squirt guns & birds

this is a fine synopsis of our sunday afternoon. eli took great delight in riding his tricycle around the back patio whilst shooting with his squirt gun, the trees, birds, flys, ants and anything else that moved. at times he would switch to a squirt bottle for its increased capacity. this meant, in short, more shooting time and less filling time. makes sense.













i also added 2 new species of birds to my yard list. this is quite a feat considering that my list is only at 19. i positively ID'd a pair of Cassin's Finches and a pair of Red-Winged Blackbirds. then there were many many of the blackbirds in conjunction with Brewer's. they attacked the feeders, scared the smaller birds away and ate until they were content or scared away themselves by larger birds overhead such as turkey vultures or hawks of some sort. i had previously thought that I'd seen the Cassin's Finch but now I know that I hadn't. they are a beautiful bird - both male & female. and the Red-Winged are awesome as well. their red wing bar with yellow spot below is really cool while they're in flight.

finally, the afternoon brought an acrobatic squirrel who leapt from our large ponderosa pine to the copper feeder. and there were even more birds - at one point I counted 7 species at one time. for the day, the tally was at 9 total species. what a blessing to live here and have such varied wildlife in my own backyard.