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| This blue budgie (Melopsittacus undulatus) was hanging out with the Peach-faced Lovebirds. |
Dreamland Villa's Desert Nature Walk (a.k.a. Mesa's Electric Park) is a great little place to go birding in the east valley. The homeowners have done such a wonderful job over the years of creating and maintaining this trail / habitat, that I think it deserves some type of recognition, or symbol of appreciation from birders like me that so enjoy birding here. So, I have applied for it to be recognized as a Bird Habitat by Desert Rivers Audubon. If approved, the HOA will receive a sign to post on the trail, acknowledging their efforts in providing a healthy native habitat for the birds and other wildlife in their Mesa neighborhood.All of the trees, shrubs, and cacti planted here are native or common to the southwest and are able to survive on their own without any care, there is no irrigation going to the plants. Yet the area is lush with huge palo verde trees, mesquite trees, ironwood trees, thick stands of chainfruit cholla, teddy bear cholla, and prickly pear.
Sadly, in 2008 about a dozen of these big beautiful palo verde trees were completely chopped down and removed by a company that maintains the high power lines along the trail., see Arizona Republic article. The homeowners were understandably devastated.At first I didn't notice the bare spots, but you can see tree stumps here and there along the trail where there are seemingly oddly placed benches with no shade, and baby palo verde's shooting up, as if to be reclaiming their territory.
Maybe a sign declaring the Dreamland Villa Desert Nature Walk to be an Audubon-approved bird habitat will deter future maintenance companies from chopping down any more trees.
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| Inca Dove nesting in chain-fruit cholla along the nature trail in late spring 2011. |
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Those are great Lovebird shots! I've been unable to get really good ones, because I can only see them briefly in the twilight hours. They're such beautiful, charming, and photogenic birds though.
ReplyDeleteI watched them eating figs once. They'd pause after every bite to sing their happiness and exalt in their fig-eating. It was wonderful.
How common is it to see lovebirds in az?
ReplyDeleteThey are not very common--just recently declared countable. But they are locally common in various parts of Phoenix, Mesa...
DeleteNever saw them down here in Tucson--perhaps the winter is too cold for these African species.