Hi

Hey Greg. First of all---thank you. We have had an unusually nice March this year and it looks like the first part of April will be the same. Through April 9th we will be in the high 70sF and low 80sF. That will be wonderful but then it makes you think of what it will be like when summer arrives here? Normally we will have a couple of weeks of hot weather up in the 100sF like 105F but with our high temps now some 20 degrees above normal, it is hard to imagine. Of course right now I am waiting for the hummers to show up. I have one feeder out for them.

I hope your weather will warm up for you.
Al
 
Thanks, Doug. Sounds to me like you'll be busy in early June. Well they be all blacks or a combo of chocolates, also?
Al
Click to expand...

Al

Bailey has had 3 litters of all chocolates with only 1 black, but this time she was bred with Zeus(Black) and not Parker(Yellow)
So It should be interesting.
This is Ravens second litter with Zeus, her first litter was 7 black 1 chocolate and 1 yellow.
 
Al,
Great pictures as always. Is the mule deer picture recent? Seems late in the season for the buck to still have antlers. Does the climate affect when they lose their antlers?
Dave
 
Dave.
The pictures of the Mule deer were taken on March 22nd. He should be shedding his antlers soon because the new ones will begin to start growing soon. The big bucks normally lose their antlers the latter part of January and into February. I'm sure weather is a factor.
Al
 
Al, always enjoy your pictures....and especially the Pyrrhuloxia shots....a bird I always enjoyed seeing when in the desert.....don't recall you ever mentioning Scissor Tailed and Vermillion Flycatchers or Phainopepla's, and was wondering if you got those?......might be you are on the "edge" of their on the edge of their ranges like you are on the Pyrrhuloxia's but wonder I you see them?....
I find it interesting that you're in 1,500 miles South of me in a much warmer climate and my Rufous Males have been back since the first week of March and the little hen birds showed up, on schedule, the third week of the month......heck we've already got Anna's on the nest and in all likelihood have the first fledglings on the wing.....
The Sandhills are passing through and the Burrowing Owls are back....Sage Grouse and Sharptails are on the leks and Blue Grouse are "booming" in the mountains.....I'm sure the Ruffed Grouse are already drumming though I've not heard one yet this Spring...Winter Turkey flocks are breaking up and the males are working themselves into a frenzy with the hens still ignoring them.......had a responsive Wolf howling back at me and the Bears are out of hibernation, the sows escorting their little cubs on their first trips into the world....
Its SPRING no matter what that new snow on the ground wishes to think.....
Keep the pictures coming......


Steve
 
Of all you the birds you mentioned, I sure wished that we had them however the only one I have seen would be the Scissor Tailed and then that was when we were passing through Texas. Over there they call it the Bird of Paradise.

As for the Rufous, I must wait until the 12th of July when they first begin to show up down here on their way back to Mexico and Central America. When you look at their migration pattern it is really something. In the Spring they head up the west coast and then after breeding come down the east side of the Rockies. We normally have them here for a month prior to their departure with the males coming in first and also heading out first.

Along with them come the Calliope hummers and I always enjoy seeing them.

Funny how you begin to see birds and then like ghosts they'll be gone again. Normally the last days of our waterfowl season down here is when I'll see Robins by the hundreds that have already begun heading north.

Right now I'll have to wait for about two to three more weeks prior to the arrival of the orioles. We will see Bullocks, Hooded, and Scott's orioles. It is during this time that we go through a two pound jar of grape jam every other day. Thankfully that is only for a couple of weeks prior to the departure of most of them. Normally a pair or two of the Bullock's orioles will stick around and build their nests. Since there are quite a few Chinese elms growing in the Rio Grande valley just below where we live, they seem to like this tree for building their nests.

Thanks for those comments, Steve. I enjoyed it.
Al
 
Fun, and very realistic, to think that some of "my" Rufous Hummingbirds will spend time at your feeders on their return trip........We loose the males starting in June and after that the only ones we see are sporadic sightings and likely birds from further north passing through....almost no displaying after June....the adult hens leave in August and the young of the year hang around for another month or so.....we don't get the numbers you get there but at the peak of the season when the males are still here and the young are just coming off the nest we'll feed a half gallon of sugar water a day.....that will last a couple of weeks and then it falls off to a quart of so a day.....
Hadn't realized you were out of the range of those flycatchers....one of those "I thought they were found throughout the SW"....heck I see more ScissorTails in Florida in the Winter than you see where you are and I would have never thought that would be the case......
Or only Orioles here are Bullocks and there aren't enough of them on the WET SIDE to do the jelly thing with them....they're far more common on the Eastside in the sagebrush steppe nesting in the Cottonwoods around any permanent water.....most nests include a good amount of fishing line and I have one that I shot out of a tree long ago in the winter than is made completely of many different monafiliment line wts and colors and includes swivels and split shot and one small hook.....gotta be a real trick to fledge young out of a nest that amounts to a snare waiting to happen......everywhere else I have trouble finding Oriole nest but here almost all of them will have a large amount of the ubiquitous hay bale twine in them....pretty easy to spot the bright blue or orange nests when they use that as material......
Take good care of my hummingbirds this summer.....


Steve
 
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