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Friday, May 20, 2011

Ash-throated Flycatchers nesting

.Of all the birds I saw today I failed to get photos of the two I most wanted to, a Black-chinned Sparrow and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. I saw them when some birders were here and after they left I didn't see them again. Maybe tomorrow.

While I was watching for them I took a photo of a MacGillivray's Warbler way off in the distance. I was surprised when I downloaded the pictures and there was also an [Audubon's] Yellow-rumped Warbler on the shot. Neither bird is in focus, of course. They're at one of my water features.


The most fun thing to photograph today was an Ash-throated Flycatcher building a nest in a woodpecker hole in an agave stalk.



Very few birds are actually nesting because of the drought, so maybe the flycatcher's starting to nest is a good sign that it'll rain soon. I looked at my records and this is the longest dry spell we've had since my sister and I started keeping records in 1993. It's no wonder my oasis looks bad after record freezing in February that killed things way back, to the ground in some cases, and now a devastating drought.

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