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MS Student at University of Arizona
"If good things lasted forever, would we appreciate how precious things are?"- Hobbes
Birder🐧 French Horn📯

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Ode to a Salt Pond: Original Composition by Cameron Tescher

From September 2023 to February 2024, I was working in the San Francisco Bay of California doing bird surveys of salt ponds. Through observing the thousands of ducks, shorebirds, gulls, and other species, it inspired me to write a piece based on the feeling of the pond based on the birds and atmosphere. From September 2023 to February 2024, I was working in the San Francisco Bay of California doing bird surveys of salt ponds. Through observing the thousands of ducks, shorebirds, gulls, and other species, it inspired me to write a piece based on the feeling of the pond based on the birds and atmosphere around me.

It would mean the world to me if you checked it out!

Youtube link to the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USl_7G4fb2Q
MuseScore link to the piece: https://musescore.com/user/34885724/scores/14755999 by @clam_tescher

Invasion of the Nutcrackers! Pic: Mt Bigelow Road near Mt Lemmon, Pima, AZ. Date: 10/25

Fall 2026 and the upcoming winter of 2027 is well defined in the western United States for birders as a massive irruption for species such as the Clark's Nutcrackers. These birds are usually found in the montane regions in western United States and Canada. In Arizona, these birds are primarily only found in the northern parts of the state in the Mongollon Rim and White Mountains. This year, due to the failure of pine crops such as whitebark pine, many of these birds are dispersing away from their home ranges in the mountains to search for food. They have shown up in unprecedented numbers well outside of their home ranges. This is not just in large numbers in the Sky Islands of Arizona, which despite being out of range, it still represents coniferous forests, but even in across the Great Plains as far east as Wisconsin and several birds showing up on the Pacific coast with one bird seen in the open ocean miles off the coast of California! In the Sky Islands where this photo was taken at, though they are infrequent rarities, numbers as high as 200 (in Mt Graham) have been reported (beating the high count of these birds even in their home range!). I reported approximately 24 of these birds including groups flying directly in east with these perched birds much further west looking for food. I am curious to learn more about how these birds populations might respond after this winter and the upcoming years with the El Niño and climate change. Not going to lie, I am more than concerned for these birds and if their populations continue to be steady, but it is still such a unique site to see them scattered across these regions in the country! by @clam_tescher

As part of the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch Fellow Webinar Series, Max Roberts presented last week "The Biology and Conservation of the Chiricahua Leopard Frog in the Madrean Sky Islands of Southeast Arizona." 🐸 Check it out here or the link in our bio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG_oKeqzsBo

☀️ There is still one more installment in this lunchtime webinar series! Join us this Friday, September 25, from 12-1 p.m. MST (Arizona time) to hear “Grassland Birds and Mesquite Encroachment: Literature Review and Avian Response to Mesquite Removal in the Santa Rita Experimental Range,” presented by Cameron Tescher

Register here or link in bio: https://buff.ly/hZn1BrG by @clam_tescher

Its a Flowery Summer! What a wonderful summer filled with all kinds of fun and Jarona!!!🌸 by @clam_tescher

Botteri's Sparrows are much more than "little brown birds"

People travel to Southeastern Arizona for many birds that are found nowhere else in the country. I often hear how people want to see the elusive Coppery-tailed Trogon, the vast numbers of hummingbirds including those that tower over others in its family such as the Rivoli's Hummingbird, and the vagrant birds that will every so often cross the Mexico border into these sky islands. One bird I don't hear people mention as much is the Botteri's Sparrows. Most of the birds range in the United States is in southern Arizona with only a sliver of its range also in very southeast Texas and southwest New Mexico making it one of the specialty birds in this region. However, due to its drab color and more secretive nature, I think these are an incredibly underrated bird in the region. These obligate grassland birds (or requiring grassland ecosystems to survive) breed in areas of grasslands/ mesquite grasslands. When entering the grassy areas upslope from the deserts, you begin to hear these birds signaling the ecosystem change. Their song is probably one of the most unique of other sparrows in the country. It gives short phrases one after another building to a finale of a ping-pong ball song similar to that of a Black-chinned Sparrow or Field Sparrow. Also, I have heard people calling this bird "drab" and "unappealing". As someone who appreciates the beauty of each bird, I find the blotchy back patterning quite beautiful on this bird. I would also highlight my favorite feature, the yellow feathers along the bend of the wing that stretches out on the tips of the last primaries. You can see this yellow patch well on these photos. I get very excited when I get good views of this feature as it gives the brown a great amount of contrast in just a small part of the bird. Plus, I can name few other birds that have such a contrast. The only one I can think of in the state in Arizona is the Cassin's Sparrow, another grassland bird found in similar habitats that have a loud melodic song and can be seen skylarking (I should make another post dedicated to this bird when I have better photos). Truly an underrated bird of AZ! by @clam_tescher

