Tucson birds....

I just got back from 10 days in Tucson at my sister's house.  I love sitting out in her back yard watching the birds.  Each day I saw 10 or 11 different species.  I can't decide exactly how to post everything we did, but will start with some of the birds from her yard.  Looking out her front window you see a typical Tucson view .....a  view of the Catalina Foothills mountains and very little vegetation other then cacti and some small trees, and a few wildflowers.

I love getting up early and seeing the sun beginning to light up the mountains.

Her back yard is different.....several nice tall trees and a small grassy area surrounded by a low wall.

All the birds like to come land at the top of the trees.  Here are a few of the birds that visited each day.  

 One of the first birds I always see is the Phainopepla.  This is the male in his black feathers and red eyes.

The female Phainopepla is gray.  They are both very pretty birds with their lacy looking topknots.  They are about the size of Cardinals.

 I love seeing the Gila Woodpeckers.  There is a pair that lives in the Saguaro cactus that you can see in the mountain photo.  They flit back and forth from there to the trees in Dorothy's yard.  She puts out some suet and a little bird seed, but doesn't feed the birds very extensively.  Can't see the head but think this is the female.  The male has a small red spot on the top of its head.

 This was sort of strange behavior to watch.  The female woodpecker picked that spot to hang under the "v" of the branch and hung there for at least 15 minutes.  While she hung there the Phainopepla arrived and then one of the House Finches.  They all seemed very chummy!

Another day, the Gila Woodpecker pair came together to sit on the tree before visiting the suet.  If you don't look too closely the tree looks a bit like a heart surrounding them :-)

 The House Finches in Arizona vary from red to orange to yellow.  This little female was putting on a wing display for the male and he was totally ignoring her.

 " I did my best!".....men!

 I love the Lesser Goldfinches.....similar to the Goldfinches back home but with a dark head.

 The male

Doing a bit of singing.

 This is one of the dullest looking birds.....the Abert's Towhee.  Sort of like a faded female Cardinal.  Usually it is digging around on the ground, but I caught it one day up in the tree singing.  Sounds a great deal like a Cardinal's song, but a little rougher.

 Another treetop singing......the Pyrrholoxia.  It look's similar to a Cardinal female also.

 And of course the Hummingbirds.  This female buzzed around a bit, but I'm not sure what kind it is.

 I think this is the Costa's hummingbird male.

And this one is a Broadbilled Hummingbird male.

Lot's of Mourning doves.  I thought this pair looked very comfortable.  There was a female nesting right outside my bedroom window and she hatched her babies right before we left.  My sister is suppose to keep me informed on their progress.  I could just barely see it one morning as the mother fed it.  Little ball of fluff with a big bill.

My favorite little bird was this Verdin.  A cute little gray bird with a yellow face.  It loved the oak tree and was eating the flowers each day.  It flits around so much, I had trouble keeping up with the camera and it was often hidden in the leaves and flowers.  I will probably post some more photos of it.  There is one on my sidebar from a previous trip sitting in an Acadia tree.

Enough for this post.

Eagles at Mr. Vernon, IN and some of the home birds...

We drove out to Mt. Vernon, IN to Hovey Lake yesterday to see if the eagle's nest was occupied.  It is easy to see the nest at this time of year even though it is about a quarter of a mile across the lake from where we park.  Sorry about the quality of the photos, but at that distance my camera doesn't like to focus too well on auto-focus.  Don't know what I would do without a good zoom lens for these distances.

What a great surprise!  Both adult eagles were sitting in a tree near the nest!  At times like this I really wish I was a better photographer and knew more about how to use my camera, but I'm happy to get anything. 

 After a while  they both flew over to the nest.  I believe they should be starting a family soon, so we will have to go back in a few weeks and check on them again.  The lake around the nest is frozen right now.  I don't know if you can tell in the photo how huge the nest is.  I've got part of it cropped off the bottom.  It must be at least 6 feet deep.  They have been using this nest for a lot of years.

Later one of the eagles flew out to a tree in the middle of the frozen lake.  That brought it a bit closer for photos. 

In another tree on our side of the lake, we spotted this hawk all fluffed up on a branch. 

In the same area some Vultures had landed in the trees and were sunning themselves with wings spread.  There were at least 5 more in the nearby trees. 

One small area of the lake had a thawed spot and there were a group of what I think were swans sitting in the water....about 20-30.  I thought they were Snow Geese at first but then in the photos I could see the longer necks.  This lake is on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, but maybe 10 miles or more down river from the place we go on the Kentucky  side of the river to look at the Snow Geese, so we thought we might see some geese in this area as well.

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At home over the past week when we had snow, I took some photos of the birds at the feeders.

The Blue Jays love to come and get the peanuts I put out.  They stuff their bills with as many as they can get in before flying off. 

Filled to the very tip....guess it's time to fly! 

 The Downy sticks with the suet mostly.

A Mockingbird looking for a few seeds. 

 The female Red-bellied Woodpecker above and the male below.

Oops......an intruder!  Starlings can be so pushy, even the woodpeckers give way. 

One of my squirrels with his tail blowing in the wind. 

The Titmouse will dig a seed out of the bottom of this almost empty feeder even when there are easier seeds to grab on the tray feeder. 

 The Wren looks a bit grumpy.

January's "snow"......Snow Geese!

We drove to Henderson today and looked for the migratory geese.  I think the numbers have gone down the last few years, but there were still a whole lot of geese.

A mix of the Snow Geese 

It was late afternoon and they were all landing in one field fairly close to the road. 

A few coming in for a landing. 

In another field the White Fronted Geese were hanging out together. 

 A couple of eagles in a tree watching the geese.

 My only half way decent sky shot :-)

And there were a few turkeys in another field.  A good day for birding.  Our weather is milder then usual this year so far.  It has been nice to have sunshine most days and the temps aren't too bad.