Earth Day 2022

It’s my April blog post! These 2 photos were not taken today on Earth Day but earlier this week at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. We had visiting relatives and took them there…sadly, it was HOT!!!!! But we still had a nice time…this is a Gila Woodpecker and a Desert Spiny Lizard. Chihuly in the Desert was also installed amid all the lovely flora at the garden. These are just a couple pieces:

You can see that the desert is in full bloom, too.

It was extremely windy here in Phoenix today and the birds were having a hard time navigating. This Inca Dove was being buffeted about so much that she had to use her wings to stabilize herself while scrounging for food.

And here are a few more photos from my yard a few days ago…

A Bee-fly, Rosy-faced Lovebirds, and a Verdin sunny side up.

Ferguson and Torti are now sporting new peace sign collars:

And Ferguson, of course, is always busy, always challenging himself…with geometry problems and learning to play the piano, ragtime, of course…

…While Bouche and Callie romped in the dirt and flowers on this sunny, windy Earth Day.

February 2022

I started this blog on February 13, 2009…so 13 years of blogging…but it has gotten sparser and sparser as the years have gone by. Initially, I posted almost daily, then down to 3 times a week, then weekly, then a couple times a month and now I try to do it at least monthly. I know people don’t read blogs as often anymore and there is other social media that is more immediate but I do it sort of for myself, too, so I can look back and remember what was going on at a certain time in my life. But I do thank anyone who still reads this. So here is a jumble of photos I’ve taken since my last post. More birds~House Sparrow female, White-crowned Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Curve-billed Thrasher, Rosy-faced Lovebird, Gila Woodpecker male, House Finch male, Anna’s Hummingbird male.

And cats…these are the indoor cats…Ferguson, the most cooperative, Torti, the least cooperative, and Bouche, who still can’t totally let go of the outdoor life. He’s a dasher. There are several outdoor kitties, too.

Hope to see you in March!!!!!

Nothing Happening Here

Mexican Yellow Butterfly

That was a new butterfly for me, in our yard. I have a new camera, a Nikon D500, but I’m still not getting out into the world much to shoot anything. Covid precautions, family issues, minor injuries, lack of motivation. I did an online course on the camera so I understand the basics but there is a lot more to learn. So…blogging is also more difficult because I don’t have any photos I’m very enthused about…no new birds, for instance. In a slump, I guess, sort of a long one…and now it’s the holidays, which I also can’t seem to get into.

We have many kitties but Ferguson does get featured more than the others. He’s a pretty cooperative model. He did not at all enjoy posing in this winter sweater but he tolerated it…

Since he can’t speak English, he has to find other ways to show his displeasure:

This is the first photo I took of him with the new camera:

So just for fun, I massacred a pomegranate. It had been laying on the ground for a few days so I didn’t think eating it would be a good idea plus ours just don’t taste good. The birds ate most of the seeds so it was not a pointless crime.

And here are a very few birds that have stopped by lately…

Curve-billed Thrashers, Abert’s Towhee, Rosy-faced Lovebirds

So not into the holiday season but hoping to snap out of it some. I hope yours is far more fun. Let’s hope 2022 is better than the last couple have been.

It Was a Bug!

Yes, that Verdin has some creepy insect in its mouth that I don’t want to share. But the actual bug I’m talking about is the bug that my blog seemed to have. I wrote to WordPress and they said that it’s a Safari bug so I’m now writing this on Firefox and everything seems to be okay…so~whew!~my blog won’t be disappearing yet.

I know people don’t read blogs as much as they used to…maybe it’s a dying breed. I don’t even read them as much as I used to but I do like having this record of part of my life that I can refer back to. So, in many ways, the blog is for me. I used to read so many blogs and had far more readers but they dropped off the radar one by one, switching to Facebook or Instagram or just not doing it at all anymore…I miss it, you don’t get the same depth from Facebook and Instagram posts…oh, well…glad I don’t have to disappear just yet.

The Rosy-faced Lovebirds are not hanging around as much as they were when it was cooler. In fact, the birds are much sparser now but I do still see many of them. I just don’t sit out in my yard like I used to when it’s this hot.

Some bit the dust.

A White-winged Dove, immature Abert’s Towhee, and Anna’s Hummingbird male attempt to keep cool one way or another.

Smoke from all the wildfires surrounding Phoenix made the moon appear just the color it is in this photo on a recent June night.

I dug out my old vintage photo collection from last year and was going to do something new with it but so far the inspiration hasn’t hit…indoor activities are best right now…this was how far I got with it last year.

Okay, you asked (not really), here are some new cat photos:

This is Ferguson enacting some scenes from my favorite ever Netflix series, The Magicians.

And another apparent addition to our outside group, Sadly Sad Eyes…a handsome, feral guy:

Keep cool!

Timeless

Or back in time…

My outdoor birds are not cooperating with their acting duties so they are on hiatus, maybe through the summer as it’s just too hot now to sit out there hoping they will toss me a morsel when I toss them a peanut so this is Anthropomorphizing Birds to date: