A few photos

Here are a few photos from around the yard over the last few days. As always, we hope you enjoy them!

One of the 9 Band-Tailed Pigeons that are still coming in the yard everyday. Very unusual for this time of year.


The local Bewick's Wren grabbing a bite of suet.


One of the many Yellow-Rumped Warblers we get in the yard. This guy came in when we had our unexpected snow storm a couple of weeks ago.


Robins snacking on one of our Pyracantha shrubs. They really enjoyed the berries.

They picked this bush clean in just a couple of days. Notice the center Robin is just about to swallow a berry?

Another Yellow-Rumped Warbler, same feeder.

We noticed this Song Sparrow on our fence the other morning. What really caught our eye was the spider web stuck to his head.

Band-Tailed Pigeons

We just had a flock of 9 Band-tailed Pigeons fly into the yard. We haven't seen them for quite sometime. Usually they are gone by now and return in late February.

One of the nine in the tree.


I could get 4 in this photo. They were all over the tree, though.


I believe there are 6 pigeons in this photo. It was a great treat to see them so late (early?).

More photos from the yard

Here are a few photos from the last week or so. The Band-Tailed Pigeons are still hanging around. The most we counted at one time was 7! It was awesome to see so many at once.

The American Goldfinches are slowly starting to return, but they have lost most of their summer colors and are now the more muted yellows. They will winter with us by the hundreds.

Of note, this last week we saw, not only the Common Nighthawk (see post below this one) but a Pacific-Slope Flycatcher also stopped by! That's only the second Flycatcher we have ever had in the yard.

So, without further adieu, here are a few pics...

We have really enjoyed playing host to these Band-tailed Pigeons.


They are great fun to have around.


They are usually resting atop this telephone pole/wire in the mornings. This pole, strangely enough, is actually in our backyard. Here you can see 5 of them.


Here are four of them in one of our homemade fly-thrus.

One of the more colorful American Goldfinches stopping in for a quick drink. Once they get their bright yellow summer colors we usually don't see them again until the start of fall when their colors are a little more drab.

A female Bushtit. They are coming in the yard 20 or 30 times a day now.

A Lesser Goldfinch snacking on a sunflower leaf.

The Lessers decimate our sunflowers leaves during the summer. They seem to enjoy the leaves as much as they do nyjer seed.

A very friendly House Finch taking a sip.