Wildlife in My Backyard #1

Little Boy, a Costa's Hummingbird,
sits near me in our sweet acacia.

Here he enjoys his favorite nectar--
autumn sage.  I named him
"Little Boy" because the Costa's
 are some of our smallest hummers.

We got some photos of regulars at our back courtyard feeders.  These are all indigenous creatures of the Sonoran Desert.  When friends visit us, they are always amazed at the amount and diversity of life here.  We've had Cooes deer come to our back fence; a bobcat drink from our water bowls and sit regally on our fence pillars; a rattlesnake and coachwhip saunter through looking for snacks; lizards sun themselves on the brickwork; coyotes stroll through outside of the courtyard fences; and javelina graze on prickly pear cactus outside our courtyards.  The smaller animals shown here are around every day, almost constantly.  We love simply sitting in our Arizona room (Arizona's version of a Florida room--ours is screened) and listen and watch.  It's wonderful entertainment and surprisingly relaxing.

Another shot of Little Boy.
Note his gorgeous purple gorget.

This tiny bird perched on a nearby
ocotillo is called a verdin.  It is about the size of a chickadee.

A desert cottontail shares a quail block with
 a Harris' Antelope squirrel.

One of my favorite desert birds, Gambel's quail, enjoy a long drink at one of our water bowls.

...And so does a Harris' Antelope squirrel.

A black-throated sparrow enjoys the quail block too.

Look familiar?  Almost like a northern cardinal?
This is a pyrrhuloxia, a member of the same family as cardinals.
Some people call him "the desert cardinal." 
He has a slightly different song and call from cardinals, which also
grace us with their deep red plumage.

This darling looks to me like a miniature prairie dog.
It is a round-tailed ground squirrel.  This squirrel actually estivates (or hibernates)
in the hot summer.  We have seen three species of ground squirrel in our backyard.
A rock squirrel visited us for a couple weeks last summer but we've not seen it since.