November 29 -- "New" Birds Visit Faranuf -- And I've Grown To Like Those Darned Deer

The day began clear and cold; I have no doubt it fell to freezing or below during the night. (A good way to tell is when I go out at around 6am to re-stock the feeders and water features -- and the water is frozen over). The sky was cloudless, so I didn't have to go running from the back to the front of the house  like a madman, trying to get the predawn and sunrise colors. As it started to get light to the east. I saw ground fog in the San Simon Valley. Portal is on the west edge of the valley, the San Simon being a classic "basin" as in Basin and Range. And as in most of those basins, it's high desert; the elevation of the town of Rodeo, on the east side of the valley, is 4100 feet; Portal is only 600 feet higher. But when the temperatures in the valley drop to freezing or below, and the conditions are just right, it's cloaked in ground fog. And when you're above it, with the peaks, in this case the Peloncillos, rising above the fog like islands in a sea, it can be quite a sight --

It was a bit unusual in that there was ground fog everywhere, seemingly covering everything below 4200 feet. 

I said to myself "Hah! It will never come this high." At this point it was clear and sunny, and there was lots of activity at the backyard feeders. It seems like my backyard  birds consist of mostly White-crowned Sparrows (they winter here below 5500 feet; all my bird stats are taken from Rick Taylor's "Birds of Southeastern Arizona" my Bird Bible) and Black-throated Sparrows, with the odd Chipping Sparrow thrown in for a little diversity. Also a Pyrrhuloxia or two and the resident Green-tailed Towhee makes an occasional appearance. And let's not forget the ubiquitous Canyon Towhee, Mourning and Eurasian Collared Dove, and the odd Gambel's Quail invasion, where they vacuum up every seed in sight. But this morning there are some VERY neat visitors. You usually see these fellows along the sides of the roads, perched on a fence or agave; I've never seen them in my back yard before this -- 

A Loggerhead Shrike, aka "Butcher Bird", as they have a tendency to impale their prey, usually large insects, but sometimes lizards and small birds, on fence posts and such. Thank goodness he was more interested in the early morning fluffup than snagging one of the small birds -- though he WAS looking, as you can tell in the photo. I managed to slowly open the sliding glass door and get a few shots before he took off. And I got another surprise visitor, though his particular type of food has been out there all this time -- 

A male (red on the crown) Ladder-backed Woodpecker. It's only about the 2nd time I've seen one here, even though I've had a suet block in its cage holder for the past 3 months. In spite of seeming interested in the suet, he took off shortly after this; you can tell by his backward glance that his interest is drawn elsewhere. Though later I heard a squeak like a squeeze toy and saw a female Ladder-backed in the mesquite "field" part of my property. I may (hopefully) see them again as they're common residents in the area. So -- nice visitors this morning!  And later in the day a friend gave me a small hummingbird feeder that I had been thinking for getting when I went back to the South Bay of Los Angeles for the holidays when I visited the Wild Birds store there. It's perfect for this fellow, Mr. Broad-billed, as I want him to have his own feeder out near his mesquite perch and not have to deal with the Anna's at the other one closer to the house  -- 

Along with the small feeder, my friend gave me what are called "Nectar Guard Tips" -- little rubbery tips that fit into the feeder ports. They have a flexible center that opens up when the hummingbird inserts its bill to feed, then closes back up. It's supposed to deter bees and wasps from trying to get inside as they're attracted to the sugar nectar; we'll see. It worked pretty well yesterday, hopefully being another way to encourage him to stay the winter...

Back to the ground fog... I was telling myself it would never come up this far -- then I looked out the window, the sun was gone and visibility had gone down to a hundred yards at most. It crept up and socked us in for about an hour, keeping the temperature down. "It will never happen here" -- I'll never say that again. After the fog lifted and the sun came back out I went to a friend's house where they gave me the small hummingbird feeder and the nectar tips as a housewarming present (they haven't come over to Faranuf yet and are now aking off for a few months; they used to own a Wild Birds Unlimited store in the San Francisco bay area.) They then sent me over to the Visitor Information Center at the entrance of Cave Creek Canyon to drop off papers and to meet Ron, the only paid staffer at the VIC. I'll be a volunteer staffer there next year, so he gave me a few items to help me with my "orientation" . When I came back out to the parking lot I saw and Ash tree still brilliant with its fall coloring -- 

That's Silver Peak to the left. And here's what I believe to be a Cottonwood tree backlit by the sun -- 

It's still a good time to come here for the fall colors. The Arizona sycamores may be way past peak, but their branches still have a surprising number of leaves that have now turned a rust-like shade. And there are of course the crunchy leaves underfoot. 

Around 4pm the 3 young male deer returned to Faranuf's back yard. I hadn't seen them for a few days, so I put bird seed out on a wood stump. The feeders with food were up out of reach of the deer, though they do smell it as they're looking at it and sniffing, but realize they can't reach it. The seed on the stump, on the other hand... 

Photographically caught in the act!  And you know what -- I don't care anymore. I've grown to like these young male deer and accept them as Faranuf backyard visitors. If I don't want them to eat the seed, then I just won't put it out on the stump; they can't get to the other seed in the higher feeders. So I may continue to put just a little bit out for them -- and if they don't visit that day, then the birds will eat it. These fellows are beautiful --

Though he does need a shave... And after he was finished licking up the seed, he drank from the water feature, then went out to nibble on what he usually eats --

So it was a bird and deer kinda day -- and that suits me just fine...