Texas Panhandle
Bird Nerd

What happens when you take six women birders from Amarillo, fly them to Galveston for fall bird migration and put them in a fabulous AirBnB for five nights? Lots of lifers and laughs. Oh, and lots of humidity and mosquitoes.

These jewel-like birds attracted 175 participants to the biennial event held at the rustic High Frontier lodge in Fort Davis. The Trans-Pecos Birds group skillfully organized morning field trips to homes, parks and conservancies where hummingbirds and other West Texas specialty birds could be found. In the afternoons, birding experts gave presentations, and in the evenings, everyone gathered to socialize. The Panhandle Bird Club was well-represented and enjoyed the time toge

A two-week trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks provided us with lots of wonderful wildlife watching, including numerous birds, and magnificent scenery.

Greater Prairie Chicken in Wray, Colorado Even before first light began to creep across the frost-bitten prairie, hysterical cackling and...

With only a three and a half hour drive, Rohn and I are able to put the 100 degree days of an Amarillo summer behind us at Sugarite Canyon.

In which I make the move to a mirrorless camera system for my bird photography--the Nikon Z8 and the 180-600mm lens.

In the fall of 2023, the Amarillo area hosted several rare birds--ones that don't reside in the Texas Panhandle or even migrate through,

Summer in the Texas Panhande brings the joy of watching our local nesting birds produce the next generation. And feed them--over and over.

Black Mesa State Park, only 2.5 hours from Amarillo, provides a unique birding experience, as well as archeology, dark skies and history.

I spent three days in December 2022 at the Festival of the Cranes birding festival at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Long-billed Curlews are the largest shorebirds in North America. They are easily recognizable by their size and their crazy downturned...

Bald Eagles are nesting in the Texas Panhandle in the 21st century, which they haven't done since 1916.

Photographs of interactions between an intruding Swainson's Hawk, two fierce Western Kingbirds and an Orchard Oriole on a Texas backroad.

On Mother's Day 2022, I got to be self-indulgent (I couldn't celebrate with my adult son until the next weekend), so my unending quest...

After a long winter and an extremely slow start, spring migration is finally bustling at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. While the...

Birding and business in the Texas Panhandle were the topics of discussion between Jason Boyett and me on the Hey Amarillo Podcast.

Whooping Cranes were the big thrill of a Spring Break birding trip to Rockport, Texas, but many other beautiful birds were also spotted.

Some birds, like Ferruginous Hawks and Bald Eagles, only spend the winter months in the Texas Panhandle.

A five-day photo workshop at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge provided me with 100's of inspiring pictures of nature.

Photographing landscapes on the flat plains of the Texas Panhandle is challenging, but Palo Duro Canyon and our big skies help.

A juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk made a photogenic meal out of Prairie Rattlesnake.

Northern Harriers soar over the agricultural fields of the Texas Panhandle all year, but they are particularly populous in our area...

Tips for Better Photography is a presentation both by video and PowerPoint slide show that provides six easy tips to taking better pictures.

The Texas Panhandle was one continuous prairie dog town once upon a time. Observers in the 1870's commented on the endless burrows and...

Red-headed Woodpeckers have found something they really like at McClellan Lake in Gray County (just off I-40 near McLean). I don't know...

As much as I love photographing colorful Painted Buntings in the summer or energetic Yellow Warblers in the fall in the Texas Panhandle,...

For a new birder, one of the most difficult challenges is figuring out where to find interesting birds to watch. Over the last two years,...

Anette Carlisle, education guru and fellow birder, invited me to share a little about Texas Panhandle birding and my now two-year old...

Eighty-nine species of birds showed up on Saturday, December 19, 2020, to be counted by 15 local birders in the 121st Audubon Christmas...

Since April, we have happily followed the adventures of a pair of nesting Cooper's Hawks in our suburban front yard in Amarillo.

eBird makes birding more fun and lets me participate in citizen science, treasure hunting, and scrapbooking all while learning about birds.

A cool fall morning in northeast Potter County marked the early stages of very long journey for the dozens of Swainson's Hawks that I...

At the beginning of June, birding in the Texas Panhandle slows down and can seem a little, well, monochromatic. The migratory birds are...

Quick! If you are a birder, what kind of hawk is this? This picture is from my front yard in Amarillo, taken on May 9, 2020. You can see...

For two weeks in April, the animals had the 26,000 acres of Palo Duro Canyon State Park to themselves and they quickly staged a takeover.

As many as a dozen Bald Eagles call Amarillo home during the winter months, but they can go unnoticed unless you know where to look for them

Rohn and I spent the weekend in New Mexico at the birding dream location, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

A beautiful, buff-colored bird has sparked birdwatcher's interest in Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge this winter. The juvenile...

For 120 years, birders have been trudging out into fields, lakesides, mountains and beaches as citizen scientists to record the types and...

While huge flocks of blackbirds are not uncommon, particularly in agricultural settings, I was startled in early October 2019 by more...

While I was visiting my big brother, Steve Hart, in Lakewood, Colorado, he created a small birding sensation when he spotted a Varied...

Playa lakes provide water, food and shelter to migratory and local birds and have become one of this bird nerd's favorite destinations....

A herd of fascinating non-native North African barbary sheep roam the canyon, but they are seldom seen in the state park. The sheep (who,...

The Texas Panhandle is just a blank canvas on which God paints a new masterpiece every day. Growing up in Arlington, Texas, I thought...

The bird blind at Palo Duro Canyon State Park yields a treasure trove of interesting local birds.

Only 10% of Ferruginous Hawks are dark morphs, so I felt lucky to see this beautiful guy in northeast Amarillo. On the west side of NE...

Someone needed to tell this bird it was the middle of November and he wasn't supposed to be here. I was birding at Palo Duro Canyon State...