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August at Tedderhaven

The yacht club has sailing lessons which are fun to watch. They practice capsizing and righting the boat and getting back underway.
Lizards rarely hold still for me but tonight I got lucky.
I think these might be phoebes but I am not yet sure.
Yep, phoebe.
My goal for August is to get better at catching birds in the trees. The lesser goldfinch is easier to find than most.
Leeloo and Veta, illustrating “It takes a village.”

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Wildlife Update

We’re on the eastern edge of the canyon wren’s range, so it was exciting to find this new bird for the first time a few months ago. Darlyne has been hearing it sing outside her window for a while, wondering who that song belonged to. This morning it landed right in front of me and belted out its song–so much noise coming from such a little bird! I’m really happy that it has clearly made its home at Tedderhaven.
Lesser goldfinch. I just can’t get over how intense their colors are.
We knew we had at least two golden-fronted woodpecker babies. But as they have matured, measured by the depth of color and the definition of their head markings, new young have appeared (easy to distinguish because their head markings are faint), so it’s clear that the parents have raised more than one clutch of young. It’s such a dramatic bird, and not in the least skittish, so we see it all the time at the deck feeder, even when we are sitting right there.
Every time I see this bird I get excited because it’s so pretty and it’s something new, so I quickly take a photo (this one is blurry) and later look it up. And every single time it turns out to be a . . . house sparrow, described as ubiquitous. I can guarantee that this cycle will continue.
Rock squirrels are just weird looking, if you ask me.
The yacht club has sailing lessons; there is a teacher with a bullhorn and the kids in their little boats. They looked like they were doing very well.

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More birds and other wildlife at Tedderhaven

Stick insect, about 8″ from tail to tip of antenna
That face!
Young golden-fronted woodpecker; he hasn’t grown his colors all the way yet
There are two young woodpeckers; this is the female. She will have a yellow patch and an orange patch, and the male will have an additional red patch on his head.
House finch, taking a break from feeding his insistent young
Young chickadee with unruly feathers
Black crested titmouse