Second Saturday: Birding in Arizona with Mike Petrick

In late April 0f 2023 Jack Chiles, Nancy Riggs, Terry Good and I (AKA the old buzzards) took an extended trip to Southeastern Arizona. We birded the Mountains, Canyons and Grasslands from Portal all the way around to Tucson. This program is about the unique places and birds that we encountered on the trip.

A bit about Mike:

I developed a love of the outdoors early in life. I was born and raised in Burnet and grew up in the outdoors hunting, fishing and camping. These along with photography continued to be my hobbies or the rest of my life.

I taught in San Angelo for 18 years and in Lewisville for 20 years. The last 8 years of my career I taught outdoor education, which included hunting and boating safety, fishing, camping, Dutch oven cooking, orienteering etc. at Huffines Middle School in Lewisville.

After retiring I needed something to do and I had heard of the Master Naturalist program. I became a Texas Master Naturalist in the class of 2011. Once I became a Master Naturalist I began going on bird walks and field trips and have become an avid birder and bird photographer

I have been able to combine my love of the outdoors, birds, photography and teaching in my volunteering. As an old teacher I love to talk and work with young people. The first thing that I volunteered for was trail guiding at the Heard Refuge. I have since become a trail guide at the Lewisville Lake Environmental Area leading school groups on hikes including leading night hikes. I also volunteer at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge as a tram tour guide and help with the weekly bird census there. Since 2011 I have been able to serve almost 1500 volunteer hours.