September 2 -- Feeder Frenzy, And A Real Storm

But first, here's what is becoming the "gratuitous" sunrise shot -- except for this one, since the scenic sunrise was just so-so, I zoomed in on the rising sun with my 100-400 f/5.6 lens --

After taking the trash out to, and chatting with,  Tom The Trash Guy, who has the trash truck parked Wednesday and Saturday from 8-11 in the open area across from me (otherwise there's really no place to get rid of your trash here), I decided to give my left shoulder another day of rest. So I went to the back porch with my 500mm lens plus 1.4x teleconverter (effective digital distance of 700mm), a bird book, and my binoculars -- and watched the show. I didn't have long to wait, though the first "incident" actually started when I saw a Cooper's hawk fly into the back yard when I was putting sunscreen on in the bathroom. I said "Holy Toledo!" (or something like that) and ran out to the back porch, hoping he was still there. And he was, but he flew a little further away and perched, scanning over the feeder area and looking VERY intense. As I have a 700mm focusing distance and the sun was out, I was able to get off some very good shots, even one where he flew off -- 

I don't believe he got anything, as all the birds had "gone to ground". I'd never seen a feeder area with loads of birds clear out so fast. And once the Cooper's left, they all came back again. Here are some of the backyard visitors --

Juvenile Male Broad-billed Hummingbird

Western Kingbird (he was a surprise) 

Mr. Lesser Goldfinch

Mrs. Lesser Goldfinch

By this time it was around 10:30 -- and the skies to the northwest were looking ominous with an unbroken sky of dark, grey clouds. It was almost as if the oncoming storm was eating up the blue sky --

At around 3pm it started to rain -- HARD. It was hard to capture its intensity, but I took a few shots of the outside from the open back sliding glass door -- 

And from the side porch door, looking at Cave Creek Canyon to the west -- 

That's one of my roof gutters in the upper right-hand corner. Faranuf has no down spouts, only gutters that extend abut 3 feet from the roof, so the water pours off the roof onto the ground below -- NOT very practical. Around 5:30pm the weather to the west started to clear, though it remained cloudy for the most part for the rest of the evening. During a lull in the weather proceedings, I went out to the front porch and saw a bedraggled Western Kingbird -- the same one from the morning? -- on a bush --

Then it flew off a little further from me -- and snagged a snack --

I saw one of the Faranuf Residents, too. There are 3 Cottontail rabbits here; this is one of them --

I always hope they don't get snagged by, say, a hawk happening to pass through. So it was another interesting day -- not productive in the sense of getting things done, but I'm retired and can do what I please, when I please -- and this day was exactly that.