Bird watching 07-17-18

For the last two years I have walked KoKo twice a day, which is good for both of us.  An additional perk is seeing the birds in the area.  There is one yard with mostly desert plants that hosts a flock every morning.  They all fly up when we walk by, so it is not always possible to see what species they are.  But in this area the birds are usually house finches, least goldfinches, phoebes, doves, house sparrows, towhees, hummingbirds, crows, mockingbirds, western bluebirds, and some others I can't think of at the moment.  Several houses have hummingbird feeders and one house has a bird feeding platform outside one window.  So, we usually see lots of birds.  But yesterday there were several special sightings. 

On our morning walk there was a fledgling crow and it's mother up on a light standard.  The youngster was begging and crying and carrying on and the mother just ignored it.  She flew off, he followed, she flew back, he followed.  I think she was trying to get him to go off on his own and stop making so much horrible squawking.  I don't think they even noticed us walking below and I watched them for five minutes or so.  

Complaining crow from Google Images 

 Then later in the day I looked out the kitchen window and there was a ROADRUNNER sitting on the low wall across the back.  I have never seen a roadrunner around here, it is all houses and streets, no open country near by.  I tried to take a picture, but my camera battery was dead and I couldn't get a close enough shot with my cell phone.  He hopped down a bit and flew off down the slope.  I wonder what he was doing in this built up area.  

Roadrunner picture taken at Lake Havasu  2005

And even later in the day I looked out to see a hummingbird hovering over the wall and going down close to it.  There are no flowers nearby that could attract a hummer.  But I think she was interested in the spider webs along the bottom of the brick cap on the wall and the hummers use them in their nest building.  There are always some there even though the gardener blows them when he comes on Tuesdays.  So, three unique bird sightings that I came across accidentally in one day.  It was a thrill.   Simple pleasures!  

Anna's Hummingbird from Google 

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