A Look at Some Recent Backyard Activity

As hot as it has been, my back porch still provides some nice views

Brown-crested Flycatchers breed in the southern Arizona desert. I have them in my neighborhood although I haven't been able to find this year's cavity nest(s) in the area saguaros. Still, I can hear the Flycatchers early in the morning and late in the day. Often, one of the Brown-Crested Flycatchers will come in for an afternoon drink.

Otherwise looking like many of the other summering flycatchers in our area, the Brown-Crested has a noticeably peaked head and a long tail. To drink, it dips its head into the water to fill its bill, and then tilts its head back to let the water roll down its throat. After drinking this bird never lingers but will quickly fly away.

A friend living one block away tells me he has a Hooded Oriole nesting in one of his palm trees. Sometimes when I'm on the back porch I can see the male Hooded Oriole arrive at the oriole feeder during the day. Oriole feeders will have bigger openings than typical hummingbird feeders in order to make it easier for the orioles to drink from. This is another shy bird. It rarely hangs around before or after drinking. When finished, it will dart back through the desert in a path straight towards my friend's house.

I was on a walk one afternoon when my neighbor texted me to tell me that there was a Bobcat in my front yard. By the time I got home, it had moved to the back of his yard.

The Bobcat knew we were watching it from a distance and behind a fence, but it didn't act too bothered. Besides glancing over for a second, it continued to gaze forward.

It began a very purposeful walk across the desert. It didn't appear to be stalking anything, but it definitely seemed to be in search of prey.

This is a focused and alert look!!!

The Northern Cardinal is a regular yardbird for me, coming in throughout the day for the sunflower seeds I make available for it. It is impossible to get tired of that bright color!

A summer storm in '23 caused a power outage for a few days, blew off some roofs in the neighborhood and knocked over countless trees and saguaros. I lost two palo verde trees that blew over and died at my property line. Those dead trees still provide nice habitat for desert creatures and perches for the birds. I was sitting on the porch one day when a Cooper's Hawk landed on the dead palo verde.

After a bit, the Cooper's Hawk turned around. With my eyes and camera focused on it, I couldn't see anything else in the surrounding area.

But then a second Cooper's Hawk arrived. It looked much larger than the first and so I assumed that the second bird was a female and the first bird a male. They remained side-by-side for just a few seconds and then both birds flew off.

As hot as it has been, the desert is still alive. If you are patient, there is always a chance to see something special every day.