Urban birds....

I think that the House Sparrow Passer domesticus, must be the most adaptable bird living in America.  Originally introduced from overseas, it is now the most widely seen bird in cities in America from shore to shore.  You find them everywhere you find people and food.

On a recent trip to Texas, I observed them in several places, making their homes among the people and the city landscapes.

Our first sighting was the pair that decided to live in the LOVE'S sign where we stopped to get gas and food. 

They had built a nice nest in the opening of the "e" and were busy courting while people wandered in and out of the doors right below them. 

 Making "love" at the LOVE'S.

 I have seen signs on buildings at this time of year that have a nest in every nook and cranny of the letters.  As long as the business owners don't clear them away, they happily go about their lives in the middle of the most public places they can find.

The second encounter was at the parking lot next to our motel

 In this parking lot of a Chinese restaurant, a small flock of House Sparrows had found an empty ice cream cone and were determined to eat as much of it as they could.  I think this group were nesting in the dense landscape bushes around the restaurant.  You see them outside of any fast food restaurant picking up stray french fries, dropped pop-corn or other goodies.  Makes you wonder if they ever get any healthy food!

"What!....no ice cream?"

My third photos came from another gas station on the way home.  A pair were busy setting up house-keeping in the housing around a security camera mounted on the building.  A camera on the other corner of the building also had a male hanging around.

I saw the female fly in and out of the housing a couple of times while the male sat there and chirped away, so I assume her nest is safely tucked in the back of the housing.

 This is typical behavior of these birds.  Any store sign, any crevice, any light housing, any vent on a building becomes a prime nesting site for them.  My favorite Mexican restaurant has a pair in every light mounted in the eaves of the building.

When they live away from the cities, they are aggressive at home feeders and drive away a lot of other songbirds.

Spring is on the way...

I was trying to post some photos on Facebook, but it would not cooperate, so I will just put them here instead.  The weather was warmer today.....got up to 70!  So, I'm trying to get more walking in and we decided to go to the wetlands and see if the turtles were coming out yet.  

There aren't as many good turtle logs in the creek area any more for them to sit on, but the one long log that remains was pretty full and a couple of smaller places. 

  Saw quite a few, but I know there will be many more in the weeks to come as it gets warmer. 

 "Is she taking our photo now?"

Nobody home in this shell any more.

 There were several pairs of Canada geese swimming around.

 We saw a lot of nice trees damaged by beavers.  I hope they are doing something to control them.

 There is an old hawk's nest that we always look for before it gets too hard to see in the foliage.  This Red-shouldered hawk was on a nearby limb, so I hope that means it is his nest.

Looking forward to more warm weather soon and better signs of spring!  It's close!

Squirrel of a different color....

For years we have had dozens of Fox squirrels to watch and for me to photograph, but now at our new residence, I also have a little Gray Squirrel.  They are smaller and I think their coloration is very pretty.  I'm thrilled to get to watch this little squirrel.  I still have Fox squirrels and they are aggressive, so they tend to chase this one away from the feeders, but I got some good shots the other day right outside my window.  See my previous post for the difference in the two squirrels.

 I hope it has a mate and that I will see more of it.

 I like the ears :-) and the delicate tinges of color.

Squirrel Sunday...

It's been a long time since I have posted here or done a Squirrel Sunday post.  We moved in May and I'm happy to say that I've got just as wonderful selection of birds in our new yard as we had before and maybe even a new Squirrel Sunday star :-)  This little acrobat has been coming every day and hanging on the ball feeder.  She? must have terrific belly muscles.  I should try her exercise program perhaps.....or maybe not.  Anyway....just thought I would post a few squirrels and birds from the new place.  I mostly just post birds and stuff on Facebook now unless we take a trip somewhere and we have been too busy for that this year with moving and settling in a new place.

"Hmmmmm.....nobody looking.  Time to crack this so-called squirrel-proof feeder."

"Don't know how to get the top off...."

 "Hanging will work....maybe."

 "This takes all my muscles and I still can barely get the seeds out"

 "I hope my toe nails don't get stuck in this thing, or I'm going to look pretty silly hanging here by one toe."

"Sigh......You could just put some seed on the ground and save me a lot of work."

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A few of the recent birds

 "Don't look now but I think someone is right behind you."

Happy Bird

 watching!

Tucson, once again....

Well, we just got back from our semi-annual trip to Tucson to see my sister and to enjoy all the nature that the west has for us to see.  I have posted most of my photos in Facebook, but wanted to put some of the nature shots here as well, for those that don't look at Facebook.

Red-brested Nuthatch, which I can see at home, so I don't know why I put it first! 

 White-winged dove.

 Curved-billed Thrasher.  The eye on the other side of its head is badly scared and possibly missing.  We saw it at Sabino Canyon and I didn't get very good shots.  It was bobbing around under the trams.  

Cooper's Hawk stopped in for a drink from the fountain 

 The female Phainopepla

 House Sparrow nesting in a cactus hole.  He was lining the nest with fibers pulled out of palm trees.

The botanical gardens had a "Origami in the Gardens" exhibit, so I had to include a couple of my favorites. 

Can't ID any of these exotic butterflies that were in the butterfly exhibit, but this large one has blue on the top side of the wings and they were flying all over the exhibit.  Very large butterflies! 

More butterflies.  They were beautiful to watch! 

A local Butterfly that was not on display.  Not sure of ID 

 Had to put in at least one cactus picture.  I took lots!

Round-tailed Ground squirrel

Verdin eating the flowers ... which does not make my sister happy 

Lesser Goldfinch...hiding 

Phainopepla guarding the top of the tree.

Dove talking to the donkey :-) 

One of the hummingbirds....very colorful, but hard to capture the color when they are way up in a tree.  Broad-billed Hummingbird. 

 Quail male

Thrush....Hermit's Thrush, I think 

Pronghorns.....new for me to see in the wild! 

Herd of Pronghorns in the wine country area. This area is really different from the other side of the mountains around Tucson.

A warbler ....not sure which one

Abert's Towhee....a very colorless bird.  Very dull looking.  Like a washed out Cardinal. 

 Bunny in the yard.

There are lots of House Finches and the color ranges from the usual pinkish red to orange and yellow.  This one is eating the buds on her tree. 

One of the two hummingbirds I saw.  It had a twig it liked to perch on and I got hundreds of shots of it there, but the light wasn't right to pick up the color of the face mask....which is purple.  This is a Costa's Hummingbird.   In the photo below if you bring it up large you can just see the purple a little bit.

Phainopepla male. These are around my sister's yard every day and are territorial.  Sort of like I have cardinals every day at home in my yard.  They seem to think they own the yard and chased away a lovely Black-headed Grosbeak that I had never seen before and wanted a photo of.  It never came back. 

Gambel Quail male in the tree 

Verdin....I love this little yellow faced bird 

White-winged dove.  Larger then the Mourning doves 

Harris Antelope Squirrel

Gila Woodpecker male
Well, I think that is enough of the Tucson wildlife!