roundtrip on soft sand surface. No restrooms or drinking water available.  If there has been recent rain the wash may have standing, or flowing water and we may change our location.

This major wash flows west from creeks that drain from the northern side of the Rincon Mountains and provides diverse riparian vegetation for a variety of bird species. We will head downstream along the north side of the wash, first checking the brush for Lark Sparrow, Abert’s Towhee, Lazuli Bunting and more, then continuing to the large cottonwoods for Gray Hawk, woodpeckers, flycatchers, and warblers. Sunhat, water and good walking shoes are recommended. Drive time to the meeting location from the festival venue is about 30 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 10 participants.

Gray Hawk, bryanjsmith

Learn about simple ways to use spotting scopes to take beautiful images of the natural word with Jeff Bouton of Kowa Optics! Today, birders have a wealth of excellent spotting scopes available to them, and the state-of-the-art in smartphone computational photography means that birders can take photographs that are near-DSLR quality in a portable, easily shareable format. Meet at Reid Park, which is close to the festival headquarters for a field workshop designed for hands-on work and problem solving for anyone just getting started. Vermilion Flycatchers, Neotropic Cormorants, and Broad-billed Hummingbirds will be on our radar for digiscoping! Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is less than 5 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. Limited to 12 participants.

Neotropic Cormorant, David Quanrud

Difficulty: Easy. Flat walking surfaces in a city park, with less than two miles covered. Bathrooms on-site.

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 the fabulous Kathe Anderson, who is one of the best birding teachers around, 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.

Broad-billed Hummingbird, Shawn Cooper

Difficulty: Easy. Not a lot of walking, and all flat excellent walking surfaces.

To extend the classroom portion (which you have to sign up for separately), join Krisztina Scheeff in the field for a hands-on, real action photography lesson to put those skills you learned to work. The two hour field portion will truly test your patience and birds in flight photography skills but it will be a lot of fun and you will come away with added skills on how to photograph birds in flight! Bring a camera, and a tripod or monopod if you like. The field portion is suitable for bird photographers (beginners, advanced, and anywhere between), but cell phones won’t work for this workshop. Will hold this workshop either at the DoubleTree festival venue or at nearby Reid Park. Specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand. To read more about Krisztina, please visit www.KSNaturePhotography.com. Limited to 15 participants.

American Kestrel by Krisztina Scheeff