Here are a few images from last weekend’s event at the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival.  If you haven’t checked out the Verde Valley in north central Arizona, you should — it’s beautiful green country, with big trees and lots of year-round water like the Verde River, as well as surrounding mountains, good restaurants, hiking trails and birding areas, and amazing archeological sites like Montezuma Castle and Well, and Tuzigoot.  Sedona, Jerome, and Prescott and their amenities are all within striking distance, and it’s all only two hours north of Phoenix and even less from Flagstaff.

The weather last weekend straddled the turn of the seasons, with winter making one last stand in the form of a cold wet storm that left us shivering in the big event tent, and the peaks above Jerome dusted with snow (photo above; by A.Shock).  But warm weather arrived in time for the weekend, which brought out crowds and cottonwood wool alike.

<< Hoarfrost and frozen raindrops on the tent; it was 24F at night!  Brrrr…  (Photo A.Shock)

This is one of the few sales events I camp at, because it’s held in Dead Horse Ranch State Park, just outside of Cottonwood AZ.  Here’s the view from the campground, of Tuzigoot National Monument. The rangers from the Montezuma Castle/Well/Tuzigoot parks complex had their info booth next to mine, and I heard them calling this park “the Goot”.  Unlike in the low desert, where the mesquite are newly green, the bosque in the foreground was still quite bare and gray.  (Photo A.Shock) >>

This made it easy to spot the early-returning migrants, such as this Gray flycatcher.  If you despair identifying Empidonax flycatchers, rejoice in the easy-to-ID Gray, whose gentle downward tail wag is distinctive, along with other field marks such as gray back, bold eyering and wingbars, and yellow lower mandible. (Photo E.Shock) >>

Along with gila monsters, coatis, roadrunners, and lots more, the Three Star Owl booth was positively stuffed with owls, maybe even more than usual.  Below are some owl jars, effigy vessels, whistles, and salt and pepper shakers.

It was a good event for “The Owl”, and my thanks to everyone who came by for a visit, or to take a new treasure home with them.

See you at Southwest Wings in early August!

Later this week is the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival in Cottonwood Arizona.  The event is held each year in Dead Horse Ranch State park, which is OPEN (unlike some other Arizona state parks!).

Three Star Owl will be there, with a pithy assortment of one of a kind, hand made clay items from Gila Monster mugs to Javelina salt and pepper shakers to Hummingbird vases and more!

If you’re in the area, please stop by — there’s an admission fee for entering the state park, but the event is free.  Vending hours — under the “Big Top” are: thursday 22apr 9-5.30; friday 23apr 9 – 5; saturday 24apr 9-5; and sunday 25apr 9-1.

Hope to see you there!

Click HERE for more information.

…but only one came back.

Thanks to everybody who came by Three Star Owl at Wings Over Willcox — the show was a very good one for “the owl”.  Cranes were seen, friends were met and re-met, many clay pieces found good new homes.  And thanks also to the organizers of the Festival, who have a lot of things on their plate: birders to marshall and haul, tables and chairs to account for, vendors to wrangle, and birds to find, just to mention a few of their duties.

And, thanks to Hoover, the African Collared Dove, who once again saw me off from Scottsdale.

An excellent start to the New Year!

(Above, the tails of smoke-fired coatis rising out of bubblepak in a box in the back of the truck, awaiting transport; below, Hoover in the garage, supervising the loading of the truck.  Photos A.Shock)

Three Star Owl is spending this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Willcox, AZ, for the annual Wings Over Willcox festival.  If you’re in the area, stop by the Willcox Community Center, and see what’s up.

(Detail of an oval vessel with a Sandhill Crane repoussé and carved in low relief, 10.5″, stoneware, A.Shock 2009)

…who stopped by to visit Three Star Owl at the Audubon Arizona Gifts from Nature fundraiser and show in Scottsdale this Friday and Saturday.  The rain stayed away, and it was nice to see everyone out and about!  Special thanks to everyone at Audubon Arizona, for once again wrangling a great show!

(photo: smoke-fired coati effigy vessel, photo and piece by A.Shock)

It’s hard to believe that I have to jump right into gearing up for Wings Over Willcox, the Sandhill Crane and birding and nature festival coming up in Willcox, AZ, in the middle of next month (details here)!

Thanks again to you all, and Happy Holidays!

…awaiting pricing and packing for Gifts for Nature, this Friday and Saturday, 11-12 Dec 2009, at the Cattle Track Compound in Scottsdale, AZ (more details here). There seem to be a lot of snouts and tails waving in the air… Hope you can come and see what they’re attached to!

Audubon Arizona’s Gifts from Nature fundraiser.

Save the date!  Coming up quickly on the 11th and 12th of December, at the Cattletrack Compound in Scottsdale:

The Friday evening event is a festive preview and advance sale, with music, hors d’oevres, wine and hot cider.  It’s $25 per person (call for reservations, 602-468-6470 ext. 103). The Saturday public sale goes from 10 am – 4 pm, and has a recommended donation of $4.

There will be lots of local artists and their nature-related artwork – it’s a great place to do your holiday shopping.  Plus, proceeds plus a portion of the artist’s profits go to supporting environmental education and conservation in Arizona. Hope you can make it!  (And, keep your fingers crossed for fine weather!)

The next Three Star Owl event will be after the New Year, at Wings Over Willcox, January 13-17, 2010.

…to everyone who helped make Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival the most successful one yet for Three Star Owl.  Hope to see you there next year.

By the way, if you had your eye on an item before the show, don’t assume it’s not available — please email me.

Gaze upon Sierra Vista, in south eastern Arizona, where the beautiful Huachuca Mountains beetle over the fast food restaurants and motels of the busy town.  Not visible in this shot, but also beetling, is the everpresent and mysterious white surveillance blimp.  One day, I will find out about the white blimp.  Maybe today.

The natural beauty of the region is not far away; below is a view of the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains just north of Sierra Vista.  The landscape here is transitional between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, and is high enough to be more grassland and thornscrub than desert.  But this trail in Kartchner Caverns State Park has ocotillo, agave (in bloom) and barrel cactus, and a mix of desert and arid scrubland birds, like Curve-billed thrasher, Greater roadrunner and Varied bunting.  (Not that I’m seeing many birds — inexplicably, I forgot my binox!  I guess I’ll have to be an artist this weekend, and not a birder…)  The landscape is lush and green, even in a moderate monsoon year.  Most of the rainfall of the entire year falls during the summer monsoon season.

Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival is in full swing and Three Star Owl is in the thick of things. Yesterday was the first day of the Art Fair and Nature Exposition, and lots of people came for the vendors and artists as well as the birds.  Purchases were made: owls, javelinas, black-headed grosbeaks, and gila monsters found nice new homes.  Peek into the Saguaro Room at the Windemere Hotel, and the first thing you see is the Three Star Owl booth.  (Really, why is it always so hard to get a good booth shot?  In person, the set-up looks quite nice.)  My only sorrow is that the hotel hasn’t turned on the twinkle lights buried in the tulle swagging overhead, left over from somebody’s wedding party.

(All photos A.Shock)