Hummingbirds, Male

More photos from the hummingbird party of last weekend, this time featuring the gentlemen. 

Hummingbirds, Female

It is a hummingbird party every day at the cabin lately. There are scads of them! Here are some photos of the ladies from the weekend.

Passing Through: Baltimore Oriole

This Baltimore oriole hung around all weekend, making good use of the oriole feeder; the Scott's orioles didn't seem to mind. It had a longer variation of the usual beautiful song. The bird book calls them "fiery orange," which I found true, and quite gorgeous. 

Also seen this weekend, but no photo taken, was an indigo bunting; much like the lazuli bunting of a couple of weeks ago, but no rosy chest, just blue all over. 

Saturday morning was exceedingly gray, as you can tell. 

My Mother's Owl

A week ago Thursday, my mother and I spotted an owl in the owl-house that was a present from her to a friend but that resides in my mother's yard, on her tree, where it was installed lo, these 2 or so years ago! Finally! On that Thursday, we saw the owl at dusk; and then, surprisingly, saw it today in the midday sun, where it stayed for an hour or two till I accidentally got too close and scared it into the tree behind the neighbors' house. He/she is a wee screech owl, very aware and very lovely. More photos to come. 

Damianita

Damianita is in bloom all over the place, along with bluebonnets, verbena, copper canyon daisies, the tall lavender sage whose name I can't remember, and more. A very pretty wildflower spring! 

Woodie & Woodina, 2009

The big excitement of the weekend is the sighting, finally, of a female woodpecker hand in hand, so to speak, with our male woodpecker at the woodpecker tree, where each year woodpeckers nest. We have been waiting and waiting for Woodie to get a gal, and now she is here at last! There has been a lot of activity at and in the tree; yesterday and today we have heard pecking coming from inside the tree, as though they are adding on another room in there. Just now, in my chair at the computer from which I have a view of the tree, I saw Woodie's head poking out from the hole, moving in and out, and when Woodina flew over to the tree, he came out, they hung out for a few minutes on the tree, then he flew away and she went in. Could there be eggs in there already, or are they just getting ready?

I have no photos of them yet; they are being very sly and cautious at the least sign of movement from we humans. 

Buzzards

Or turkey vultures, but most people here call them buzzards. I think they are just gorgeous. 

Black Spider in Bathtub

New to me; found in the tub this morning. Interesting, longish pedipalpish things out there in front near the foremost legs. 

Left index finger for scale

Cats, Idle

I had company the other day while I was working on the woodpile and finding the castiron beetles. 

A Treasure Trove of Ironclad Beetles in the Woodpile!

Or Gorey beetles, as I like to call them. I found five of them today! As many in one day as I have seen in five years! I was cleaning up the woodpile and kept coming across them hiding among the logs. It was sort of like finding Easter eggs, only much better. 

I thought the first two were mere carcasses and moved them over to the hood of the car to save them; but after finding the third one I began to wonder if maybe they just play possum. So I moved them all back to the woodpile after I was done. 

Night Spider

While I was catching the hummingbird moth at the lamp on Friday night, I saw this tiny spider on the rim of the lampshade. I think it is some variety of lynx spider. 

Hummingbird Moth at Rest

Despite our best efforts and screens, we inevitably end up with some hummingbird moths in our bedroom around this time of year. Thursday night there were two; on Friday evening they came down to this lamp, where I was able to catch them and put them back outside (after a little photo shoot, of course). 

As I was taking these, suddenly the moth began to vibrate its wings like crazy (seen in photo below) and did so while staying put for a half a minute or so, prior to launching into flight. It was very interesting and loud. 

The Interloper Bird: What Kind of Flycatcher?

It's been so long since we first saw and named this infrequent visitor that I've forgotten exactly why we called it the Interloper Bird. It was seen again Sunday afternoon, chirruping in a tree near the patio in the early evening. It is some kind of flycatcher, but I don't know which. 

More of the Tiger Swallowtail...

...just because it was so beautiful and so GIANT.

Passing Through: Lazuli Bunting

I have never seen a lazuli bunting before; so very beautiful and blue! Also very strange to see after being so used to finches that are red, or yellow, or brown. He was at the feeder on Sunday afternoon. 

Also seen at the feeder lately (but not pictured here): two pairs of brown-headed cowbirds. Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds; according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this nest parasitism can cause the decline of species with small populations. Plus, it just isn't nice to lay your eggs somewhere and then run off and make some other birds raise your young (especially if you are wiping out their species). But when I complain about them being at the feeder, someone else in the house always reminds me that cowbirds have to eat, too. 

Wrens Are Nesting in Here

"That is such a boring picture," you might think as you gaze upon this. But little do you know that a pair of wrens are nesting inside this one-quarter-of-the-way-built garden sculpture! (Or "sculpture," if you'd rather.) I guess I won't be working on it any time soon, though (not that I have been since last summer, truth be told). E and I spied the little wrens on Saturday as we sat inside the truck preparing to leave, and were thus hidden to them. The nest is right down at the bottom, nestled into part of the exposed wire and  screen. Aw! 

Hummingbird Moth

These photos show very well why this is called a hummingbird moth. I noticed yesterday, after taking them, how very large actual hummingbirds look after looking at the little moths. 

Giant Tiger Swallowtail!

This butterfly was around all day yesterday. It is enormous! Its wingspan is larger than the length of my hand!