Category: Birds

Although I’ll have to admit that I was obsessed with getting good shots of the Gambel’s Quail and the Curve-billed Thrashers, I certainly didn’t ignore all of the other birds that appeared in Alice’s backyard, including this Mockingbird,

which took me a while to recognize because I’m only used to seeing them in Santa Rosa.

It didn’t take me long to recognize the Mourning Doves that frequented the yard because they look like the ones that hang out around our Tacoma home.

Eurasian Collared Doves are rarer in Washington, but I have seen them several times in Washington.

I’ve never seen a Long-Tailed Grackle in the PNW, but I have seen them several times in Colorado and California. I see them so rarely, though, that I loved seeing them several times in Goodyear, AZ.

I think this Cactus Wren

may be a Lifer, but he frustrated me repeatedly because he came so close that I barely managed to get two or three shots even though he was a frequent visitor. Right after we left Alice sent a picture of one that came into the house looking for food.

There were several birds I saw that I couldn’t capture a shot of like the Verdin I saw several times but couldn’t get a picture of because it flitted so much that I could never get the camera to focus quickly enough. I also spent considerable time trying to get a shot of the hummingbirds drinking out of the fountain, but they were either so close or so fast that I could not pull that off either. 

I was surprised at how well the birds in Bill and Alice’s yard seemed to get along.  Three or four were often pecking simultaneously at different sections of the birdseed block. Occasionally a quail would get annoyed and charge a nearby quail, but, for the most part, they acted like there was enough food for everybody — which there obviously was. None of the birds even seemed disturbed by the raucous calls of the Gila Woodpecker that startled me every time it landed on the palm.

But, as we all know, there is always that neighbor who just can’t get along with others and wants everything for himself.   In this case, that neighbor was the Curve-billed Thrasher who would let out a raucous call from the top of the wall,

chasing away the other birds before landing on the top of the seed block, 

fending off the other birds

until it found the perfect seed

and walked away with his prize.

I was at Bill and Alice’s long enough to observe the habits of several birds and be ready when they showed up.   The Gila Woodpecker was one of the most predictable.  It would always land near the top of one of the Palm trees, peck a few times, look around,

and dive down

to the Hummingbird feeder, or at least what was intended to be

a Hummingbird feeder,

though I think the Gila Woodpeckers had taken possession since I never saw a Hummingbird land on it.

I’ll admit that I always thought it was the same Gila Woodpecker that was visiting the feeder, but when I started working with the photos I realized that it was at least two different birds that followed the same pattern since one of these birds is a male (the one with the red topknot) and the other one is a female.  

We spent seven days visiting  Bill and Alice in Arizona.  We did not manage any hikes since Bill’s health has become a concern and he was forced to use a walker, but we did go out for dinner a couple of times and had dinner with Kel and his friend another night. We even managed to get in a couple of short walks.

Since I knew we wouldn’t be getting out much, I brought several books to read. I brought them home unread and spent most of my free time birdwatching. Alice has set up several fountains, three hummingbird feeders, and a feeder in her backyard that attracts an amazing number of birds.

There were a lot of Gambel’s Quail in the yard that seemed largely indifferent to anyone who stayed on the patio. I. tried to get a shot of a male and female together, but the Quail were so close that I could never get a shot where both male and female were included.

There are times when I wish I was using one of my zoom lenses instead of an 840mm setup, and this was one of them. Actually, it was much more common to see males and females together than one by itself. This was a typical situation,

but I had to use the Panorama setting in Photoshop to join two sequential shots.

Truthfully, though, the male is just more photogenic than the female so I concentrated on getting the best possible shot of one of them.

There were a lot of shots to go through, but this is my favorite.

I especially like the background and that the eye and beak are clear and distinct from the rest of its head. I don’t think I could have asked for a better pose.