Today's backyard wildlife

Arizona Docent

Arizona Docent

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
June 17, 2021

After visiting a local wetlands at sunrise with nothing to show for it, I decided to stay home. (Also because it was 110 Farenheit today). I walked around my condominium complex a couple times and this is what I saw. :)

2:35pm
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great horned owl fledgling - ZooChat

6:50pm
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javelina family - ZooChat

7:12pm
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baby javelina - ZooChat

7:37pm
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desert spiny lizard - ZooChat
 
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Sarus Crane said:
It'd be interesting if you update this thread like a journal every day. Great work!
Click to expand...
Funny you should mention it, because after tonight's outing I had that idea (before reading your post). I won't do every day, but periodically. I am going to see if a moderator can edit the original post with the date at top and I will include the date from here on.
 
June 18, 2021.
After a quick look at the owl tree (they are not there), I head down to where the parking lot meets a large wash, where I had seen the javelinas yesterday. Neighbors sitting on their porch inform me I just missed two deer. Darn! I have seen mule deer often in the area, but never in our complex.

No javelinas at first, just some common smaller animals.
7:02pm
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greater roadrunner - ZooChat

7:07pm
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desert cottontail - ZooChat

I start walking back home along the edge of the wash and javelinas cross the parking lot from the complex towards the wash. I watch in anticipation and soon enough - there are three babies! (Last night I saw two).
7:28pm
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baby javelinas - ZooChat

It is getting dark so I go back to my unit and swap my 300 f4 lens for a 24-70 f2.8 lens with a flash. The javelinas surprisingly relaxed around people (assuming you don't make sudden movements or loud noises). They graze within a few feet of me and I snap away. As they start walking I run ahead in the parking lot and set up in front of them by a saguaro. When the group with the babies arrive they pause and I get down low and close for a shot.
7:51pm
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javelina family at dusk - ZooChat

The group crosses the parking lot back to the buildings and they munch shrubs at a neighbor with lights on their patio. The flash washes out the building lights so I turn it off and use a hand-held flashlight (torch) to spotlight the animals.
7:54pm
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javelinas at night - ZooChat
 
Brilliant photos and really interesting to see, I would like to see and learn more about what's around you too based in these pics
ps - In NW England 75 degrees Fahrenheit is getting too hot for many of us. :eek:
 
June 19, 2021.
Since I don't get holidays off, I have to work today (Juneteenth - America's newest federal holiday - signed into law this week). I get home just after sunset and run out to see if I can find the javelina babies before dark. Almost immediately I find two adults on a bank next to the parking lot near my unit.

7:24pm
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javelina - ZooChat

I walk down to the bottom of the lot next to the big wash where I had seen the babies last two nights. No sightings, but as I walk back in the increasing darkness I see three adults in the spot I had seen two. I can barely make it out, but there is a baby (and quite close). My camera can barely focus - thankfully I brought my 70-200 f2.8 (my 300 f4 would not have been able to focus at this point). By cranking the ISO up to 16,000 and doing some post processing, I am able to land the shot.

7:51pm
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javelina with baby - ZooChat

Movement in the dim dusk sky on the building behind me reveals one of the great horned owls fluttering in the wind then landing on a chimney. I do a silhouette shot then it flies to the other side of the building (facing my building). I run home and grab a flash and stand on my second floor entryway and wait for it to fly off again. I get one shot as it flies away, but sadly it is facing the wrong direction.

8:13pm
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great horned owl - ZooChat
 
June 23, 2021, morning.

Today is my day off so I am out early. No javelina babies but the first activity is a pair of Cooper's hawks taking turns feeding on a kill on one of my neighbor's chimneys (the other hawk sits in a nearby tree). I get a shot of the second flying off with the kill to a tree farther down.

5:35am
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coopers hawk (with kill) - ZooChat

I cross into the wash that runs along our parking lot to look for javelinas. On a path on the opposite side of the wash I see two adults, but no babies. I cross back to our lot and get more birds, being especially pleased to find ground-dwelling Gambel's quail in the trees.

5:43am
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javelinas - ZooChat

5:49am
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broad billed hummingbird - ZooChat

5:54am
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gambels quail - ZooChat

Just a few more common birds and I head inside to grab my bike for a ride before breakfast. I will try this afternoon for the babies... stay tuned.

6:14am
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lesser goldfinch - ZooChat

6:31am
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white winged dove - ZooChat

6:40am
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mourning dove - ZooChat
 
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June 23, 2021, afternoon.

After several days last week of record highs around 114 Farenheit, our summer monsoon rains finally started this afternoon. The rain is light and sporadic, but a welcome relief. Due to the relatively cooler temperatures and soft overcast light, I head out earlier than usual for my afternoon photo shoot.

I thought I had my fill of quail photos this morning, but my first afternoon sighting is a male Gambel's quail posing ideally on a dead branch. This is followed by a finch and a lizard (but no baby javelinas).

3:36pm
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gambels quail (male) - ZooChat

3:52pm
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house finch (male) - ZooChat

3:55pm
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desert spiny lizard - ZooChat

I go inside for a little while then back out and find a pyrrhuloxia but can't get a clean shot. This may be Arizona's most beautiful native bird. I cross the wash at the bottom of our complex and head on the trail on the opposite side where he reappears (or maybe it's another one). I manage to get some shots then walking back I see his relative the northern cardinal. Right after this I find another favorite bird of mine, the curve-billed thrasher.

5:53pm
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pyrrhuloxia (male) - ZooChat

6:06pm
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northern cardinal (male) - ZooChat

6:10pm
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curve billed thrasher - ZooChat

I am scouring the base of the parking lot where the javelinas typically appear. I see a couple and then a neighbor says there are the babies (two of them). They don't stay in the open long, but go back through the brush and appear briefly in an opening further down. I get a couple shots before they disappear in the thick brush.

