Click any photo to enlarge

Saturday, December 5, 2015

A few good birds

I made a quick trip to CMO to service feeders and do a light watering. Rationing water at this time. When I stepped out of my pickup at the oasis it's always special, but today I heard a male Broad-tailed Hummingbird and a Phainopepla simultaneously. Not bad. The wait for spring is ameliorated by days like today.


The oasis doesn't get Broad-taileds very often. I think this is the first one in December. His wing buzzing sounded a little off, but I had never heard one this time of year, so it may have been due to wear. It was strange how he perched back in the trees, especially the large Live Oak, but only fed from the feeders out in the open, even though there's a feeder under the oak tree. Go figure! Hummer behavior always fascinates me.

The Phainopepla may have been drunk on sour berries. He had great difficulty staying perched and there wasn't a whiff of wind. I thought maybe, in that case, I could get a photo of him showing the white on his wings, but he moved so fast it got blurry on every shot. Maybe he was just wobbly from being overstuffed on berries. Almost got the white on this first shot.


A little blurry on other shots showing more white. Oh, well, fun trying.


Some critter gorged on my big Claret Cup cactus. Only ruined one of the fat stems though (so far).


It's cool to see Yellow-rumped Warblers foraging on the pondweed. Makes winter seem less daunting. I'm not kidding myself, winter will slam us one of these days. Meanwhile, today was a lovely day.




No comments:

Post a Comment