I just presented my research on mesquite encroachment and their impact on bird communities on the Santa Rita Experimental Range at the American Ornithological Society conference in Amherst, Massachussetts. It was my first large conference presenting such work and so happy to have many people showing up to my project. I would like to thank many of the collaborators who made this possible, Delaney Linn who did an amazing job on the art, and my advisor Dr. Courtney Duchardt for collaborating together on this massive project. Such work will help land managers in southwestern USA and northern Mexico know what bird species might be impacted by the effects of mesquite encroachment and removal for land managers as we help restore grassland habitat from woody invasion in the region. by @clam_tescher

Come with me as I move through the stages of FOMO. Didn't think I'd be on such an emotional roller-coaster before 7 am. by @clam_tescher

I've been trying to take more pictures of me being unapologetically me this year... I think it's working well! by @clam_tescher

Spring of Herps

Despite southern Arizona being a key spot for birds, it is well known for its massive diversity of herps (reptiles and amphibians). Not knowing much about reptiles or amphibians, I became immersed with these desert critters and learned so much from so many people at University of Arizona. Shoutouts to my deskmate Max Roberts (not on instagram), a passionate herper who teaches me much of the diversity in the region. Without him, I wouldn't see much of these cryptic species such as my most wanted rattlesnake, the sidewinder! Also, honorable shoutouts to all the other fellow undergraduates and graduates who taught me so much. People like @olakers_backyard_biology and @mccardellmalachi have really taught me how to enjoy these wonderful species in the region. Hope you enjoy a good array of reptiles (and one amphibian) I have seen this spring! (In order, Longnose Snake, Gila Monster- only venomous lizard in United States and one of a couple in the world!, Sonoran Coral Snake, Tiger Rattlesnake, Western Threadsnake- yes that is their size, Black-tailed Rattlesnake, Spotted Leaf-nosed Snake, Glossy Snake, Sidewinder, Regal Horned Lizard, Long-nosed Snake, Western Banded Gecko- my favorite herp in Arizona!, Red-spotted Toad, Sonoran Lyre Snake- what a derp!!!!, Desert Spiny Lizard (accidentally called it Clark's, whoops), Checkered Garter Snake, Tucson Kingsnake, Greater Earless Lizard, and did I mention I love geckos?) by @clam_tescher

Lots of people go to Saguaro National Park west to see the massive cacti standing as tall as multiple people stacked together. However, the other half of Saguaro National Park includes a vast wilderness that encompasses one entire mountain. Just on the opposite side of Tucson as the Santa Catalinas where much of us have heard of or been to Mt Lemmon on a day trip, you would need to hike into the Rincon Mountains. For an (early) bday trip for myself and my dad, we wanted to do a big hike and I got him to check out the Rincons. Starting the trail in riparian/ mesquite, camping in alligator junipers and pinyon pines, and summiting up Rincon Peak (around 8500 feet), it was a perfect opportunity to explore this beautiful sky island. A few photos include some beautiful nature scenery, camping shenanigans, cool species such as Olive Warbler and Arizona Mariposa Lily, and the final photo being a wink and a nod to my Central Valley college peops on controversial species that need to be protected. by @clam_tescher

$Hundreds and Hundreds of Endangered Birds Ever since I started getting into birds in middle school, I was captivated with the story of the Passenger Pigeon... a bird that was once so abundant, flocks of them would blacken the sky, now they are extinct. This was a tragic story as these birds in the 1800s were so common, they were hunted throughout. I find the Tricolored Blackbirds being the Passenger Pigeons of California. Though not extinct, their populations have declined to a tiny fraction to what they once were. These are the largest colony forming land bird in North America. Not even 100 years ago, they formed colonies up to hundreds of thousands throughout mostly California but also neighboring states such as Oregon, Washington, and Baja California. They have declined 95% since mainly due to habitat loss from agriculture conversion now being listed as endangered. Many of these birds are still at risk, including at this spot in Solano which is near the proposed California Forever project, a possible (once failed but being repurposed) ballot initiative, funded by tech billionaires such as Trump mega donor Marc Andreessen, that will destroy much of the grassland, vernal pool, and wetland habitats these birds rely on for a "super-city". Yet for as long as these birds are still here, being able to witness a colony is magical. Hearing the cacophony of their harsher sounding songs (even more raspy than their cousins, the far more abundant Red-winged Blackbirds) with dozens of males singing at once is an iconic part of Central Valley birding. In this video, not only you can see this beautiful view, but see blurry blobs of other of these colony nesting birds coming in and out of a frame and the endless noise of the multitude of blackbirds singing. Video: Rio Dixon Road, Solano county, California by @clam_tescher$

"When people say Arizona's deserts are brown..."

The lies I hear when people say deserts have no life. After the recent rains, while birding in Ironwood Forest National Monument in the Avra Valley with Arizona, I was fascinated with the bloom of globe-mallows and as shown here, the creosotes. Seeing the scattered clouds and flocks of Mountain Bluebirds (male shown here) out here, I was amazed with having the lighting to present this photo. From the superblooms in spring, the riparian areas with a smattering of migratory birds from all times of year, and the late summer monsoonal nights of insects, reptiles, and amphibians that you don't think are real (let alone being north of the tropics in the United States), if people say deserts are not full of life, they should take an opportunity to explore the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona! by @clam_tescher

Cameron Tescher

@clam_tescher