Trailer Park Birds

Go figure! In an area where the bulk of the residents flee back to their northern hometowns, the birds stick around. So much for snowbirds referencing actually birds. One tends to think of the desert in summer as devoid of life. Far from it.

It does help I'm sure that people now live in the desert and have pools and water their plants and some fools even have lawns. Some care enough to feed the birds as well. My grandpa's neighbor has at least 2 hummingbird feeders, but the only time I saw hummers at his feeders it was late in the evening and I couldn't get a decent picture. They must nap most of the day away.

Other larger birds though were out not only in the mornings, but in the middle of the day as well. It wasn't horrendously hot, so that could have been the reason. It was only mid 90s as opposed to 110.

We were treated to our regular sounds of House Finches waking us up every day.

We were even more treated to new birds like this Curve-billed Thrasher

Here's a different Gila Woodpecker than the one I previously posted about. I'd seen them before, but it was my first photo of one, so Photo-Lifer ;)

Even though we have tons of MODOs here, this is the youngest Mourning Dove I've ever seen. In fact, with it's scaly nature of light edges on the feathers, we had a devil of a time figuring it out. Inca Doves (another lifer) have dark edges making the scaly look so that was ruled out.

This funky bird I originally mistook for a crow with a very odd tail. I knew that wasn't quite right, but I didn't know about Great-tailed Grackles. I showed my dad the picture and he instantly knew and turned his nose up at it as a nuisance. Turns out that is what they are. By the end of the week their noises were bothersome.

This is another lifer, the Eurasian Collared-dove!

And right now my very favorite - definitely favorite dove - the White-winged Dove. Of course every time I think of it, all I can hear is Stevie Nicks singing ;)
And in the previous post, you already saw my Inca Dove photo. So that makes 4 - that's right, 4! - doves that reside in one trailer park alone. Amazing!

Grandpa's neighborhood birds:
Gambel's Quail - no successful pics in the park
Cactus Wren - I think mom got one. My best pics of it were elsewhere.
Gila Woodpecker
Curve-billed Thrasher
House Finch
House Sparrow
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Eurasian Collared-dove
Starling
Great-tailed Grackle
Mockingbird
Turkey Vulture - soaring over the park at least 2 afternoons in a row
Western Kingbird - in the evening only

The woodpeckers and doves were most plentiful. The quail were around every morning and evening, but there were too many places for them to hide, so we rarely got an eyeball on them.