Now, where was I, oh yeah, colorful birds fill our yard morning & evening with a few through the hottest part of the day. The hummingbirds are a constant, Blue-Throated, Magnificent, Broad-Billed and the occasional Broad Tailed. I haven't been too successful with photos, except for the Blue-Throat and Mag. The smaller birds get chased so they don't hang around long. They just get a sip and zoom out!
Each evening we walk 100 yards to watch the Great Horned Owls with their nestlings just down Rock House Road. The older nestling left the safety of the nest branch sometime during the night of the 21st and must be roosting someplace close by, but we haven't seen it since it fledged. The second nestling, much smaller emerged from the nest cavity the evening of the 22nd and we've watched it each evening since. We had guessed that there was a second nestling, but hadn't seen it until the older one left.
Besides birds, there have been many, many Birders from all over the world. We've met folks from Germany, England, Canada and states from Maine to California, Alaska & Hawaii.
It seems to be a good spring for the Elegant Trogon. We walked up South Fork one day and heard a male calling, got a glimpse of him flying, but not close enough for a photo, but nearly every birder we've talked to has seen the Trogons either in South Fork or near Sunny Flats Campground. The Trogon count is this Sunday, so I'll be spending my morning listening and hopefully photographing a Trogon or two.
We have not had any bears in the yard yet this spring. Our fruit trees are loaded with pears, apples, peaches, persimmons, pomegranates and some other stuff we don't know yet what they are. We hope that we won't have to compete with the bears when the fruits ripen.
Skunks and Gray Foxes are nightly visitors cleaning up the birdseed that spills onto the ground and the Javalina herd of about a dozen, found a hole in the fence to the orchard and graze in there on occasion, but they haven't caused any trouble.
Each evening we walk 100 yards to watch the Great Horned Owls with their nestlings just down Rock House Road. The older nestling left the safety of the nest branch sometime during the night of the 21st and must be roosting someplace close by, but we haven't seen it since it fledged. The second nestling, much smaller emerged from the nest cavity the evening of the 22nd and we've watched it each evening since. We had guessed that there was a second nestling, but hadn't seen it until the older one left.
Besides birds, there have been many, many Birders from all over the world. We've met folks from Germany, England, Canada and states from Maine to California, Alaska & Hawaii.
It seems to be a good spring for the Elegant Trogon. We walked up South Fork one day and heard a male calling, got a glimpse of him flying, but not close enough for a photo, but nearly every birder we've talked to has seen the Trogons either in South Fork or near Sunny Flats Campground. The Trogon count is this Sunday, so I'll be spending my morning listening and hopefully photographing a Trogon or two.
We have not had any bears in the yard yet this spring. Our fruit trees are loaded with pears, apples, peaches, persimmons, pomegranates and some other stuff we don't know yet what they are. We hope that we won't have to compete with the bears when the fruits ripen.
Skunks and Gray Foxes are nightly visitors cleaning up the birdseed that spills onto the ground and the Javalina herd of about a dozen, found a hole in the fence to the orchard and graze in there on occasion, but they haven't caused any trouble.
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