Birds in My Area

Just about every day I go to the park and watch acorn woodpeckers. There are four types of woodpecker in the area. The Northern flicker, acorn woodpecker, the hairy woodpecker, and the Nuttall's. This winter there was a Nuttall's in the neighbor's walnut tree.

There are four types of doves in my neighborhood. The rock pigeon, which is the Mike Tyson pigeon everyone knows about. The mourning dove, which has that classic bass flute call that my friend once said called to mind morning tranquility. The band-tailed pigeon. Similar to the rock pigeon but larger. More striking. You think you've seen a passenger pigeon back from extinction. They have them at my office too. I once watched a pair nuzzle each other and mate. I also saw an eggshell on the ground from their nest.

Finally there's the Eurasian collared dove, which is similar to the mourning dove but with a black torus around its neck. It also has a bass flute sounding call, but distinct, and simpler. Four types of dove.

There are many birds of prey. Lately I've seen a turkey vulture or black vulture circling over the hills to the East. There's the red-tailed hawk that lives at the park and occasionally swoops down at a gopher. There's a pair of juvenile Cooper's hawks that perch on the crosspiece of the utility pole behind my house. Which I misidentified as juvenile merlins, before I read Wikipedia or the Audubon site. Saw that merlins are not in California this time of year. Migrants passing through. But there may be merlins in winter.

There's a rufous or Allen's hummingbird that comes to drink flying water drops from the air when I water the squash. The rufous hummingbird migrates 2,000 miles. There's a big finch I saw digging on the neighbor's back patio yesterday. Clearing fallen flowers and leaves with its feet. Revealing seeds.

There are also butterflies. Cabbage butterflies. A tiger swallowtail. For mammals I've seen raccoon, possum, skunk, squirrel and coyote in my yard. There are fig eating beetles. A big nacreous green beetle from I think Japan. I saw them today bumbling around the leaves of the pepper tree before finding a leaf to hang onto. The lizards--Western fence lizard.

I keep getting out of bed every morning. You never know.