Bird List

Oh my, all the AZ desert specialties !!   The mornings start with the Curve-billed Thrasher calling  "whit-whit    whit-whit"   and the White-crowned Sparrows answering  "dee dee-dee dee dee."   In front of my window, in the desert landscaping "lawn,"  is a structure that looks like a platform feeder.  So I put some bird seed in it.  The next day House Finches,  House Sparrows, Brewer's Blackbirds, and Brown-headed Cowbirds had found it.  I don't want to encourage Cowbirds in their  "dirty deeds"  so I sprinkled seeds on the ground near the huge agave and Palo Verde trees. That attracted more White-crowns, Pyrrhuloxias, Cardinals, Cactus Wrens, and a Rufous-winged Sparrow.  This morning the Thrasher was on the ground as well.  Phainopeplas are having a good season. I see them often sitting in the trees.  A covey of Quail scurried by yesterday morning.
     I took an early morning walk in a dry wash behind the buildings.  Chipping Sparrows, a Gila Woodpecker, Gnatcatchers, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks on the cross-arm of a phone pole, and a flock of Black-throated Sparrows all showed up.  They are one of my favorite sparrows. A very scruffy hummingbird was sitting up in a mesquite, likely a Broad-tailed.  I need to remember all these hummingbirds, now.
     Last night a guest told me he saw a Roadrunner roosting in the eves of his casita.

An Internet photo, of a Black-throated Sparrow I did not take this one.