A Harris’s Hawk landed in a tree in our backyard. We haven’t had one stop by for months, although I see them soaring overhead. I could hear his call and I spent a bit of time trying to spot him behind branches. The link is to a Youtube video of Harris’s hawks in flight with their sounds. I wouldn’t want to mess with those claws or beak!
This is a compilation of my favorite photos that I took this week.
Papa quail shares the birdseed block with a few of his babies.
A White-winged Dove perches on a flamingo buddy.
Bully bird Curve-billed Thrasher lands on the cactus statue before scaring everyone away from the birdseed block.
An adult House Finch feeds it’s juvenile.
Red watches over the rain meter during a Monsoon week.
This is my first card, second attempt. I’m using the app Canva. I was so excited to receive my first test order of “Red cards” yesterday. But there was something wrong. My excitement soon turned to disappointment.
I thought I had created a folded card with Red’s photo on the front, my logo on the back and blank inside so people can write a personal message. What came in the mail was this:
A flat two-sided card that was blank on the back. No logo. No fold. Not what I thought I had created.
I used Canva AI to help with the layout to make sure I had the pages set up correctly. According to AI, it was ready to go and AI even complimented me on my card!
After delivery, I immediately went to Canva’s website to complain that my cards weren’t printed correctly. Customer service was through a chatbot. What a world we live in! No human beings around. The bot told me that I had selected “Cards” when I should have selected “Folded Cards.” I asked where to find it and was told “Go to Home, click on Print Shop, click on Folded Cards.”
But of course. Silly me. Why didn’t I think of that. Instead, I clicked on Templates. Ugh.
Canva was kind enough to give me an instant refund. After finding “Folded Cards,” I was able to recreate the card properly (I hope) and ordered another small test run. (See first photo above.)
In the meantime, while I wait to inspect round two of test cards, I got my business license, I ordered business cards (with my license number) and I’m creating more cards.
One of my graphic designer friends who encouraged me in this project said, “Next comes your website!”
I’ve tried to stay away from AI, but it pops up everywhere.
Are you finding more and more AI in your daily life? Where and do you use it?
Do you have any suggestions for an easy website app that’s not WP?
We have an abundance of Mourning doves in our yard. It’s a common bird in our Sonoran Desert and throughout the USA and Mexico.
RANGE:
DESCRIPTION (from All About Birds):
“A graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; their flight is fast and bullet straight. Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying. Mourning doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America.”
Mourning doves are medium-sized birds of 9 to 13 inches (23 to 33 cm) in length and weighing between 3 and 6 ounces (85 to 170 grams).
A Mourning dove couple eating birdseed in our backyard. They are monogamous and mate for life, unless one of them dies. Then they will look for another mate. Mourning doves are known to be affectionate with each other and you can see them preening and hanging out.
It’s not unusual to see three flying in a tight formation during the breeding season. The bird in the lead is the mated male. A rival male will be in close second hoping to chase the first male from where he wants to mate and nest. The female, who is mated to the lead male, follows behind.
I cannot tell the difference between the male and females because they look very similar. According to the sources I read, the males are slightly bigger. They have a light blue patch on their head, and a peachy patch on their chest along with iridescent patches on the sides of their necks. The males are supposed to be more colorful, but I have never seen a difference with my naked eyes. I can spot a bit of blue and iridescent patches in my photos.
FOOD AND NESTING:
Ninety-nine percent of Mourning doves diet is seeds. They do eat a little fruit and snails.
In the West, Mourning doves may nest on the ground. In other parts of the country, they build nests in tree branches including evergreen, orchard tree, mesquite, or cottonwood. The male supplies the twigs, grasses or other material to the female who weaves it into a nest.
They have one to two eggs per clutch, but make up the small amount of eggs by having up to six broods per year.
CALLS:
One of my favorite sounds in our backyard is the coo-ing of Mourning doves. You can listen to their calls from All About Birds here:
Male and female House Finches on a cactus in our backyard. The male is the colorful one.
Bird of the Week: CLXXIII House Finch — Haemorhous mexicanus
SIZE: Sexes similar. 5-6 in (13-15 cm); wingspan: 8-10 in (20-25 cm); weight: 0.6-1 oz (17-28 g).
House Finches are a very common backyard bird. They are part of my daily birdwatching. All photos were taken in my backyard.
COLORING:
The males are brightly colored with a red eyebrow and forehead. Their throat and chest are red, lower underparts whitish, with dark stripes on their sides. I remember the first time I saw a House Finch, I was amazed by the bright red color. I was living in Palm Springs, California and saw one during my daily walk to the park. I thought it was some exotic bird, but found out it was a common House Finch.
