April 12-17 -- Backyard Birds, And An Upcoming Trip To Texas' High Island

We had our last good chances for rain on Tuesday the 12th. I was working at the visitor info center and it really looked promising -- dark, threatening clouds to the west over the high Chiricahuas, and travelers coming in from the national monument on the other side were reporting sleet and hail up in the higher elevations. Down at the VIC, we had about 5 minutes of a nice rain -- and besides wind, that was it. The forecasted precipitation wimped out once again. As I mentioned previously. we had zero rain in February, zero in March -- and it looks like near-zero in April. And now probably nothing until the monsoons, starting in July. I have to admit the ground was wet at Faranuf in the morning, and there were wisps of mist wreathing some of Cave Creek Canyon's peaks -- 

My "commute" to the VIC is at most about 3 miles, and the clouds that day were promising -- 

I consider that vista THE iconic view of Cave Creek Canyon, and the one I recommend to all the VIC visitors. This was taken during the morning of the alleged rain. Looks beautiful and promising, but alas... 

But this looks VERY promising.. Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal are setting up house in  my back yard. There's even another male that's lurking around here. The Mr. and Mrs. and quite the cute couple; here's Mr. Cardinal, with his crest perfectly coiffed (actually, the wind was blowing from the left) --

And Mrs. Cardinal, not as striking as the male (as is the case with pretty much all female birds) but with a subtle beauty all her own --

Pyrrhuloxia, a name which always sounded like a gum disease to me (think pyorrhea), are also called "desert cardinal" and are related to Northern Cardinals. I have a Mr. and Mrs. in my back yard, and they do bear a resemblance to cardinals. Here's the male -- 

I also have two Harris's Antelope Squirrels. Though they're not endangered, their habitat is disappearing with the increase of human "development". They're interesting in that they're a squirrel that's adapted to desert temperatures; one thing they do is hold their tail over their bodies, which acts as an umbrella for protection from the sun. Here's one of them at my water feature --

I see signs of spring all around me -- the shrubs and mesquite are an intense green and the birds are pairing off -- Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxia, and Curve-billed Thrashers, just to name a few. While working at the Visitor Center on Tuesday and Thursday I saw Magnificent and Blue-throated hummingbirds (Blue-throateds are the largest hummingbirds in the United States; I call them "the Big Mack Trucks" of hummers), along with Scott's Orioles that were going for the sugar water in the feeders, just like this Acorn Woodpecker  --

There are 2 big trips with Discovery II, my travel trailer, that are coming up; the first will be to High Island, Texas, for the spring bird migration. High Island is world-famous in spring for the birds that fly across the Gulf of Mexico from their wintering grounds south of the US-Mexico border. After making the long, exhausting journey over the waters of the Gulf, they drop when they see the first land -- and that area is High Island and the SE Texas coast . Depending on the prevailing wind, birds can drop at that area -- or get blown over it. The first reports from friends who are there this week are that there is at least a minor "fallout"; they got 14 different warbler species, and many "life birds", i.e. species they've never seen before. It sounds very promising, but SE Texas is also experiencing some very bad flooding from heavy thunderstorms that are spinning around the area, trapped from moving on by high-pressure systems. So it should be interesting when I get down there; hopefully it will all have blown over by then. But the birds don't care about the bad weather; all they care about is they're back on land. I'll be meeting friends there who are originally from southern California, but like me now live elsewhere -- Mark and Lori, now my neighbors and friends here in Portal; Martin and Eileen, living near Austin, and Jose, the birding "wunderkid" who's been hitchhiking around the country and will be going to High Island with me in my trailer. Weather permitting, we should have a blast...

Here are a few more interesting birds I've seen these past few days here in my back yard, or seen in the air while on my property, which makes them "yard birds", such as this Zone-tailed hawk, a raptor that looks and acts like a Turkey Vulture, and sometimes flies with them, which makes their prey on the ground unaware that the hawks are sizing them up for a meal --

A Gambel's Quail male -- 

And my favorite of the hummingbirds that I have seen in my yard -- so far; a male Broad-billed, with its spectacular coloring -- 

I'll end this blog entry with a video from my "critter cam" set up by my water feature. I've had it on during the night and have seen 2 bobcats, both White-tailed and Mule deer, Gray Fox, coyote, raccoon, and a Striped Skunk that seems to think the water feature belongs to him as he's chased off the fox!  Aggressive little bugger...But I've decided to turn the cam on during the day, too, so enjoy this early morning in my back yard, and be sure you turn up the sound to hear the bird calls --