Sugar Bats

There are two species of bats in this area that are called sugar bats and they are found in August in abundance here in South Eastern Arizona. The two species are the Lesser long-nosed bat and the Mexican long-tongued bat.

They will drain the hummingbird feeders at night, if left up, and are very sloppy eaters. They do pollinate cacti and agaves so their sugar splurge at the hummingbird feeder is just a side light for quick energy and a nice snack.

Out on the front patio, the bats are regular visitors to the hummingbird feeders so we decided to get some pictures.

The Lesser long-nosed bat, which is species we have in these pictures, is a relatively large bat compared with most U.S. bat species. It measures about 2.75 to 3.75 inches in total length, with about a 14 inch wingspan and can be dark gray to "sooty" brown in color and has a prominent nose leaf at the tip. Its long tongue, which we will see in later images, an adaptation for feeding on flower nectar, can be extended up to three inches.

This image gives you a better perspective on the wingspan. The red hummingbird feeder is 8 inches across. You can see the small foot resting on the feeder but they don’t really rest and eat rather lurp and slurp on the fly.

You can often see multiple bats at the feeder at one time. Again, one has a foot on the rail probably for balance while eating.

This bat has just left the feeder and is heading off into the night. You can see part of its tongue in the picture It is still licking its chops from the savory sugar water. The feeder contains the basic hummingbird recipe 4 to 1, putting a cup of water in a measuring cup and adding ¼ cup of sugar.

This is how they feed but very quickly. They are almost totally silent in their flight even as they pass close by you. The patio is fairly small and when they are in large numbers they can get rather close. We have not seen them hit each other, the walls, nor us. Fortunately, the bats are very accurate and efficient fliers.

Here are two more at the feeder. The one on the left is showing his long tongue. It is a Lesser long-nosed bat so the tongue on the Mexican long-tongued bat must really be quite long.

We hope you enjoyed the brief look at the sugar bats. If you do spend any time down here in Southern Arizona, in August, be sure and take the feeders down at night, they will certainly empty them if you do not.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best – George & Deanna

Mostly Hummingbirds

This is a blog post mostly about hummingbirds. We have been trying to find some hummingbirds recently as August is a prime time for hummers in South East Arizona. There are supposedly 13 or 14 different species that you can see at various places near here. This post will only show a few species and we will post again later in August if we can find more. There are some fun pictures here.

Broad-billed Hummingbird – Showing the male’s red and black bill, the emerald colored body, and the bright sapphire colored throat. They can be found in South Eastern Arizona in the summer.

This image is of another Broad-billed at a feeder. Not sure what is the situation with the wing feathers, he seems to be missing a few as we will see in some subsequent images.

Here is a Juvenile Male Broad-billed Hummingbird. You can see the coloration on the throat developing. Note all the wing feathers and their arrangement compared to the previous image.

Black-chinned Female Hummingbird. The bill is solid back, there is no orange coloration. The white tips on the tail feathers and the light subtle markings on the throat indicate a female Black-chinned. There is a small white comma shape behind the eye not the longer white streak as seen on the Broad-billed.

We would imagine that many of you have hummingbird feeders and see them chasing each other around. In many cases they are trying to protect the food source from other individuals. Some species can be much more aggressive than others; here we see a female Black-chinned and an immature Broad-billed having a discussion around the feeder.

Violet-crowned Hummingbird – This is another summer visitor to South Eastern Arizona. They have an unmistakable long white neck, throat and underside. Also note the orange bill with the back tip. The violet crown for which they are named does not show up in this image because of the shadows and location of the feeder back in the trees.

Hummingbird – What – Wait – For those of you not ornithologically inclined this is actually not a hummingbird, it is a female Gila Woodpecker. They are often seen at feeders and can drink from them with their long tongue.

Here is a young Black-chinned Hummingbird. The subtle patterning on the chest, the bill size and structure, and the overall coloration indicate a Black-chinned Juvenile.

Here is just an interesting image of a male juvenile Broad-billed. Sure seems to have long wings.

This is a female Broad-billed Hummingbird. Note the orange coloration on the bill. There are no markings on the neck or chest. She might be looking up to see if someone is going to attack.

This is a little different view of a Female Black-chinned Hummingbird. Note the subtle markings on the throat. The end of the beak gets lost in the blackness of the background.

Here we see more quarreling at the feeder. They are two juvenile Broad-billed Hummingbirds going at each other. It was really dark back in the trees where they were having their discussion.