A male House Finch on our cactus statue made of horse shoes. This is a good example of male coloring.
The females and young House Finches have plain brown faces, blurry stripes all over pale underparts. They’re very easy to overlook in our backyard compared to the males.
A female House Finch on a cactus. Notice the dull coloring compared to her mate.
RANGE AND HABITAT:
Originating in the Southwest United States, the House Finches are now common from coast to coast. I read that in the 1940s, New York pet shops released finches from their cages because it became illegal to sell them. They wanted to avoid prosecution. All these years later, the birds from those pet shops have grown in numbers and thrived.
House Finches can be found on farms, urban areas like city parks, backyards, as well as forest edges across the continent. In the western U.S., you’ll find House Finches in their native habitats of deserts, grassland, chaparral, and open woods.
FOOD:
House Finches are primarily herbivores. They eat seeds, grains, fruits and berries and a smaller part of their diet are insects like aphids. House Finches are regulars at bird feeders and especially like sunflower sees.
NESTING:
House Finches use a variety of sites, such as conifers, palms, cactus, holes in manmade structures, and may search around homes on ledges, window boxes or other safe areas preferring nests about 12-15 ft above the ground. Sometimes they use hanging planters and old nests of other birds. Nests are built mostly by the female. Nests are shaped like an open cup made from grass, weeds, twigs, and other plant material and sometimes with feathers or other debris.
House finches are monogamous through breeding season and the following winter. They may stay together for several years, but also may instead find new mates.
CALLS:
House Finches have an extensive warble and song similar to House Sparrows.
I call the Curve-billed Thrasher the bully bird of our backyard. With their curved strong beaks, they often intimidate other birds and take over the bird feeder. Once in the feeder, the Curve-billed Thrasher uses his beak to thrash back and forth through the birdseed. Most of it lands on the ground where our quail gladly gather.
Without our bird feeder, the Curve-billed Thrasher uses its beak to endlessly overturn ground in a sweeping motion foraging for insects, spiders and other food. This is similar to how they approach the bird feeder. They also eat the fruits and seeds of saguaro, prickly pear, and cholla.
Curve-billed Thrashers live in the desert Southwest of the United States and Mexico.
Map from All About Birds.
A Curve-billed Thrasher perching on a pink flamingo.
Measurements (both sexes):
Length: 10.6-11.0 in (27-28 cm) Weight: 2.1-3.3 oz (60.8-93.6 g) Wingspan: 13.4-13.6 in (34-34.5 cm)
They have strong legs, a curved beak, long tail and bright yellow orange eyes. The Curve-billed Thrashers in our Sonoran Desert are gray, but further south in Texas and Mexico they have lighter chests and are often speckled.
Curve-billed Thrashers mate for life and defend their territories that are five to 11 acres of desert land. They build nests in cholla or prickly pear cactus where the spikes protect them.
This is a Gilded Flicker on our birdbath. I was excited to see I had captured this photo. Maybe I’ll use this in the future for a Bird of the Week challenge that I’m posting on Wednesdays.
I’m out of energy taking care of my husband post surgery. He’s not very demanding, but I’m trying to make things as easy as possible for him. He’s going to Physical Therapy already and I’m driving, which if you read my previous posts, you know is not my favorite thing to do!
For today’s post, I’m using some of my favorite photos I took this week. And I am going to be light on words.
Papa Gambel’s quail with a little one in tow.
Another Harris’s antelope squirrel practicing heat dumping, which is how they cool down. He was close to the window looking straight at me and my camera.
A Brown-Headed Cowbird made his first visit to our backyard. The Mourning Doves seem fascinated with the newcomer.
Our largest cuckoo, this bird is characterized by a long tail, streaked appearance, frequently erected shaggy crest, and a blue and orange bare patch of skin behind the eyes. It is capable of running very rapidly across the ground (15 mph) and rarely flies. Like all cuckoos, the Roadrunner is a zygodactyl bird (it has 2 toes pointing forward and 2 toes backward). –Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Roadrunners are found in Southwest United States and Northern Mexico. They prefer arid semi-arid areas. They do not migrate, maintaining territories in California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and parts of Utah, Colorado, and Mexico.
They eat mostly animals, anything they can catch including rodents, lizards, scorpions, frogs and birds and eggs. Fruit, seeds and other plant material make up for 10% of their diet.
