Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, October 27

 

I got an amazing number of bad photos of this little ruby-crowned kinglet—the gray day & a dirty window were not conducive to good photos. Photoshop could help only a bit, but still, these are better than none!

The mister has the ruby crown. The missus does not (see the second photo). They came in a pair. He was furiously attacking the bathroom window; the noise drew me in to see what was happening. They stayed for two days, then left.

A Visitor

He comes through every year. Every year I forget what he is and have to look him up again . . . but I'm too tired to do that right now.

Darling Junior Scrub Jay

It's a bumper crop of scrubber babes this year; on a recent day I counted at least eight of them, in various stages of development, in the trees & on the ground outside the bathroom window. They are very loud young birds.

Roadrunner!

Hugh looked up from the couch earlier to see a roadrunner looking in at him from its perch on the porch railing! By the time I got there with the camera, and then back again with the camera with its battery (which had been charging) in it, the bird had flown onto the patio, and then it left the patio for a nearby tree. Funny, one doesn't think about roadrunners flying, but they do. I've never seen one so close before. They're extraordinarily beautiful! 

Scrub Jay, Where Is Your Head?

Scrub Jays in the Evening in Their Nesting Tree

Nest in Yucca

But the cardinals have now abandoned it . . .

Swallows, or Do I Mean Swifts?, at the Shops

Parents; I could hear the babies nearby. But the Shops are too hoity to let them build nests right under those awnings, I think.

American Coot!

I was rinsing my hair in the outdoor shower and turned around to be surprised by a large bird with a black head & a white beak just sitting in the cedar tree next to me, looking at me. I assumed it must be injured to have stayed there when I came outside, and also its left wing was funnily supported on a branch beside it; so I turned off the water & ran inside for a box in case it needed to go to Wildlife Rescue. Hugh came out with me and when he tried to photograph it, it flew from the tree to the ground a short distance away, and then it ran by the shed & down the hill. By this time I'd thrown on some clothes and I started after it, only to trip over a rock and fall down. So I got back in the shower and once done & fully dressed, went down the hill looking for it. I didn't find it. I hope that it wasn't really injured and was instead just pausing for a rest while passing by. I'm pretty positive it was a coot; not that many birds with white beaks that I could find, and besides, it seemed to have non-land-bird feet.This is not my photo, by the way, but it's a coot.

Western Rufous-sided Towhee?

I'm unsure that my identification is correct. This bird has been visiting for a week or two. He gets under the little oak tree at the edge of the patio and scratches, scratches, scratches among the leaves to find the acorns. It's rather charming.

Feathers

I gathered these buzzard feathers after the evening of carnage several years ago:
http://atthecabin.blogspot.com/2008/04/carnage-on-hill.html

I found the next day that the feathers led to the area of the fox den that's in the woods at the base of the hill (if you can call the collection of cedars "woods", that is). There is little doubt who was responsible!


Cat for scale

Scrub Jay

Remember When It Snowed Back in February? Part VI: Bird Tracks

Oriole Evacuee?

We have so many orioles right now, including this orange Baltimore oriole, who is distinct from our more usual yellow Scott's orioles. I suspect that some of them are evacuees from the recent Pedernales One fire area. There are so many that they're emptying the feeder every couple of days.

Dead Visitor

I found this little guy on the front porch on Sunday afternoon; I wonder if the high winds blew him to his death against the windows or door.

I've never seen a bird like this before; is it perhaps a Black-and-White warbler?

Junior Scrub Jay Siblings

They're hot and hungry.

Finch Through Glass

Bobwhite Trio

There is a lot of activity around the birdfeeders lately; it is so dry that everyone's on the lookout for more food sources.

Lesser Goldfinches

House Finch