Nature

Tag

The Willow Tree

There is a huge old weeping willow in our yard here in San Antonio.  I have learned so much watching it. I sometimes wonder how many birds and other animals make it their home. It has been so interesting watching the family of what I think are golden fronted woodpeckers living in the willow.  When we first arrived I saw a pair flitting in and out and calling to each other in a screechy call.  I suspected that there were...

Beached Sei Whale Rescued near Mazatlán

There was a lot of excitement at Stone Island yesterday afternoon when a 12 meter (39 ft) long Sei whale washed up on shore. A joint effort ensued that included locals, tourists, waiters, students, lifeguards and marines. The fabulous pictures included on this post are with thanks to David Densberger. I sure wish I could have been a part of helping this amazing creature get back out into the open ocean where it belonged. SAD UPDATE: The Noroeste reports that...

Mazatlan’s Estero del Yugo revisited

You may remember that Paul and I visited Mazatlán’s Estero Del Yugo (Estuary) last December.  It was very dry and nothing was blooming. Many of the trees did have pods hanging from them, though, which of course are an essential food for many birds.  I thought the place was amazing (please click above to read about our previous visit)  and I knew I wanted to come back during the rainy season. The other morning Paul and I headed out to...

My tropical garden – Mazatlán hummingbirds

We have a new visitor to our garden this summer, a plain capped starthroat hummingbird!  (That’s a picture of him at the top of the post)  I knew right away it was a newcomer by the assertive way he flies and the white underside and patch on his back.  It took a little while to identify him – and I was grateful for the help of some birders at BirdForum.net. He’s a big bird, maybe even bigger than the cinnamon...

Estero del Yugo

Paul and I love birds and when I read about the Estero del Yugo in M! Magazine back in July I knew I wanted to visit. Why did it take us so long, anyway?  It is a place to visit every season of the year.  I plan on going back frequently, and could sit for hours with my binoculars watching the wildlife.  When you go, carry with you binoculars and a camera – and during the rainy season I would...

Move over, hummy

We have been feeding the hummingbirds around here for several years and have a nice bunch of hummingbirds enjoying our feeders and fountain every day.  There are three species we see all the time.  They fight – and sit in the trees and click – and fly through the house from one feeder to another – and even nest in our bamboo. My favorite is the Cinnamon Hummingbird.  They are the biggest of the three that we see a lot....

Little cuties!

I love geckos.  We have them all over the house, and enjoy their kissing noises in the evening.  They are considered good luck, and since they eat bugs and are cute, we are happy to have them living with us! They like to run around at night, and in the morning we have evidence of where they’ve been!  They like to hang out above one of my kitchen counters (yes, it get’s cleaned first thing in the morning) and on...

A Bird Tale

Do you remember back in 2008 when Paul and I took care of 50 baby parrots for a couple of weeks?  I wrote about the experience here and here and here. When they left our care I wrote about them here. When they were about a year old Conrehabit released them to the wild, but a few were evaluated as either being too tame or physically unable to live in the wild.  That’s how we ended up with Pancho and...

The Hummingbird Hang-out

We have lots of hummingbirds in our yard.  I thought I’d share a couple videos with you.  The first is a hummingbird sitting in a nest she was in the process of building in our courtyard.  Unfortunately, a few days after this was filmed we saw a broken egg on the ground and the nest was abandoned.  It seemed to be a pretty precarious spot to us, and obviously Mama thought so, too.  (12 seconds) Last night I noticed a...

Bathtime in Mazatlan

Our patios are quite the playground for the local flock of hummingbirds. We feed them at a feeder, supply them with pretty flowers to sip from, and provide them with an all-important bathtub. Our climate is very dry for most of the year, and a bird can have quite a challenge finding water to bathe in that is safe from predators. Our fountain is very well used – and in the morning if we don’t turn it on quickly enough...

Meet Poncho and Lefty

Tiko If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that we had to leave our Yellow-shouldered Amazon, Tiko, back in the US with my best friend while we sorted out how to bring him into Mexico.  Unfortunately, it seems impossible to bring him into Mexico at this time, due to red tape relating to bird flu.  A picture of Tiko is above. (If you want to see a video of him talking and climbing around on his...

The body remembers

Lucy heading home from a walk – Nov 5, 2006 It’s November today.  I was loafing on the couch listening to music on my MP3 player and knitting.  And all of a sudden I realized that all the music I was choosing was kind of moody, fall-ish music.  And even thought it is a beautiful sunny day here, my body remembers fall. It’s the time of year where leaves swirl in the air and then land to make colorful arrangements...

Around town

Our next door neighbor feeds the hummingbirds, and we benefit as they come and hang around our yard and have their territory wars for our enjoyment. Above is a picture of one resting on the palm. We see right into the top of this tree from our office. This is a picture I couldn’t resist emailing to people up North. We are sitting in our favorite palapa restaurant enjoying a Pacifico. Mmmm, pretty good! The picture above is a ruin...

Back to normal here

Life is returning to normal at our house now that the birds are gone. We have food in the fridge, laundry is done, and I am only slightly behind in my Spanish homework. I have all day tomorrow, ha ha! We decided to head down to the malecon and have a beer while watching the sunset. It was a bit cloudy but the sunset was still beautiful....

Bye-Bye Birdies

Yesterday we returned the baby parrots to Conrehabit. We’d taken care of them for more than two weeks, and it was time for us to get back to studying our Spanish, which we’d been neglecting during their time with us. Not to mention laundry and other household chores. When we got back from dropping them off and were unloading the empty laundry basket/cage from the back of the car, guess what! One little scamp had hitchhiked back home with us!...