Signs and Birds

Here is a collection of images that we have seen recently. They are put in a separate blog because there is no commonality between them and the other blog subjects. At least that is what we thought. Hope you enjoy.

When you are in a small town, even though it may be tourist oriented, as is Tombstone, you need to diversify to provide service to the widest variety of clients. The more people that consume your goods and services the broader your customer base the more money you make. It is not clear if there is a connection between these two products but we found the sign interesting.

Goldfinches are very common birds where we have traveled. We have encountered a lot of both Lesser Goldfinch as well as American Goldfinch as well. We thought this particular Male American Goldfinch had an interesting posture and expression.

Elfrida is located in about the center of Sulphur Springs valley that runs from Wilcox south to Douglas and beyond. This is a very well done mural on the south side of town that caught our eye. There is a lot of ranching and farming in the area along with the Sandhill Crane that feed in the fields and loaf in the wetlands at Wilcox and Whitewater Draw.

We are always surprised by how a wide variety of birds can just fly in and land on the thorns of various cactus plants. These house Finches don’t seem to have any problem resting on top of the Saguaro. A wide variety of birds can be seen in a similar pose resting on the thorns.

This is not a bug. I have been corrected. This is a Lubber Grasshopper, a big almost 3 inch grasshopper, which is an insect. Like all insects, all species of grasshopper have a three-part body that is made up of the grasshopper's head, it's thorax and the abdomen. Grasshoppers also have six legs, two pairs of wings, and two antennae. So that is your definition. This critter could really do some damage to your garden and other plants in your yard. This is not bug, it is an insect. That being said; it still looks like a bug to me.  

This Mourning Dove needs to work on feather control. This was at Lost Dutchman State Park and there was virtually no wind. Maybe he had a rough night at the local establishment. We were surprised at Lost Dutchman where we saw lots and lots of Mourning Doves and virtually no Eurasian Collared Doves. In many other locations Eurasian Collared Doves were far and away the most common.

We had shown this Vermillion Flycatcher in an earlier post. We thought this well used sign was worth a separate showing. They need a volunteer couple at Whitewater Draw to clean the signs. Three more avian visits and you won’t be able to read the warning and message that the sign is trying to present.