Birding in my Tucson Backyard

 Pigeons on a roof in my neighborhood 9-5-12

As you can imagine, it has been a busy week. I still have so many boxes to unpack and I am trying to think of creative ways to put all this “stuff” away. I sure miss having a basement or an extra storage room. On Monday I had a meltdown mostly because I miss my family back east. After years of “running away from home,” I finally have come to like being around my family. I enjoyed my two years in the east and the short drive to family. Now they are so far away and I am feeling it. Things are getting better though and I have started counting my backyard birds. Being in the city sure has changed the birds that I see. It is a much more sterile environment with few native plants in this neighborhood. I am seeing pigeons every day, so I already know I cannot put out my regular bird feeders. I will have to restrict my feeders to thistle seed and nectar. I bought a thistle seed sock within the first two days to give it a try, then started counting birds!

  Our new home is a two story house, with a balcony off the master bedroom. Part of moving to a new house is figuring out how to live in it. In Andover I had my back porch or front porch to sit on, now I have this balcony for when I am upstairs and the covered patio below when I am downstairs. As a result, I set myself up a little tea station in my bedroom so I can get up in the morning and make tea, then go sit on the balcony and watch birds.

As you can see, I already have a place set up!

 

Breezy Boy makes himself at home.

 

Bonnie takes her morning bath outside.

 

This is my view of the Tucson Mountains to the west.

 

And I love the feathery foliage of this mesquite tree in my neighbor’s yard.

 

This is how the mesquite tree looks from down in the yard. The bushes in front are Oleander, which is really pretty but very poisonous. It is over-used in the landscapes around Tucson and usually overgrows its space.

I have lovely roses in my yard!

 

At the back of the yard is this “tree” which my landlord says is wild tobacco. It grew here all by itself and the birds seem to love it!

It was also the only place I could find to hang the thistle seed sock!

 

I have at least one, if not two Black-back male Lesser Goldfinches! From what I read in my bird guides, the black-backed males are usually seen in Texas!

 

I am seeing lots of lizards in my yard and was able to capture a shot of this little guy on the pillar of my patio this afternoon. It is only about 2 to 3” long! I am also seeing lots of butterflies and will try to get some shots of them as well. I have had a Giant Swallowtail hanging around my orange tree which Doug Taron identified for me on my Facebook page.

In the afternoon the Lesser Goldfinches came back.

 

 

Close-up of Wild Tobacco Blossoms

 

Cumulous clouds building over the Catalina Mountains this afternoon.

 

Birds frequently like to perch in the top of this partially dead tree to the west.

I finally unpacked my hummingbird feeders this afternoon and quickly made some nectar. I hung one feeder out on the tobacco tree and one under the covered patio. I saw one Anna's hummingbird feeding from the feeder out back this evening. We will see who shows up tomorrow.

The Ballerina is back on duty!

(For those of you who know me from my Sycamore Canyon blog, I always had a hummingbird feeder suspended from her hand when I lived there. I did not get many hummingbirds in Andover, MA, so I did not set up a feeder there. I am excited to have year-round hummingbirds again! And now that my computer is up and running I intend to finally post photos of our trip across the country in the next few days, so please come back! And, on September 7th my monthly article at Birding is Fun will post!)

Tucson Yard Birds:

1. Turkey Vulture 8-30-12
2. Mourning dove
3. Rock Pigeon
4. White-winged dove
5. Lesser goldfinch
6. House Finch
7. Black-chinned hummingbird 8-31-12
8. Common raven
9. Gila woodpecker 9-1-12
10. Warbling Vireo
11. Verdin
12. House sparrow
13. Curve-billed thrasher 9-3-12 (heard only)

These are the species I have seen up to this date. I hope to add more, but we will see. I am still waiting to take my first trip to Sweetwater Wetlands! Thank you everyone who has been commenting on my blogpost! I hope to get around to visit everyone very soon!