Birding with friends June 25

Connected with Terri and Kathy for a morning of birding with MidNat friends this morning.

 Kathy has a neat little cabin on Trading Post Road and there are 2 small ponds up the mountain from her place. Her yard is fabulous, too. She has food and water available and the birds flock to it. We picked up Townsend's Solitaire, Acorn Woodpecker, and Violet-green Swallow along with Pine Siskin, Western Bluebird, American Robin, White-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Western Wood Pewee, Brewer's Blackbird, and Black-headed Grosbeak. 

The Bluebird posed nicely for photos...

But the Solitaire was chased away by the Robins and I only managed this one fuzzy photo. 

This first and largest pond was stocked with trout and Koi. Surrounded by cattails inhabited by Red-winged Blackbirds, we watched as a BT Hummingbird gathered fluff for her nest closely guarded by a Common Green Darner that was bigger than she was. 

A female Blackbird made several trips into a well camouflaged nest carrying food to hungry youngsters, leaving each time with a bright white fecal sack to drop into the water a good distance from the nest site. A fledgling begged for food from a male on the other side of the pond. 

Across the road, Evening Grosbeak crowded around a seed feeder on the deck of a cabin, too far away for any pictures.   

A small garter snake decided to cross the road, Alvin almost stepped on him. 

 The second pond is smaller and almost choked with cattails, a prime example of biological succession, but popular with Violet-green Swallow. I took a chance and managed to snag on in mid-air. What a treat to watch the swallows from a higher vantage point as they foraged below eye level across the grassy expanse. 

The small spring that feeds the ponds still gurgles refreshingly before disappearing into the watercress. 

The gravel hosted two great butterflies...

Questionmark 

Milbert's Tortoiseshell

that I managed to tag. 

Purple Penstemon 

Time for flowers, although most things don't bloom until after the July rains, we did manage to locate some real beauties.

Spike Verbena

Blue Flax

Wild Rose

One the walk back down we added Brown Creeper and House Wren to our list along with a pair of Hairy Woodpecker, one was a juve with a red-forehead. 

True to MidNat bird outings we finished with a scrumptious lunch at Big Daddies, one of the most popular and dependable food spots in Cloudcroft. We finished off with a Trip to Burro Street Bakery for sour dough bread and giant cinnamon roll for tomorrow morning and Aged Cheddar Cheese from Noisy Water Cheese and Wine. 

About halfway down the mountain, we found the ground covered with several inches of white stuff. 

 Under the trees up the hill side and along the edges of the road

Piled up against this quonset hut

 closer inspection revealed pea sized hail

stretching for half a mile or more. Farther down the mountain we could see puddles, but no ice. 

 Arriving home, the ground and picnic tables were littered with leaves and small twigs, and the awnings had numerous punctures.

These are the largest ones, but along the roof line are way too many pinhole sized fractures. Drat!

Luckily I was distracted by a tiny blue butter which I managed to capture even though I couldn't see him through my view finder. 

Nothing like seeing eye to eye with a Reakirt's Blue!