Birding Guide - Henry Detwiler
I started birding in grade school one snowy day when my parents bought
a birdseed bell for our backyard in Carbondale, Illinois. Beau- tiful
cardinals, chickadees, and titmice soon arrived to feast on the new-found
bounty, so we bought a Peterson's field guide to ID them. I was
hooked. That spring I ventured out on my bicycle in the surround- ing
farmland and woods to discover wonderful feathered creatures like the
Eastern Meadowlark, the Field Sparrow, and the handsome Scarlet Tanager.
My first overnight field trip was a few years later when I rode along with
some college students to the plains of central Illinois to camp out in a
barn. We arose at 4:00 a.m. the next morning and entered our
blinds. As dawn broke, Greater Prairie Chickens emerged from the
fields and started booming and dancing for us.
The Air Force took me to Oklahoma, where I got my first real taste of the
West, and was treated to spectacular birds like the Scissor-tailed
Flycatcher and Golden Eagle. Two years in the San Francisco
area allowed me to experience the towering redwoods and the Pacific
Ocean. Rarities were a way of life, and on one day I chased and
located a Brambling and a White-tailed Wagtail in the same afternoon. In
1990 I moved to Yuma, half way between San Diego and Phoenix. My
stomping grounds now include two of the hottest birding locales in the
U.S., the Salton Sea and southeastern Arizona. Over the years I have served
as president of the Southern Illinois Audubon Society, as a member of the
Arizona Rare Bird Committee, written bird-finding articles for "Winging
It" and "Birder's World," participated in the AZ Breeding Bird
Survey, assisted with 40 years' worth of Christmas bird counts, and in 2000
we started up Southwest Birders.
My primay focus now is writing bird-finding guides, and I have ones for Southwest Arizona, for Imperial and San Diego Counties in California,
and for Southern Illinois. I don't do any guiding any more, but am happy to assist with your plans to visit our area.
- Distribution: Nests in Yuma, but ranges far and wide throughout the year
- Migratory Patterns: Permanent resident, but may visit the tropics during winter.
- Size: Length 67", wingspan one to two arms' lengths, hat size 7 1/4"
- Calls: "Pish, pish" "hoo, hoo, hoo" "Here birdie, birdie"
- Song: A singularly unmelodic jumble of notes sometimes heard around Christmas time or on birthdays
- Habits: Often observed chasing small birds, but does not appear to eat them
Phone me at 928-287-7666 or send an e-mail to
Henry_Detwiler@yahoo.com
