Welcome to The Verdin News

Verdin, courtesy Paul Richards

Kendall Kroesen
Urban Birder, Tucson Arizona

This is the first installment of The Verdin News. It documents a year, perhaps longer, of birding in Tucson, Arizona. The name comes from the ubiquitous and delightful verdins that inhabit Tucson gardens.

I hope those from outside Tucson will enjoy learning what it is like to bird here and that Tucsonans unfamiliar with our wildlife will amazed at what can be seen.

Part of my quest is to see a lot of bird species in 2014, but this is not a "big year" so much as an experiment in communicating what it's like to watch birds in Tucson. Birding here is graced by high bird diversity, wonderful birders and the fun of birding in new corners of our sprawling metro area. I want to communicate that.

However, I am curious how many species the average birder can see in and near Tucson in a single year. I think of myself as an advanced intermediate birder, and I think that it will be possible for "the average birder" to see what I see in a year. Since I won't chase every rarity, some may see more. I chase the feeling I get when birding.

This blog as adjunct to my job as Urban Program Manager at Tucson Audubon Society. In that job I promote awareness of wild birds, improve bird habitat, restore urban streams and mitigate threats to birds. I will use this blog to promote awareness of birds but I will do it on my own time. I sometimes post on the Tucson Audubon Blog as well.

I do not have a good camera but I will try to document at least some sightings by borrowing cameras from my workplace, digiscoping and mooching photos from others. Paul Richards, whom I met yesterday on an Audubon field trip, kindly provided the photo in this post. I enjoy how strangers can quickly become friends and collaborators.

I am inspired in this endeavor by other bird-related blogs, generous fellow birders in Tucson and people like David Lindo, The Urban Birder. Lindo says "Anything can appear anywhere at any time" (www.theurbanbirder.com). That is one of the charms of birding. You cannot exactly predict what you will see. The only thing for sure is that if you don't look, you won't see anything.

Birding is when I most often experience mindfulness. Akin to meditation, I think of mindfulness is a state in which I am thinking of nothing but am open to anything. Since anything can appear anywhere at any time, that is a good match.

Join me to experience the birds, and birders, of Tucson. I am starting today, January 12, 2014, but in subsequent posts I will document experiences earlier in the year until I catch up.