Moved a little. Different place. Still north of Phoenix. New River
Arizona. More of the same.... Only different.
Still in the desert. Warm weather. Cooler weather. Sunshine. Clouds.
Even more birds here. More of the same: little doves, big doves, quail,
house finches, hummingbirds, cardinals, cactus wrens, curve billed
thrashers, ravens, white crowned sparrows. And different birds too.
Verdin. We've only seen it once before. It is a little desert bird. Tiny
like a hummingbird, but it is not a hummingbird. We saw it on a hummingbird
feeder here though. Lesser goldfinches. Black throated sparrows. We've
only seen them once before too, but here they are all over. Gila
woodpeckers. A ladder back woodpecker. And a new one on the life list.
Bendire's thrasher. Like the curve bill, but shorter and less curved. And
the eye is more yellow. 332 on the life list.
A coyote symphony. A flashing crashing desert thunderstorm in the predawn
darkness. Pounding rain. Hail.
After, a hundred birds feeding on the ground and suddenly there are none. A
dark silhouette drifts by overhead. Gradually, the birds return.
A walk through the desert brush. Saguaro, cholla, prickly pear, ocotillo,
palo verde, and creosote. The quail chuckle their little alarm call and
scurry across the trail to safety. The ones on the left side of the trail
go right. The ones on the right go left.
Light rain. Heavy rain. Light rain again.
Bronco's Football. Go Broncos! Seven and three.
