2008 May 4, from Cedaredge Colorado Hello, Everybody, The past couple of weeks have been intensive birding in SE Arizona, one of the best birding sites in the country. Of the 18 new birds I saw there, half were Mexican rarities which can be seen (in the US) only there, and even there can be hard to find. The new slideshow is 90% birds, a pretty intense dose. My birding mentors Linda & Will Piper from Colorado joined me for a week camping in the Chiricahua mountains, outstanding scenically as well as for birding. We had a nice shady campsite in a nearly deserted and quiet primitive Forest Service campground, with good birding just a short walk away, and many nearby birding places a short drive away. We kept busy but not pushing things, and were happy with a number of new birds as well as many more 'old but beautiful' friends. In SE Arizona there are around a half dozen places with many bird feeders open to the public, some of them B&Bs catering especially to birders, and some of them birders who enjoy being a focus for others (most request a small donation to help offset the cost of feed, but are otherwise free). The feeders really bring in the birds, and it's great to sit in the shade and watch dozens of birds bustling around just a few feet away. The archetype rare bird for the area is the Elegant Trogon; I've missed seeing it twice before, and EV and I missed it during our week there last year. But this year we saw it three different days, very near the trailhead. It sits in the trees calling loudly and raucously, so if you can hear it you can usually glimpse it - - but often it is obscured by twigs and shadows and hard to photograph. I've included a photo of the Elegant Trogon page from a field guide to give an idea of how restricted its range is in the US. Many of the other rarities have similar ranges. We heard from other birders that a fairly rare Elf Owl lived in a nearby tree and reliably emerged at sunset to hunt for the night. So we set up camera and binoculars to watch for an hour and a half, finally glimpsing it peering from its hole as it was getting pretty dark. Pictures were just possible but too dark for good quality, and when it finally decided it was dark enough and the half-dozen harassing Acorn Woodpeckers had mostly given up and flown away, the dark made it impossible to photograph the exit and flight away. The server address is: http://www.meetmarsha.com/john The new slideshow is: 08 04 late April AZ.exe I've also made a little two-photo repeating looping slideshow showing basic PhotoShop improvements in a scenery photo, if you care to look at it. It is Bill2x.exe; remember when you wish to exit you MUST use the Esc key, otherwise it will never quit. Each browser is a little different, but generally you can either choose OPEN to view the show once, or choose SAVE TO DISK and then OPEN if you want to have it your hard drive for future re-viewing. I have used Zone Alarm to be sure the .exe files are virus free, so you can safely ignore Windows's warning about 'dangerous <.exe> files'. Right-Arrow or Right-Click or SpaceBar will advance to the next picture. Left-Arrow or Left-Click will return to the previous picture. Esc will end the show at any time; use Esc if the show ever seems stuck. If you don't have a high-speed Internet connection it's not realistic to download these large files on a phone line please let me know, as it is very easy for me to send them to you on a CD. And if you would like any of the individual images, perhaps to print, just let me know. I have limited space on the server, so must periodically remove older slideshows to put up new ones; let me know if you want me to send you a CD of any of the 'back issues', or of all of them from 2004-2008 along with their accompanying emails, on CDs. And if you don't want to get any more emails like this one in the future, just let me know. If you have friends who might be interested, I'll be happy to add them to my email list and they can download the slideshows. None of this is commercial or copyrighted, the more who enjoy the pictures, the better. Regards, John Armitage 1-970-250-9809