These are some of the birds I see from my window when I sit at my computer. Yes, the desert has birds! Actually, birds are warm blooded and live quite comfortably in the desert! I see Anna's hummingbirds, morning doves, the brown towhees (they make a LOT of noise!), and our back yard is part of the territory of a blue kestrel. Isn't he cute? HA! He dive bombs and catches the neighborhood pigeons! He likes to er....eat them...on a branch of a pine tree that is directly out my computer window! I've seen him several times plucking the feathers off a pigeon he has killed. Kestrels are falcons and this little guy is quite the hunter! Our cottonwood has been the home for a family of orioles now for over 20 years and the occasional owl who alights there for the night. I think it is a barn owl, at least that's what I've been told from his "whoo, whooo, whoo"! We also have a roadrunner family in our neighborhood. They are hilarious! They eat lizards, small snakes, and even small birds and baby birds. Our neighbor told me once that one of them was chasing Daisy, our little 5 pound cat, DOWN THE STREET! Go, Daisy, go!!! We used to have California quail in our neighborhood when we first moved in 30 years ago and they are still around here. I DID see one on our front fence about a year ago! Isn't that great? (We DO live IN the city!) I always have plenty of water out for the dogs and cats and the birds enjoy a bath in a pie plate every now and then! Oh, and mockingbirds! The males sing their songs in the evening in May, early June and nearly drive everybody NUTS! We have a family out front and another one in the back yard. UNFORTUNATELY, every once in a while, I find baby mockingbirds that either the cats have caught or have fallen out of the nest and haven't survived. I DID find a baby mockingbird several years ago that my white cat cornered (it must have fallen out of the nest and hit Loki on the head!)...it's cries alerted me to its whereabouts in the grass! I couldn't find the parents or the nest, so I took it up to the Living Desert and they rehabbed it. My school also has a family of orioles that live in the palm trees right outside my classroom pod. A baby oriole fell out this year and some of the kids...well...I just didn't trust them and another teacher and I were able to get it back to its tree (NOT into the nest as it was in the top of the palm tree). Apparently the baby DID survive and flew back into the nest!*** I would like to give credit for the oriole photo to Tales from the Canyon:
http://talesfromechocanyon.blogspot.com/2008/05/western-tanager-and-bullocks-oriole-in.html. This was not my photo! I haven't been able to get a photo of the orioles yet (HA! after 30 years?), but she was able to walk outside among her trees and get that BEAUTIFUL photo! Congratulations! Maybe it will take me another 30 years to get one as nice as that!!! Isn't it beautiful? If you haven't visited her blog yet, please do so! It will be an enjoyable experience!
3 comments:
Birds are my passion. I always love to see what new birds I will encounter every time we move to a different area. I love the mockingbirds and wish we had them up here. Thanks for showing us yours!
We have those Bullocks orioles, too. They nest in pretty darn near the same branch of our oak tree every year. I have snapped quite a few pics every year. :) Maybe I’ll get around to posting some pics on my blog someday soon; or maybe this winter when we need to be reminded of warmer days.
That's beautiful country you have there! I see you do have hummingbirds in your yard.
We have Baltimore Orioles here, but we mostly only see them in the spring. I did manage to get some photos this past spring. They have the prettiest song! Your little Kestral is quite the hunter. He's a beauty!
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