Monday, February 8, 2010

A spring day

If yesterday's post was about a winter's night, today's must be about a spring day - TODAY!
 
A hummingbird enjoying the honeysuckle.

And a noisy house finch singing!
 
  
And Sophie, watching it all.

 

13 comments:

Dog Trot Farm said...

What wonderful photos. Sophie is a sweetie, love the bandana she sports!

sealaura said...

your pictures are so gorgeous. we are getting more rain this week,so these pics came in just in time to cheer up my week.

Sam said...

Gorgeous photos - all of them! I'm jealous of all the bloggers who have such neat birds to watch. Your birds are no exception!

The shots of Sophie are great, too!

tom sullivan said...

Hi Brenda, I, too, like these pictures (esp. the ones of your sweet Sophie). However, that house finch ain't no such thing. It's a Verdin (a cool bird I learned about when I moved to southern Arizona from New England).

Brenda's Arizona said...

Tom, super THANK you for the clarification. Now I know what I am looking for/at. The house finches - smaller with a slight red breast?

Diane AZ said...

Sophie looks like she's enjoying the weather. Great captures of the birds!

KB said...

Do hummers stay there all winter long? I was so jealous to see them. The day when the hummers arrive is a day of rejoicing around our house. But, it's still months away.

And, what kind of hummers are they?

And Sophie is beyond cute... Is she a puppy? She looks so curious about the world.

South Valley Girl said...

Hummers already! I'm jealous! I've just moved into town, and don't know when they'll arrive here; down in the South Valley, where I used to live, they'd arrive the first week of April.

SVG

tom sullivan said...

Your welcome! Actually, the House Finch is slightly larger and chunkier than the Verdin. The HF may also have red around the face. "Males are conspicuous and sing often."--Smithsonian Handbooks

J. Evan Kreider said...

Congratulations on the humming bird shots. I have had no luck with the little darters, but always appreciate seeing the work of those who know how to capture them in photos.

Anonymous said...

Darn you, how did you get spring? We've got more rain AND my lab got skunked.

Banjo52 said...

My thanks to Tom. I wondered if there was different labeling in the West, but didn't know whether to bring it up.

If you care as deeply as I know your better angels want you to care, I've got a decent clarifying shot of a house finch at Banjo52.blogspot.com June 17, 2009. You can ignore my long treatise there on Yeats.

My problem with house finches is distinguishing them from purple finches. After many trips to the bird books, I've settled for telling myself the purples have more and richer reddish-purple and aren't quite as chunky.

Is that more than you ever wanted to know? I get that way sometimes. Oh, all right, often. Now who's nitpicking?

Brenda's Arizona said...

Banjo52- correct me anytime! I am glad Tom did so. I wonder if I have been calling them HFs for the past 15 years? As soon as I see a photo of a HF (like yours), I know the difference and hit myself in the head.
We have such a variety of hummingbirds that I am always afraid to label them. Even with my big book of "Hummingbirds - a photographic study of the North American Species", I am hesitant to type them!