Morning surprise

We got up this morning and were greeted by a species of Quail that we hadn't seen before. These are called Scaled Quail. They are also known as "Cottontop" for their variable tuft of white feathers at the top of their head.

A little later, John looked out the window and he saw these colorful birds out with the Red Wing Blackbirds.

Here is another shot of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
I like this shot as it shows the bird's interesting wing patch.

We guess these birds were flying over and noticed the Red-wing Blackbird feeding so they decided to join the group. The Yellow-headed Blackbirds were here for about 10 minutes and then they were gone.

The rest of the day was spent picking things up and storing them for traveling tomorrow. We went down to Ed and Pat's to say goodbye and then settled in for an evening of TV. We've enjoyed this state park as the sites are wide and long and well separated from your neighbor but we are ready to move on.

Pictures to share

As we haven't had anything interesting to write about, I thought we should share some of our animals that have entertained us from our windows.

Here is our little bunny friend munching up bird seed that got scattered when the wind blew the feeder off the hook. He/she started on one side and then rounded the corner continuing to eat until he/she was stuffed.

Here is one of our female house finches getting ready to take advantage of the hummingbird's nectar. Who knew they had a sweet tooth. It reminds us of the Lorikeets that we feed while at Pacheco Peak State Park in Arizona.

Here is nice shot of our female Broad-tailed Hummingbird. She always sits so prettily and is very calm when eating her nectar.

Here is an unusual shot were two hummingbirds are going to share the feeder as the same time.
We believe this is a female Black-chinned Hummingbird - nice in air shot.
Black-throated Sparrow enjoying a water break.

Here is a shot of our male Black-chinned Hummingbird. In the light, the area under his throat is a deep purple.

I like this shot of the female Broad-tailed Hummingbird that shows her beautiful tail.

Here is one of resident male House Finches taking a break on our satellite. His mate joined not soon after this picture was taken.

We have had such strong blustery winds that I wish I could have gotten a picture of the quail as even their top notches looked like they were having a bad hair day. It was somehow reassuring to see that even the birds were having issues with all the wind.

We hope you enjoyed our pictures.

Back on-line

Wind, lightning, thunder, wind and even more wind! That has been our lives for the past week. It was so nice to go to sleep last night with no sound of wind. Even the coyotes were happy as we heard them just before nodding off. Friday night around midnight we were woken up with lightning and thunder that went on for better than two hours. In addition, we had campers come in around 2 a.m. (yes, 2 a.m.). They were loud and left their truck running while unhooking their boat and their fifth wheel. Needless to say, our neighbors didn't get on our good side from the start. It didn't get much better on Saturday night as they left their dog outside. The dog barked on and off all night long. I don't blame the dog for barking as it must have been rather unnerving. Leaving their dog tied up outside was pretty stupid considering there are critters around that wouldn't mind making a meal of the dog. Finally, around 4 a.m. they brought the dog in.

On Friday, John came in and said you better make up some hummingbird food. It seems that he was buzzed by a hummingbird which then looked at each of our windows for a feeder. This is the first sign of hummingbirds we have had. We have a pair of Black Chinned Hummingbirds and another unidentified male that are hanging around. They are quite entertaining to watch them zip around and chase off one another. The House Finches have discovered the Hummingbird feeder hanging from the Ramada. The finches must have a sweet tooth so they are enjoying the nectar.

John went out for a bike ride this afternoon and as he headed out to the main road, he noticed a big bird with a white chest sitting on top of a telephone pole. He stopped to get a better look. Soon the bird took off carrying his catch . . . an Osprey with a fish between his talons. John interrupted his dinner. The camera was at home, of course.

Nothing much has been going on with all this wind. We've read, played video games on the computer, watched TV (even the Masters golf tournament yesterday . . that is how bored I was) and played card games. Our bird friends and other critters also helped to keep us entertained.

We were so thrilled with no wind today that we spent most of the day sitting outside. Wait, we also washed the truck so it is looking good once again. We will be heading for Albuquerque on Wednesday but unfortunately, the wind is due to return tomorrow (20 to 25 mph with gusts up to 30 mph or more). All we are hoping for is a south wind as we head north on Wednesday.