The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. My last post was in the excitement of the moment, this one is not so happy. My office is in a back bedroom looking out over the lake and part of my garden. I had not mentioned this but earlier today I'd also seen a female duck out on the lake with 6-7 baby ducklings. I think everyone knows where this is going...a few minutes ago I noticed the female duck up in the backyard with only three babies. I went out to the back of my elevated pool deck for a look see and unfortunately off to the side in the water was the otter, eating two dead baby ducks. Nature can be wonderful but sometimes the realities of life can also be cruel.... Tom

From the photo of the thrasher by claire, I guess the thrashers we have here in New Mexico are a different variety; ours here have a dusty brown body-no stripes, darker back & wings, but has the very distinctive orange ring in the eyes! These that began with just one pair a few years ago that foraged on the ground under our trees, now we have a couple dozen or more in our yard/area & have become very fearless around other birds as well as our four dogs! I can get right up to their nests & 'talk' to them & they show no fear of me (or the squirrel!) at all. Haven't figured out yet why the seemingly first pair built the 2-story apt. in the tree cactus!! Sure is a secure place to nest I admit! We often get a new variety of birds for awhile, then they disappear only to have another variety come; the thrashers seem to have replaced the grackles pretty much the past two years in my yard.... yet the mourning doves seem here to stay!

It might be possible to formulate some kind of list of "local" species that habitually (?) perch on vertical surfaces, i.e.: martins, swifts and so on. The list might be able to be used to narrow down the types, sizes, and names of possible subjects.

This really has become the year of the thrashers. Per Donna's suggestion, I've been putting out C&S Peanut suet nuggets. I don't know if the thrashers eat it - I haven't seen it - but it's disappearing. There's plenty of other food around and insects too. My yard/garden is getting more and more overgrown so there are lots of hiding places for birds in shrubs and small trees. I'll walk by a shrub not noticing any birds and be startled by flight all around me. Good for the birds, not so good for the idea of a tidy garden. An adult has been seen brazenly foraging around most days, and yesterday I saw what I think are two juveniles calmly preening on the winterberry (the photos were taken from the kitchen window). So much for the "secretive" Brown Thrasher. Claire