Untitled.

Your occasional cat.

Untitled.

Don’t act surprised. Of course she did.

Soaptree yucca (Yucca elata) at San Pedro House.

Untitled.

Snags.

Only four days after hatching, and the neighborhood hummingbird babies are getting downy-fuzzy and looking more bird-like. And if you have never seen hummingbird poo before, today is your lucky day. They are cute, not tidy.

Broad-billed hummingbird chicks / colibrí pico ancho (Cynanthus latirostris) in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Thoughts I Have Thunk

Knowing a lot is not knowing everything.

Cane cholla in bloom.

Cylindropuntia imbricata at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

Untitled.

The gang's all here. The second hummer chick hatched yesterday, and mom is busy making refueling flights. The babies will develop rapidly, and fledge in about eighteen days. I'll try to get a few shots, but I'm reluctant to be overly present. I keep my distance when the mother bird is at the nest, and only approach the chicks for a few seconds when she is away feeding.

Broad-billed hummingbird / colibrí pico ancho (Cynanthus latirostris) in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

There was a ruckus in the pines behind my house yesterday. I watched a Cooper's hawk bullying two great horned owl fledglings. The owlets were very protective of each other, huddling together and shielding each other from the hawk with their wings. In the final photo you can see one of the owls lost a down feather in the brawl.

Great horned owls / búho cornudo (Bubo virginianus), in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Hummingbird update: The first of the broad-billed hummingbirds hatched yesterday. I am going to call the chicks Turquesa and Zafiro (turquoise and sapphire) for their dominant colors when they mature.

Broad-billed hummingbird / colibrí pico ancho (Cynanthus latirostris) in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Southwestern prickly poppy (Argemone pleiacantha), at Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Mourning dove / huilota común (Zenaida macroura), nesting in an ornamental cherry tree, Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Tacoma Street Wash.