See if you can guess where I am. Here are a few birds spotted this past week:
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| Not a bird, I know, but so sweet! |
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| Interesting lobed feet! |
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| This one needs an ID! |
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| Another interesting non-bird critter. |
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| Your final clue: the street where I live (right now). |
Hi Heather,
ReplyDeleteThe flicker looks to be on a saguaro cactus. It also looks fairly light overall so I'm guessing it's a Gilded Flicker. That probably puts you in Arizona or Mexico. I'm guessing Arizona with the lawns manicured the way they are.
Wherever you are it looks a whole lot warmer and nicer than Seattle.
The duck is a Ruddy Duck. This one looks to be a male in winter plumage. We saw a few of these in S. America in bright breeding plumage.
Enjoy your time in the sun!
Randy
No way! Our friend, Ruddy Duck! How marvelous.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, I was in Arizona. Sun City, to be specific, with lawns so manicured they consist of rocks glued together and painted green. Not a pebble out of place!
I took a lot more pictures with my new Canon while I as there, and I will post those when I get back to Traverse City (I'm in Chicago right now, on my way home). On the last day, I'm pretty sure I saw a pied grebe. Also, there were a lot of interesting ducks with big heads...bobblehead, or bufflehead, or something like that, I think. More on that in my next post.
You are right on the flicker...my book says they now just lump them all into "northern flicker," but it is the old "gilded flicker." Very colorful! We saw a lot of the curved-bill thrashers, too, which had a very interesting call, sort of like a frog. And great-tailed grackles, so lovely with the long tail like a dress! More pictures soon. :-)
Great to see Jane's bird pictures up, by the way, and I will work on getting mine on Picasa, too.