This House Sparrow was having a splashing good time in the birdbath. Enjoy a few photos of his bath time. I hope they put a smile on your face!
The sparrow paused for a moment so I could take his photo out of the water.
I had fun capturing the splashes and water droplets.
What are your plans for this second week of November?
After weeks of rain, yesterday was a bright sunny day. I enjoyed sitting outside capturing some critters and plants in the bright sunshine, like this Harris’s Antelope Squirrel.
The bees were buzzing in the fairy duster and honeysuckle plants.
Our large croc sat in the sun and shadows filtered through our pergola.
A Curved-Bill Thrasher lands on a barrel cactus.
Curved-Bill Thrashers are the bully birds of the backyard. My husband commented that it’s a good thing they aren’t the size of German Shepherds or we’d be shredded.
Mama quail finding a snack of birdseed. Quail scratch the ground with their feet hunting for food.
This is called a Blue Potato Bush. I liked the light on these blossoms.
A House Sparrow landed on an aloe vera plant.
We have a bouquet of glass flowers by the outdoor fireplace that was left by the former homeowners.
Which photos are your favorites?
What are your weekend plans?
A Verdin drinking nectar in our honeysuckle on the backyard patio.
Verdin – Auriparus flaviceps
I mistakenly identified this little bird as a Lesser Goldfinch the other day in a blog post. A fellow birdwatcher, author and blogger Eilene Lyon of Myricopia told me it’s a Verdin because it doesn’t have the yellowish body. I use the Merlin app to identify birds by their calls. I often have Verdin in my yard and hear them, but this is the first time I saw one and got a photo.
As you can see from the one photo I captured, this little bird is barely larger than a hummingbird. It has a bright yellow head, chestnut shoulder patch and a white body. Originally, I saw hummingbirds in the honeysuckle. I thought I got a good photo of one hanging upside down, but it turned out to be this guy!
Habitat
Verdins reside in arid deserts of the Southwest United States and Mexico. They avoid open spaces and live in washes and areas of desert with prickly thorny plants and trees such as cholla, creosote, mesquite and ironwood.
Food
They eat insects and seeds and fruit from desert plants as well as drink nectar. Aphids, caterpillars, beetles and spiders are a few of the insects they eat. They are also attracted to hummingbird feeders and drink that nectar.
Nesting
The male and female both build their nests, which are six-inch in diameter and a spherical shape. The outside is made of thorns and sticks, while the inside is filled with an inch of soft material like feathers, grasses and plant fibers. The female works mainly on the inside of the nest, while the male builds the exterior. They are not monogamous except through single breeding seasons, but do not stay together all year long.
Location
Calls
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Verdin/sounds
A fuzzy, fluffy Roadrunner. I found out this is a juvenile because of his dark eyes, small crest and yes, fluffy feathers.
With my stressful, busy week that included worrying about my dad in ICU, an Xray, an eye appointment, dinner out with the ladies and two PT appointments, I can’t think straight. That’s why my posts this week consist of photos.
I found photography to be especially soothing and grounding this week. I took more pictures I’m proud of and happy to share. One of my favorite bits of photography is connecting the SD card to my laptop and looking at my captures. I never know what I’ve gotten, because I don’t look at the photos on my camera. I did get one new lifetime bird, so I’ll be working on a “Bird of the Week” challenge next week.
Another photo of the Roadrunner.
The squirrel is a talented climber and somehow avoids the cactus spikes on his tummy.
Mr. Squirrel likes to eat his birdseed on a bench where he leaves quite a mess!
A male House Finch is a pretty red and settled at the birdbath for me to get a few photos.
Which photos are your favorites?
What are your weekend plans?
A juvenile Harris’s Hawk stopped by for a visit. Mostly he was behind leaves in our Mesquite tree so I only got one photo that worked.
I’ve had a stressful week and I’ve found the way I’m keeping sane is being out in nature and photographing my birds and plants. I got a call two days ago that my dad was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The staff at his assisted living found him unconscious in bed in the middle of the day covered in vomit that was black. In case you didn’t know, that’s not a good sign. The second day in the hospital, the doctor gave me a more promising update on his health. He’s coherent and conscious.
Here are a few of my photos from this week:
Harris’s Antelope Squirrel in the morning light.
A Lesser Goldfinch enjoying Honeysuckle nectar.
A Gila Woodpecker likes to eat Cactus Barrel blossoms.
A couple of bee photos.
Which photos do you like and why?
Red has been missing in action for a few weeks, but finally showed up again this week. I also spotted Mrs. but she flew away before I could get a photo. My only disappointment in seeing Red was that my Bird Buddy bird feeder didn’t capture his picture or video. I think Red is standing outside the camera’s range. He’s sneaky that way!
I’m not sure if it’s all the rain that has kept the birds, including Red, at bay. I have heard Red chirping several times, but I wasn’t able to spot him. Also, his adopted fledgling, a Brown Headed Cowbird, is no longer hanging out with Red or Mrs.
I say “what a difference a day makes” because Red’s feathers are grown in. He’s back to his beautiful self.
This photo is from early September when Red was molting. Poor thing. Maybe he was embarrassed to being seen and photographed until his feathers grew back!
But in typical fashion of Red, when I fill the bird feeder, he’s once again the first bird in. He likes to stop by early in the morning and in the evenings. Mrs. is never too far away.
What are your plans for the rest of the week?
There were a few bird photos I took this weekend that made me smile. I never know what I’m going to get until I connect my memory card to my laptop and open up Adobe Bridge. That’s the program I use to view my photos. If I like the image, it gets exported to my laptop. It dawned on me that I should backup my photos on a thumb drive! I have a bad track record with backups. Once I lost an entire novel’s manuscript because I didn’t back up my laptop and files started disappearing. I contacted Apple and they couldn’t recover my files and they suspected it was a hardware issue.
The photo above is a Gilded Flicker and it made the cut.
This House Sparrow at the birdbath was a saver, too.
Here he is getting a sip of water after a rainy day.
I had another visit by a Lesser Goldfinch. I wrote about them for Bird of the Week after my first encounter with this tiny little bird. Here are a few more photos:
This photo gives perspective of the size of Lesser Goldfinch next to a House Sparrow. Prior to seeing Lesser Goldfinches, the sparrow was one of the smaller species we had in our yard.
The Lesser Goldfinch is getting ready to make her move!
There she goes!
I hope you enjoyed my photos today. I welcome your feedback.
Which ones did you like and why?
