Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Celebrating Life

A happy little post for my sweet grandson, Tyler Jet, who is one year old today... and happens to have the same birthday as Walt Whitman!


 "Keep your face always toward the sunshine -
and shadows will fall behind you."


"Happiness, not in another place but this place...
not for another hour, but this hour."



"Peace is always beautiful."


 "To me, every hour of the day and night
is an unspeakably perfect miracle."


"Be curious, not judgmental."

~Walt Whitman  (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892)

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Yard Birds - update

Recent snapshots

Cardinal parents


Cardinal fledgling on the ground


perching on a low branch

white-winged dove with twig


dove nest in mesquite tree


white-winged dove parent on nest


Lil Hummer growing more colorful


Lil Hummer

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Baby Cardinals

Up in the oleander bushes, the nest is hard to see.


Here it is:

Arrow is pointing to parent's tail

Three baby cardinals in the nest!


Hungry!


The parents work hard getting food and feeding the youngsters.

Mrs. Cardinal at the feeder

Mr. Cardinal looking for bugs in the garden

Yesterday afternoon, one fledgling left the nest.


It landed on the ground below the oleander bushes.


And it was still there this morning.


Although it may not be very good at flying yet, the little cardinal has two attentive parents to care for it.

I suspect the cardinal couple has been living in our yard for about three years but this was the first time we saw their nest.  And now a different kind of nest is in our front yard which I will probably report on in a future blog post.  Have a nice week!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

To the woods and back

Staghorn Cholla Cactus



Hummingbird monitoring project in the forest



Pretty colors!




Vitex tree


Pictures are from a morning nature walk last week.  The final two pics show Lil Hummer in our garden.  We still see him (or her) each day, but Lil Hummer is not the only baby bird in our yard.

~~to be continued~~

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

More Birds!

Cactus Wren

Pyrrhuloxia

Cardinal

Mockingbird

Vermilion Flycatcher

Mallard

Black-throated Sparrow

Green-tailed Towhee

Black-headed Grosbeak

Kingbird