Our White-crowned Sparrows Are Back!

Ahhh, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, the cooler weather is here, and so are the White-crowned Sparrows!  These cute little puff-balls of winter are great fun to watch at the feeders.

Remembering Linda

Just over one year ago my good friend, Linda Hartelt, passed away after a long struggle with pulmonary complications stemming from her spinal cord injury.  So the past year has been a time of mourning her passing, grieving the loss a dear friend, and regretting not doing more to ease her struggle and to help her enjoy the last year of her life.

On an unseasonably cool day in mid June I found myself overwhelmed with sadness.  It was an incredibly gorgeous day outside, and Linda was not here to take it all in.  I couldn't bring myself to go outside and enjoy the day, it all seemed so unfair.  In the midst of my moping I suddenly heard a racket of tapping and fluttering at the back door.  Amazingly, there was a Peach-faced Lovebird perched on the back french door, pecking on the window as though he was knocking to come inside!  I looked around at the back patio and there were Peach-faced Lovebirds everywhere.

Lined up along the pool fence...

Swinging around on the hanging baskets...

One Lovebird even played me a tune on the wind chimes...

and a few seemed enamoured with my little stuffed toy Loon on the window sill...

The flock of nearly 20 lovebirds spent most of the day in my yard, raiding all the feeders, hanging out with the Quail...

bathing in the pool, and checking out the birdhouses...

It was truly an awesome sight to see,  I have never witnessed that many Lovebirds in my yard before or since.  Thank you Linda, you were here after all...

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Cactus Wren gathering nesting material at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

Its field trip #2 with the More Birding With Cynthia Donald, the weather is gorgeous, and we're excited at the prospect of seeing 3 rare birds recently spotted at Boyce Thompson Arboretum - a Worm-eating Warbler, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, and a Gray Catbird.  But for a while it seemed all we were seing were common birds, atop electrical wires, of all things, at an arboretum full of wonderful trees.


Starling upon a most un-natural  perch.

  Things picked up though, and we all got a good look at a Red-naped Sapsucker who remained eerily motionless for quite some time.  I guess it doesn't require much motion to suck sap.  We also saw a Cactus Wren gathering nesting material and taking it to her well hidden nest draped over with palm fronds.  Ayers Lake was a bit sad though, with only one lonely Coot floating around on it.  Could have been that the Coopers Hawk lurking about was keeping everyone hiding in the reeds.

Red-naped Sapsucker who refused to turn around and smile.

Other birds of interest seen included a Black Phoebe, Hutton’s Vireo, Plumbeous Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Western Scrub Jay, Bewick’s Wren, Rock Wren, Canyon Wren, Marsh Wren. Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Gray Catbird, Crissal Thrasher, Phainopepla, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Common Yellowthroat (heard but not seen), Green-tailed Towhee, Spotted Towhee (I saw close-up, after the group left), White-crowned Sparrow (yeah!  our little winter puff-balls are back!), Northern Cardinal, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Black-throated Sparrow, Pyrrhuloxia, Cooper’s Hawk (later reported to have caught a Northern Flicker and torn it apart out in the garden in front of God and everyone, glad I missed seeing THAT), and Red-tailed Hawk.

Click on image below to see slide-show.