This beauty is a Mourning Dove. We have several of them that visit our yard. You can usually find one sitting on the back wall or in the front yard sitting under the Jacaranda tree. I like the doves.

While I was looking at the Dove I heard a lot of bird noise coming from the side yard. A couple of Sparrows were fighting with a large Hummingbird. They both seem to be nesting in the same area.

It is really hard to get a photo of the hummers. They are so small and fast that the camera won’t auto focus and most times I am not quick enough to get the camera in focus on my own before they fly off. Add to that the fact that they like to sit in the tangle of dead branches (yep, that wonderful outdoor type neighbor) and that makes the photo look very washed out. I’ll keep trying.

Something about that Palm tree doesn’t look quite right and I’m not just talking about the dried bits. (I’m trying to convince Recliner Man we need to take the Palms out because they haven’t looked good for a few years… but that is another story.)

There is a Dove’s nest up there. Mother Dove was keeping a very close eye on me. And what a big eye it was!

Part of the commotion was due to this fellow. He is a Great-tailed Grackle. These birds are known to raid nests for eggs and nestlings so none of the smaller birds are very happy to see them come swooping through.

This is a female Great-tailed Grackle. They are large, loud birds.

What is she looking at?

It’s one of those flying rats Pigeons. We don’t like the Pigeons. For the first several years that we lived here the neighborhood was overrun with Pigeons. Our roofs were covered with them… and with their leavings. They are messy, nasty birds. Recliner Man decided to try and get them to leave our house so he and The Boy went up on the roof. The roof is made of tiles and even on a cool day it gets very hot up there. They spent two mornings cleaning off the roof and hosing all the mess down to the driveway for further cleanup. Our neighbor came over and said, “Where did all that Pigeon poop come from!?!” There was a lot of it. “From Pigeon butts” was Recliner Man’s answer. All that nasty, hot work had left him a little grumpy. Once he had it clean he covered the roof in bird netting and the Pigeons all moved over to our neighbor’s roof.

We had a pair of Mallards visit us one evening. Boy did they look out of place! We live in a desert and our yard is covered in gravel. Not exactly the prime location for water fowl. I think they must have come from the open canal that runs along the edge of our neighborhood.