Red-breasted birds and beasts....and one red headed surprise!

For the first time since February 12, the Pileated Woodpecker female showed up briefly at my suet feeder late this afternoon! I managed to grab a couple quick shots before she spooked and flew off.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Robin redbreast (but he wouldn't turn around and show off for me)

And my foxy "red bellied" squirrels!
(pictures through this window sometimes seem to have a hazy look when it is sunny, but the squirrel was too cute to ignore.)

Magnolias and Mockingbirds and other lovely things...

Saucer Magnolias and Bradford Pears are the first 2 trees to blossom here in the spring. I saw this lovely tree about a block from my in-law's house and had to stop for a picture! It was so beautiful and full of flowers. They bloom so early that they often get caught by late freezing spells and the buds freeze un-opened. It looks like this was a good year for them to beat the odds and get to bloom!

With that "evil eye" stare, I don't think anyone will have the nerve to try to take the suet away from him! This Mockingbird must have been real hungry, because he dug in like he hadn't eaten in days.

He was thirsty, too!

This pair just turned their backs on him and kept eating......at a distance.

Molting Goldfinches.....

They really are quite messy looking as they molt! I would love to find the feathers that are being shed and look closely at them. Here are a few of my "Motley Crew" of Goldfinches.

I guess that looking bad, makes them a wee bit "testy", too........looking at the following behavior.

No "fooling"....Spring is coming!

Despite being April Fool's Day, I don't think Mother Nature is fooling and spring is finally here. The "Yellow" season is beginning! Hooray! One brave forsythia bush and goldfinches that are beginning to turn to yellow! I have some daffodils....but I also have rain and don't want to go out and photograph them at the moment :-) I just can't keep posting desert shots when spring is springing all around me!

My other birds are happy to see me back and rewarded me with a few pics at the feeder today.

The Junco and sparrows are beginning to have to look among lovely green new growth for their seeds.....I won't be broadcasting so freely now in the this area, so they may have to try the feeders.

Gilas and other misc. birds from Arizona.....

(Since I am tired of posting about Arizona, I will just slip this in behind my most recent post and if anyone notices....fine.....and if they don't....fine. I did enjoy the Arizona birds and flowers and finally got some quail pictures that I'm happy with and saw many other birds both in the wild and at the Desert Museum.)

The Gila Woodpeckers that visit Dorothy's backyard would like me to stay there all the time and feed them. In the above picture both the male and female came at the same time and they like that double branched tree.....gives them both a trunk to cling to. They often land on that tree and play "peek-a-boo" around the trunk while deciding if it is safe to jump to the suet feeder which I hung from one of its branches.
Sometimes it would land on this post feeder and then leap over to the feeder with the peanuts mix in it. There were many Mourning Doves that visited each day, also. This one was taking a bath and lifting her wings up like this. Maybe it is her way of airing them dry.

I only saw one Lesser Goldfinch. Not a great shot, but at least you can see the differences. The whole head is black and on down the back it is much darker.

I kept trying for a better picture of the Phainopepla, but it never came closer then the very top of a tree in the backyard. This picture shows the general shape and size. You can't see the ragged crest in this pose, but I showed it in another pic. The females are grey.

The Pyrrholoxia didn't pose well either, but here you can see the red "bleeding" on the breast. It looked like a lovely bird, if I could have seen it better! Has a large yellow beak....cracker type.

This is one of the House Finches that has a more yellow or orange coloration. All of the "familiar birds" for me seemed just a little different in the west.

Another soaring bird.....white bands on the tail. This was at Montezuma's Well. There were several birds soaring overhead. There were also ducks on the water of the well and some sort of swallows sweeping up bugs from the air over it.

The following birds were at the Desert Museum in their aviary. This Stilt was one of several taking a nap by the water running through.

I never identified which oriole this is because it was way over my head and I didn't get a top view.....but the color was certainly pretty.

This last one is an Inca Dove....feathers are marked different than Mourning dove. I think they have a sort of "crackled" appearance. The parrott thing in the middle I have no idea about. All at the aviary.