This image concludes the brief discussion on Hummingbirds. A Male Broad-billed is leaving the area.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look at some Hummingbirds. We will keep looking for more of them to photograph and share with you. They are a lot of fun to watch.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best – George & Deanna

Flowers - A Lizard - Shorebirds - A Neat House

In this blog post we will look at a couple of flowers, some shorebirds since the southward migration is underway, a lizard, and an old house out by itself. Come along and look at what we found.

It has rained quite a bit here recently and I noticed the morning droplets on this rose in our back garden. It turned out to be a decent image, nice looking red rose.

This lizard has some interesting markings. It is about 8 inches long and was on the wall by the front door one morning. It has absolutely no problem running up and down the wall on the house. I am sure the texture from the stucco helps with the traction.

Now if the lizard can only bring with him a few friends and eat more of the flies that are somewhat annoying, that would be wonderful.

We were over near Willcox AZ, a location we have mentioned before that has some water settlement ponds. The shorebird migration is underway and many of the shorebirds will stop here to rest up and then continue south to escape the cold of the winter. You can see a wide variety of shorebirds at this time of year passing through.

Here are two Back-necked Stilts and the bird in the center is a Willet. The Black-necked Stilts actually have two legs they just rest on one and tuck the other up in their feathers.

Here is a group of Black-necked Stilts as you can see they do have two legs, well most of them.

This is a group of American Avocet. They are a long legged shorebird with a bill that curves upwards on the end. They will often time keep their bill open a little and sweep it side to side it just below the surface of the water to feed on tiny food items.

Note the Willet in the middle of the Avocets. It is a different Willet than shown earlier as the markings are much darker showing he is still in partial breeding plumage.

The flock of Avocets has been joined by a group of Wilson’s Phalaropes who are passing through on their way south. The Phalaropes will spend the winter in South America.

The female Phalarope will lay the eggs in the spring and then leave the nest having the male incubate, feed, and raise the young. The female is brighter colored than many other females of bird species because she does not need to sit on the nest hiding her presence with drab coloration, that’s the male’s job here.

A thunderstorm with some rain had just passed through when this Song Sparrow appeared. It certainly needs to work on feather management but it is fine with skipping the afternoon shower.

This is the flower of what we believe to be a White Torch Cactus. It blooms only for a few days here and then the flower dies off. It is beautiful flower to have such a short lifespan.

This is a Snowy Egret, a wading bird that stands a little over two feet tall... It is identified from other egrets (Cattle Egret and Great Egret) by having yellow feet. Often times they are called Golden Slippers. No it did not raise its foot on command, we just happened to catch one foot in the air while it was walking.

This is a Gamble’s Quail chick and it is about half grown. While quietly sitting on a bench watching for birds an adult pair of Gamble’s came walking down the trail in front of the bench and there were four chicks with them all the same size as this one. It is much easier to identify the young ones when Mom and Dad bring them along.

Here is a decent house. Just a few shingles, some paint maybe a window or two and some good looking doors and you are ready to move in. Somewhere in the process you would want to fumigate, a lot, before your personal belongs were moved in. Nice house in dark sky country the night stars would be absolutely amazing. There is not much near here for miles.

That concludes our look around at various flowers, lizards, and birds. We hope you enjoyed the sojourn and found something of interest.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna

All the best – George & Deanna

Black-crowned Night Heron

In this short blog post we want to give you an overview of a bird called a Black-crowned Night Heron. We have shown a few images in earlier posts of this species, this time we will take a closer look.

Unlike many birds whose name seems odd and contrary to their appearance this bird is true to his name. It does have a black crown and it does spend time hunting for food at night. Typically you will find them around water where they can find something to eat such as fish, frogs and other morsels.

This is an adult Black-crowned Night Heron. It is very distinctively marked with the black crown, white head plume and gray coloration. Both male and female look similar. Note the large feet. They build stick nests in trees so have a good use for those feet and they nest in groups that often include other species, such as other herons, egrets, and ibis.

Black-crowned Night Heron are typically 23-28 inches in height and have a wingspan of a little less than four feet.

This is a juvenile of the species. Completely different in coloration, brown streaks on the front and they lack the black cap and grayish coloration. They leave the nest at about 1 month of age but cannot fly until they are 6 weeks old. They move through the vegetation on foot, joining up in foraging flocks at night.

This juvenile was trying to hide behind some short grasses in a muddy pond. We spotted the heron and then he realized we were looking and got a little nervous.

The juvenile took flight as we were watching him and he did not proceed too far down the muddy pond. The next few images show the Juvenile in flight. After taking these images we left the heron alone and went about looking for other birds.

