Just a Few Special Photos

from this past week

Due to some problems with my internet connection along with a few other things, this is a short newsletter. It includes some of my very favorite photos from this week though. I'll start with this shot of a Coyote. It seemed to be late for a meeting and was in a distant and steady trot at a golf course. Coyotes are always a special treat to see.

Wilson's Warblers are a sign of spring in Tucson as they migrate through our area. I had seen two already this year but these very active warblers rarely sit still and never in the open. I tracked this one for a full minute or more in a pine tree, taking out-of-focus shot after out-of-focus shot. This one though, came out well. The males have a black cap.

Check out the range map to see how far these little birds travel between seasons! (Range map courtesy of Cornell Lab's All About Birds site)

The Western Screen Owl seems to have settled down in the nest box on my porch. I see her daily close to sunset when she sticks her head out of the opening of her nest box. I'm pretty certain she is sitting on eggs now. I wanted to show this photo to give you some perspective on her size. At about 8" tall and a cavity nester, she uses this box easily. Look at the circular opening. It is 3" in diameter. The owl's head seems to fit that opening well. But the skull of a Western Screech Owl is only about 1.5" wide. So half of that head that you are seeing is composed of feathers. She's not as big-headed as she seems!

Finally, here is a photo that I was thrilled to get. It is an Anna's Hummingbird hunting for little insects of some kind. We think of hummingbirds feeding from flowers, which they do. But they also are 'meat-eaters'. They need their protein and swarms of flying insects offer a bounty for hummingbirds. Here is a "KidsAnswer" science page with a simple explanation of that behavior:

And here is an article from Science Daily with a bit more information on what makes this hunting possible: