There will be no photographer credits in this post as we have had two extra people in our house (family) and a new camera and lense laying around, therefore, we present

 

shhh, she is nesting

Ha!

Nectar.

 

brought to you by

Rhonda Gomez ~ Oscar Gomez ~ Alex Gomez ~ Patrick Gomez

Today was tree trimming day around our house.  Most of you have heard or seen here on the blog that we have a dead palm tree on the lot that we call the Bird Condo.  Every spring it houses numerous species of nesting birds in its hallowed out cavities and we watch it with a paternal eye.

Just now my husband noticed the tree trimmers hoisting a ladder onto the tree and he flew out the door to oversee the operation (read: stay away from the Bird Condo!).

Take a look at our first ever photographed Green Parakeet eggs -- way to GO Daddy!

We will make every attempt to continue to document the nest without disturbing the parents, so stay tuned for updates.

 

PLEASE NOTE WE ARE A CORNEL LAB CITIZEN NESTWATCH SITE. Check them out for appropriate nest watching guidelines.

http://nestwatch.org/

 

Sonnets are full of love

Christina Rossetti (1881)

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome Has many sonnets: so here now shall be One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home, To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome; Whose service is my special dignity, And she my loadstar while I go and come And so because you love me, and because I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name: In you not fourscore years can dim the flame Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws Of time and change and mortal life and death.

 

(download)

Click here to download:

mother-s-day-2012-flower-kingbirds-and-more-wcrmGxasGABkfFxGkEDj.zip (20.98 MB)

Oh those Kingbirds.

And a surprise visitor.

Scary visitors, but thankfully an OLD nest.

(download)

Click here to download:

mother-s-day-2012-flower-kingbirds-and-more-dayGArbEmeAJDirllfuB.zip (19.49 MB)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

 

We've been seeing this bird around the yard for several days.  We often see Couches Kingbirds around and this bird -- unless it's a juvenile -- doesn't look/feel like a Couches.  I'm guessing --if not Couches -- then Western Kingbird, or possibly Great Crested Flycatcher?

Any experts care to enlighten a newbie? 

We had a McAllen Convention and Visitor's Bureau Contest winner in last week for birding and try as he might, he never saw the Red-Crowned Parrots -- most notably the nesting pair in my backyard -- or the ubigutous Green Parakeets.  This is genuinely an odd occurs, to bird South Texas and not see these species.

 

My husband, Oscar Gomez took these pictures just a few days after our guest left.  

Sorry Richard.  Maybe next time!

http://www.theurbn.com/2012/04/bird-sanctuary-mcallen/

First nesting birds in our yard in McAllen, TX.

Yellow-crested Night Heron

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

in the "bird condo"!

 

 

Full Moon Rising

It happened again last week standing on Monhegan's headlands, 
alongside other sweat-soaked first-timers with trail-maps, 
cameras, sloshing water bottles. They shushed their children 
and we all looked down on wheeling gulls, slope-browed
eiders, gannets gliding inches above the rumpled-shirt 
surface of the waves. A little girl in red shorts 
clambered up a boulder, flapped her arms, cried 
out, I'm flying! and had to be gathered in mid-
leap by her father. On those cliffs, sky-spill 
and sea-tilt blending blues, wings everywhere,
even the yellow fans of clicking grasshoppers, 
I felt this familiar, spreading sense of seepage, 
as if I were bleeding but unable to locate 
the source, the day all leaking away 
before filling up; no way to fix it, 
to yoke me to the moment, no container 
sound enough to prevent sky 
from sliding down lopsided 
like broken blinds, waves 
from scattering into feathers, 
or birds from whirling 
into children who slip 
over an edge, 
unnoticed and 
uncatch-
able.

Unfixable

It happened again last week standing on Monhegan's headlands, 
alongside other sweat-soaked first-timers with trail-maps, 
cameras, sloshing water bottles. They shushed their children 
and we all looked down on wheeling gulls, slope-browed
eiders, gannets gliding inches above the rumpled-shirt 
surface of the waves. A little girl in red shorts 
clambered up a boulder, flapped her arms, cried 
out, I'm flying! and had to be gathered in mid-
leap by her father. On those cliffs, sky-spill 
and sea-tilt blending blues, wings everywhere,
even the yellow fans of clicking grasshoppers, 
I felt this familiar, spreading sense of seepage, 
as if I were bleeding but unable to locate 
the source, the day all leaking away 
before filling up; no way to fix it, 
to yoke me to the moment, no container 
sound enough to prevent sky 
from sliding down lopsided 
like broken blinds, waves 
from scattering into feathers, 
or birds from whirling 
into children who slip 
over an edge, 
unnoticed and 
uncatch-
able.

 

Just now saw 4 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in the "duck tree".

And I am hearing the Yellow-crowned Night Herons everyday now -- still only counting 4 adults herons, so hopefully we'll keep a good sized maintainable breeding colony.

Mating season is so fun!  Last year, I believe, we had a least 6 - 8 species nesting onsight.

I find I cannot wait to see what this Spring brings.