Our birdwatching loop brought us back by the area where the Juvenile Heron had been seen and we found the heron in a tree. We had mentioned earlier that they roost in trees and so seem quite comfortable in that environment. It was neat to see the bird in the various situations.

That concludes our look at the Black-crowned Night Heron. They are a fascinating bird.
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best

George & Deanna

Red Dragonfly

This is a really short post, just wanted to share an image with you.

We were looking for birds the other day and this Red Dragon fly happened to stop at a pond in front of us. Might as well take his picture. We are amazed and fascinated at the detail in the wings and the overall structure. Rodger, our good freind believes this is a Cardinal Meadowhawk. It is a neat Dragonfly.

Let us know if you have any quetions.

All the Best - George and Deanna

Colorful Bunting - A Regal Ruddy - Two Queens - Young Ones Resting

In this post we will look at a colorful Bunting, Some Queen Butterflies, a couple of Barn Swallow Chicks, and a brown backed wodpecker. We will see some wildly colored feathered friends and show some interesting behavior for some shorebirds. Come along with us and have a look around.

This is a Great Blue Heron. They are quite common and are typically wading birds. You see them along the shallows in ponds waiting for a fish to swim by so they can pluck it from the water or looking for a frog leg supper.

This also is a great Blue Heron but we have never seen one that appears to be swimming. They do not swim as their feet are not webbed but this Heron certainly looks like he is trying. He waded across the pond and finally emerged on the far bank among the reeds.

This wild looking fellow is a Male Ruddy Duck and he is in breeding plumage. The bill is not the bright blue most of the year. He also uses it to thump his breast and make loud noises in a display to attract the ladies. Most of the year the Ruddy Duck is much drabber in coloration.

Here are two Queen Butterflies. They are a species found in the southern part of the US and in Florida and Mexico and further south. They are a strikingly beautiful butterfly

This is a Killdeer. It is a widely distributed shore bird found most often around ponds and bodies of water of all sizes. They have a characteristic large, round head, large eye, and short bill. They are part of a group of birds called plovers. They are especially slender and lanky, with a long, pointed tail and long wings.

They are similar in size to the American Robin, but with longer legs and wings. The Killdeer often makes a broken wing display which is a type of distraction intended to lead a predator away from a nest or it’s young.

Feigning injury, the bird hobbles a short distance, and then pauses while making a shrill, trilling sound. When the predator approaches, the bird quickly moves further from the nest, over and over.

This also is a Killdeer but it is doing an odd display. Not a broken wing as described above rather a fanned tail type of posture. We could not see a nest nearby or any young that needed protecting but it sure appeared the Killdeer was doing a display trying to distract us.

Here are two Lucy’s Warblers. They are small gray birds and do not get very far into the United States staying in Arizona and parts of Southern California. They are a warbler that uses cavities for nesting unlike most warblers that will build their own nests not using cavities. The female will build a nest in an unused woodpecker hole or any type of crevice. She will use twigs, straw, leaf stems and other items to build and line the small nest inside the cavity.

This also is a Lucy’s Warbler but it is a Male as identified by the reddish cap seen on the head. Lucy's Warbler was named in honor of Lucy Hunter Baird, the daughter of ornithologist Spencer Fullerton Baird. So if your dad is an ornithologist maybe you have a warbler named after you as well.

Here are two Barn Swallow chicks resting in the reeds beside a pond. They had been out catching bugs but tired from the chase and the heat. They needed the rest.

This is an adult Barn Swallow. Note the long deeply forked tail. They are the most widespread swallow in the world. They are a bird of open country that typically utilizes man-made structures to build their nest and raise their young, consequently they have spread with human expansion.

The Arizona Woodpecker has a brown back as can be seen here, which is very differnt from other Woodpecker Species in the Unites States.. Like many woodpeckers the male has some red feathers on his head while the female does not. Their distribution in the United States is limited to southern Arizona and part of South West New Mexico. It is mainly a Mexican species and prefers pine oak forests.

We titled this image cooperation. The four ants were dragging or carrying or somehow moving this moth down the sidewalk. They pretty much proceeded in a relatively straight line. It was not clear who was in charge but it appeared, through their cooperative efforts, that would get this large meal to their destination.

This Varied Bunting does not get very far into the United States. It is found in Southern Arizona, a small part of Southern New Mexico, and South West Texas close onto the Rio Grande. The male in this image is colored in purples and reds and blues, it is quite wild in its coloration. The female is a much less colorful, plain brown. The Varied Bunting seems to like deep brush and hides in and under trees somewhat secretively.

We hope you enjoyed the images and information in this post. Lots of different coloration in the variety of birds.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best – George & Deanna