Honey Nuggets

There's no better way to enjoy the transition from spring to summer than to watch the quail chicks head down to the pond for a sip. I shot some video of the little darlings this morning. I like to refer to the chicks as honey nuggets. So I titled this clip "Honey Nuggets". The music is played by Jon Sayles who is dedicated to the preservation and sharing of early classical music from all over Europe. You can listen to many delightful samples over here.

Spring Visitors

This is a little animated gif I created of a Roadrunner. I'm posting it for Illustration Friday's weekly topic "Early". The early bird gets the worm. Yet in this case just he would get just about anything. Roadrunner's will eat whatever crosses their path. I've seen one eating a finch. I don't mind when a hawk swoops down and scoops up a bird and fly's off. However the Roadrunner will eat its pray right on my patio, leaving me to clean up the aftermath....yecch.



In the last few weeks I've spotted some species I've yet to see before. I've caught brief glimpses of this Western Tanager, yet never had a chance to get a shot of him until just the other day. He sure is handsome.




This is a first spotting for this bird as well. I believe he is a Lazuli Bunting.



The Turkey Vultures around here are huge! This one looks big enough to fly off with a golf cart. I'm hoping to get a shot of him with some background other than just sky, for a better size reference.


The Wild Irises are in bloom. When I first moved in I was told they were Lily's. I may have even referred to them as Lily's in earlier posts. I'm not really sure what species of Iris this is, but I really enjoy their beautiful flowers.

Vermilion Flycatcher

This morning a Vermilion Flycatcher stopped by. Right after I got the camera set up, he came in a little closer and landed in a young Palo Verde tree.

Linking for Illo Friday

This weeks "Illustration Friday" challenge is "Linking". I had a visit from a Bull Snake the other day who inspired me to do a snake motif for the challenge.



Hmmm...I wonder what this Bull Snake has got a hankering for?



Things are really starting to bloom down at Wild Desert Nursery. Deb alerts me when the time is ripe to venture down with my camera. Some of the blossoms are simply spectacular.



We had a visit from what appears to be a young Oriole.



I really need to be mindful of where I leave the bird seed. This critter had better watch his back, because there is a big ass bull snake patrolling the yard now. I've cut down on the amount of seed I give to the birds at any given time, to keep these rodents from getting out of hand. I would love to see the Bull Snake stick around and patrol for Rattlers as well.

The Chipmunks Chagrin

I’ve been trying to come up with different ways to keep the Chipmunks off of the seed block and out of the bird feed. I decided to slap a little bit of salad oil on the pole and it seems to be working pretty good already. I got some shots of an extremely tenacious rodent trying to shimmy up a greased pole. I added some clips of a few birds splashing about in the pond. I found the music from a creative commons source. The Song is called “Waterbound” and it from a band called “Shake that Little Foot. This is where you can find the song....I guess they block links here, so you will have to type in the three w’s and the dot first then the rest of the address is as follows.
archive.org/details/Shake_that_Little_Foot
As always, thanks for stopping in.

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Skinny Dip

I did A portrait of the Coopers Hawk and put it on the cover of my website. I decided to give the site a face lift and add some new animated GIF's, and a motion graphics reel. I'd love any feedback on the site. Unfortunately Go Daddy is not playing fair over letting go of their url, so the link to one of the most recent site designs is currently comatose. I've grown so fond of the Hawk and have been nursing a yen to slap her in the middle of a madala for quite a while. So now she's finally done. Henerietta the dipping Hawk. My new portfolio is over at...www.pixeloosa.com


I really started feeling like a dip sh*t; for calling this majestic hawk "Henery".
Come to find out Henery is really "Henietta". He is actually a she. The female is much larger than the male, so I guess that's how I got confused. She loves taking long dips in the pond. A couple of posts back I uploaded some great video footage of her taking a long dip. That post is over here...http://onceuponapond.blogspot.com/2009/12/leslies-friends.html


Meet the Coyote that's been running throughout the wash. I call him Sabicus.

Leapin Linkin Lizards

This image is inspired by Illustration Friday's weekly topic "Wilderness". Most of the wild things in these parts have feathers and scales. We have seen coyotes, bobcats, javalina, deer,
and plenty of other furry critters in the wilderness around here. Yet the the birds and reptiles seem to dominate the scenery in my little wild backyard. Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you enjoyed the lizard motif.