The Birds

As I do at home in Pa, I hang bird feeders when possible, where ever we park. Here at Verde Valley I have had a few visitors and I thought I'd show you. The first one is a Gila Woodpecker. This is a picture of the SHE-Gila, as I named them. The HE-Gila has a red cap on his head. They are cactus dwellers and have a very shrill call.

Next are the goldfinches. I have identified many varieties... more then in PA.

 I also hang a hummer feeder on my dinning area window. One rainy day, I actually had 2 male Anna Hummers share the feeder. If you watch hummers you know what a rare site that can be. This species has a brilliant red/purple head, green back and brown wings.

I also have the usual assortment of Puple Finches, Morning Doves, Cardinals and the western variety of Blue Jay called a Sage Jay.

The Hummers are my favorite though. My friend Millie had one fly right in her RV. They aren't afraid of anything and they dive bomb John when he gets too close to the feeder.

The only problem with feeding the birds are the skunks who come at night to clean up any seed that has fallen on the ground..... so I take the feeders in at night. We still occasionally get visited by the skunks but they are so use to people that they rarely spray.... they just walk away.... except for one time. I was watching Millie's ceramic peligan (outside ornament) and the skunks came and crawled over the poor bird. I told her when she returned that I wasn't a very good sitter because her bird was defiled by a skunk while she was gone.