I hope the weather makes up its mind soon....

I felt rather hopeful about spring when I looked out last week and saw the pond only half frozen.  It's been covered with ice most of the winter so far!

However, the very next day we got cold temps, more ice, and about an inch of snow.  Sigh.

 A Blue Jay looking for peanuts on the icy day.

Mrs. Cardinal sitting by a little icy drip as she looks for seeds. 

Mr. Cardinal ignoring the snow for some sunflower seeds.

 The Downy male wanting to know why I keep putting the suet in this ball. (To try to keep the Starlings and other Blackbirds from eating all of it!)

I see a bit of hopeful black on the Goldfinch's forehead!  Maybe he knows something about spring coming that I haven't observed yet. 

 The Mockingbird

I really like Mockingbirds, even if they do tend to be hoggish at the feeders. 

"I HATE WINTER!" 

No one can look quite so "mean" as Mr. Mockingbird :-)

The Starling and the Mockingbird are both very aggressive over food.  The Starling eventually chased the Mockingbird away.  I had to contend with a small flock of mixed blackbirds eating everything during the cold spell.  I'll be glad when they go back to the fields and away from my feeders. 

According to my Sibley, this is a first summer male Red-winged Blackbird.  Rather pretty at this stage. 

A mostly full-fledged male Red-winged Blackbird.  I see a bit of spotty feathers still on the back. 

 A cold looking Song Sparrow.

 The Carolina Wren

Before the snow fell, I had a White-crowned Sparrow searching for food. 

Showing us his head stripes :-)

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Well, I hope I have photos without snow in them soon.  This has been a cold winter.

Last bird and animal views from Tucson.....

Time to post the last of my bird and animal shots from vacation.  I have scenery shots I may post yet from Sabino Canyon and Mt. Lemon.  Also went to a really neat miniature museum, but that doesn't fit my blog very well.  It is hard to stay concentrated on a vacation once you are back home.

Not an exciting shot, but with a nice variety of birds.  A Black-necked Stilt standing near the water, several sleeping Shoveler Ducks, I think that smaller pair of ducks might be the Teals we saw elsewhere, and on the lower right a Killdeer or two.  These are all hanging around one of the large holding ponds of water from the treatment plant.  I've done some of my best birding at places that are connected to water treatment plants. 

Another shot of the stilt. 

 In the more tranquil ponds surrounded by cat tails in the wetland area, a pair of coots.  The water here is so nice and makes wonderful reflections of everything.

 A female duck cleaning up in front of a little bush/tree.

Snoozing 

Saw this lovely Flicker that was just dying to pose for me!  I love cooperative birds :-)  

After much studying of the head in the bird book, I finally had to decide it was the common  Red-shafted Flicker and not the Gilded Flicker, which I would have preferred.  The color on the head just doesn't seem to go back far enough and the under tail area was more reddish then yellow.

A gorgeous bird, no matter what Flicker it might be! 

Green-winged teal males 

Another....just liked the reflections on this and the one below. 

I believe this is the juvenile Moorhen? 

 Female Ruddy Duck

 Squirrel.....can't seem to find out for sure what kind.  

They have one called the Rock Squirrel, but I don't know if this is it or not.

The squirrels and bunnies are probably what the Bobcat was hoping to find. 

Shoveler male doing some preening. 

Saw the Sora one last time! 

 It is really small.  It went swimming across the water and I almost didn't get its photo.

 Good old Starling.

A turtle! 

 Made me feel right at home.  The turtles here are probably still hiding in the mud wishing spring would come. 

White-crowned Sparrow?

Bobcat stroll at Sweetwater.....

I always get pleasant surprises when I am out birding, and this last trip to Sweetwater certainly provided one!  While walking along looking for birds, I saw Mike frantically waving for me to back up to where he was standing.  Just then a bobcat comes strolling casually around the corner!

They are such gorgeous animals!  But I was concerned that it didn't seem to mind us standing there (very quietly) taking photos.   

It wandered along the edge of the vegetation and we wandered along behind it at a reasonable distance. 

 Isn't the tail cute?

This shot gives you a little perspective on the size of the cat, the very tall cat-tails along the water, and the trees.  They are one of the smallest wild cats....about 32" long on average?

 A look at the ears

After it did a little watching from the edge of this observation platform, it crossed the path we were on and disappeared through a fence.  We watched ducks from the observation platform for a while. 

As we were leaving, I decided to take a photo of the fence....I couldn't believe the bobcat could fit through the holes in the fence.  While looking at the fence and taking photos, I realized that the bobcat was still lying there on the other side under the shade of the tree!  We are standing there looking at it and talking and the bobcat never moved!  Maybe that is a little too friendly for me, but I enjoyed getting the photos!

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We are back in Indiana....not without a great deal of airline difficulty again....but I will be posting a few more Tucson posts before I am done.

A few critters....

A few of the little critters we've seen.

This is the Round-tailed Ground Squirrel. 

 Very cute little guy we saw at Sabino Canyon.

Later there were two waiting outside the same hole in the ground.

 This one looks a lot like a chipmunk, but is an Antelope Ground Squirrel.

 My sister has several that come out to grab some sunflower seeds under the feeder.

"I'm so cute you know you want to feed me lots of food!" 

 And there is always at least one bunny in the yard.

And a lizard came out to enjoy the sunshine.  Don't remember the name of this lizard.

 I even found a couple of butterflies in Sabino Canyon, but don't have my butterfly book with me. (NOTE: Maybe a Sara Orangetip or a Desert Orangetip?)

This looks like a Hackberry Emperor, but western butterflies are different than eastern ones.

(NOTE:  This may be the Empress Leilia, but not being familiar with western butterflies, it could also be the Hackberry Emperor as already noted, which is much more common everywhere.)