There were three of these Harris’s Antelope Squirrels running around our backyard yesterday. They were chasing each other around. It didn’t look like it was friendly either. More of a “this is my territory so get lost” kind of look.
I skipped a day of putting out birdseed, so the birds (and squirrels) went wild when I put out a birdseed block yesterday.
Here are a few photos from the backyard yesterday:
A House Sparrow at the birdbath.
A female Gambel’s Quail on a bench.
A male Gambel’s Quail walking to the birdseed block.
A bunch of quail attacking the birdseed block.
A Mourning Dove jumped into the birdbath and made a splash.
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.
I got quite a few good photos of Red and Mrs. I saw them every single day, but not a glimpse of their fledglings. I wonder if they flew the nest and are living life without mom and dad?
We had an amazing evening with Red. I spotted him on the fence to our courtyard outside our front door. I talked to him, calling “Hey Red.” I went inside and told my husband. He suggested we sit in the courtyard and hang out with Red. We enjoyed the sun with Red flitting above us. Red flew into the tree we were sitting under. He flew to the wall, the fence and back up into the tree, singing to us. He called for Mrs. and she joined our group. We hung out with them for half an hour and finally went inside.
I took this with my iphone, so the quality isn’t that great. But you can see how we got to hang out with our friendliest bird Red.
Here’s one of the photos I took of Mrs. this week. I’m liking this week’s photos because of the clarity of my subject birds (not the ones in the background.) This is thanks to my photographer friend Gary Gruber. He suggested a few weeks ago that I change my settings to a faster shutter speed.
A gilded flicker stopped at the birdbath in the morning light.
A White-winged dove was hanging out for a day.
The resident bully bird, a Curve-billed Thrasher, loves to throw his beak around and intimidate the other birds.
Papa quail with his babies having a word with Red.
I had a first time visitor to the birdseed block. This is Albert’s Towhee. I used his call on my Merlin app to identify him and then went to All About Birds to ID him according to his looks.
I got this closeup of a quail dad’s face and fluffy feathers.
Which photo or photos are your favorites?
What are your weekend plans?
Do you have anything special planned to celebrate July 4th plans?
I was excited to see these “exotic” birds. The color was so beautiful. I called my husband in to look at them. He told me they were pigeons. Oh well. It’s my first pigeon in my backyard.
Off he goes. I didn’t see them again.
Isn’t the color striking?
I spotted a sparrow enjoying the bird bath.
Then he was joined by friends.
The water was flying. Now they must feel nice and clean.
A mourning dove waited for the waves to chill before taking a turn at the bird bath.
A quail walks by the other side of the bird bath. He was not interested in it.
It looks like Mrs. is having a conversation with her reflection in the camera.
Red keeps an eye out for any intruder at the Bird Buddy feeder.
I’m excited for my daughter to arrive soon! She should be here by 10 a.m. today. We’re going to the farmer’s market in Carefree and cooking dinner together. It will be a short visit because she’s flying this morning then driving our second car back to the Bay Area. She’s gone two years carless and has decided to join the world of driving again.
We recommended she buy our car rather than a used car from a stranger. Our car is in excellent shape and has low mileage. She did ask us for the CARFAX history! There are winter storm warnings through the mountain passes for her to get home. I’m worried about that, but she said she’d stay extra days in So Cal if the storm is still a factor.
What are your plans for the weekend? Can you believe we’re almost through the month of February?
This video from my new Bird Buddy feeder begins with a female Gilded Flicker. Then a male, with the red markings on his face, takes over. I see Gila Woodpeckers more than these larger woodpeckers. The flickers have spots while the Gila Woodpeckers have similar colors but a black and white pattern on their backs.
The new Bird Buddy has a longer battery life than my old one. I do have them both up and running, but I have to charge the older one more often — which I did yesterday. The birds seem to prefer the new feeder or maybe it’s the placement? I turned the feeder around because I was getting photos of my neighbor’s house. I don’t know the neighbors to the left of us, but somehow I doubt they’d want me making videos of their yard and posting them on my blog!
This video captures a Gila Woodpecker so you can compare it with the Gilded Flickers above. There are also House Sparrows and Mourning Doves taking their turns. The first two videos are from the new feeder.
These battling Mourning Doves are from my first Bird Buddy feeder. You can notice a difference in the quality of the video. Or maybe the camera needs to be cleaned?
Since I’m in Arizona, I’m keeping track of the missing Nancy Guthrie story. I hope the family gets answers soon!
Red and Mrs.also paid a visit to the new feeder.
What are your plans for this weekend? Are you rooting for the Seahawks?
My first day back home and I was thrilled to have visits by Red and Mrs. They haven’t been fed in the week that we were away, so I was afraid they left. My husband reminded me that they live in the wild. All of our birds have to find their own food — unless I’m home.
Mrs. the cutie pie was first to arrive after I put out the seed block. The seed blocks usually last four days. This one was gone within 24 hours. The birds must have been hungry. The pouring rain didn’t stop them from feasting.
Red and friends munching away.
This wet momma quail was hanging out under a bench to get out of the rain.
Can you see the rain on the barrel cactus spines?
The last bits of the seed block enjoyed by quail, sparrows and Red.
No, the quail aren’t fat, but fluffed up their feathers to protect from the rain.
Red with his House Sparrow buddies braving the rain.