6:59pm
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baby javelinas - ZooChat
 
Arizona Docent said:
June 23, 2021, afternoon.

After several days last week of record highs around 114 Farenheit, our summer monsoon rains finally started this afternoon. The rain is light and sporadic, but a welcome relief. Due to the relatively cooler temperatures and soft overcast light, I head out earlier than usual for my afternoon photo shoot.

I thought I had my fill of quail photos this morning, but my first afternoon sighting is a male Gambel's quail posing ideally on a dead branch. This is followed by a finch and a lizard (but no baby javelinas).

3:36pm
full

gambels quail (male) - ZooChat

3:52pm
full

house finch (male) - ZooChat

3:55pm
full

desert spiny lizard - ZooChat

I go inside for a little while then back out and find a pyrrhuloxia but can't get a clean shot. This may be Arizona's most beautiful native bird. I cross the wash at the bottom of our complex and head on the trail on the opposite side where he reappears (or maybe it's another one). I manage to get some shots then walking back I see his relative the northern cardinal. Right after this I find another favorite bird of mine, the curve-billed thrasher.

5:53pm
full

pyrrhuloxia (male) - ZooChat

6:06pm
full

northern cardinal (male) - ZooChat

6:10pm
full

curve billed thrasher - ZooChat

I am scouring the base of the parking lot where the javelinas typically appear. I see a couple and then a neighbor says there are the babies (two of them). They don't stay in the open long, but go back through the brush and appear briefly in an opening further down. I get a couple shots before they disappear in the thick brush.

6:59pm
full

baby javelinas - ZooChat
Click to expand...
Surely Arizona’s most beautiful native bird is the Vermillion Flycatcher?
 
birdsandbats said:
Surely Arizona’s most beautiful native bird is the Vermillion Flycatcher?
Click to expand...
I don't think so. I have one of those too, on the lawn near me (it would be fairly easy to photograph I just haven't bothered), but it has nothing on a pryhhuloxia in my opinion. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
 
June 24, 2021.

Out early and cross the wash below our parking lot and from a path on the other side see a coyote in the wash. I get a brief shot through the bush, but not good enough to post. Back in our lot I get one of the Cooper's hawks in a tree. Then I walk down to the end of the block and cross the street to an open area where I have seen deer before, but my only sighting is a roadrunner.

6:46am
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coopers hawk - ZooChat

I am back at the bottom of our lot at sunset looking for baby javelinas, but my only sighting tonight will be a lone adult. A lesser goldfinch is eating a saguaro fruit.

6:49pm
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lesser golfinch (female) - ZooChat

At the end of the lot I go up a short slope to the sidewalk in front of our complex when I hear coyotes howling. I go to an overlook and see two heading through the brush down to the wash (there is a third I don't see yet). My first inclination is to run back through our parking lot and go down into the wash to catch them coming towards me. In hindsight this would have worked but seeing a path down to the wash I take it instead. This has the disadvantage of keeping me behind with them heading away the whole time. The one advantage is that I encounter a mule deer which would have been hidden by brush in the wash if I had gone farther down. The coyotes enter the wash and the deer watches with curiosity. I get the shot and then follow and get an ok shot of the coyote once I crop it. (I only had a 70-200 lens but wished I had my 300 ).

7:11pm
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mule deer watching coyote - ZooChat

7:14pm
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coyote - ZooChat
 
June 25, 2021.

A quick jaunt before breakfast and I stumble upon a coyote walking out of the brush. Unfortunately he or she turns immediately on seeing me and all I get is a shot of the tail running away. I also sadly discover corns of cob on the ground to indicate a resident is illegally feeding the javelinas. (I return after breakfast to pick them up and then report it to our management company). A cardinal is in the trees.

5:59am
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coyote running away - ZooChat

6:01am
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northern cardinal - ZooChat

After breakfast I head out briefly with a trash bag to pick up the corn and find a javelina family (which thankfully has not gotten as far as the corn yet). While Momma keeps babies at a respectable distance, another adult grazes so close that all I can fit with my telephoto is a hoof.

6:42am
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javelina family - ZooChat

6:51am
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javelina hoof - ZooChat

I head back out after work and see a few javelinas as night falls.

8:01pm
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javelina at night - ZooChat
 
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Fascinating photo journal @Fred Hood! Why is it illegal to feed the javelina? Can you feed birds? ie, have a seed hopper/bird feeder in your area? And what is a "wash" ? I'm intrigued by the presence of larger animals in what i assume is a suburban area?
 
Astrobird said:
Fascinating photo journal @Fred Hood! Why is it illegal to feed the javelina? Can you feed birds? ie, have a seed hopper/bird feeder in your area? And what is a "wash" ? I'm intrigued by the presence of larger animals in what i assume is a suburban area?
Click to expand...
Bird feeders are legal, but feeding any other wildlife is illegal, as I assume it is in other US states. Animals that become used to handouts from people become a nuisance and start approaching people when they would normally keep their distance. This is dangerous to both people and animals. The name javelina (Spanish for javelin) comes from the fact they have massive, javelin-like teeth.

A "wash", a term common in the southwest United States, is a dry riverbed that only fills with water temporarily after a heavy rain. It is sometimes referred to by the Spanish name arroyo. It is a common feature in deserts and is used as a travel corridor by various animals (which is why I have coyotes and mule deer passing by my complex).
 
Is it illegal to feed other animals as in please don't do it, or is it strict...if that makes sense?
Top photos (as always).

Also 114 Fahrenheit - that's ridiculous. I once experienced just over 100 and it was seriously uncomfortable. I guess you kind of get used to coping with it.
 
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