New Ranch Hummingbird

The last few days have been full of little surprises.  For the past week plus we have seen a hummingbird with such brief views we could not even put it in a family.  Yesterday and today got some better views and it appears to be an adult female Anna’s Hummingbird - A year round hummer of the California coastal zones and very rare hummer for this area.  We have seen them over the years when we lived on the UTC (Upper Texas Coast) where we had them a few times in the winter at our home.  This is a large chunky hummer that is fairy dingy below.  Bill is medium length that appears straight. She has a green back and no visible tail spots. She is showing a fairly strong central area in the throat of rose red spots.  While feeding she holds her tail still and in line with her body.  Lockwood lists the Anna’s Hummingbird as Accidental: 1-2 records every ten year for the months Sep-Dec.  I’m not sure what she is living off of as she is a very irregular visitor to our front flower bed where she feeds on the salvia still in bloom.

Another new visitor has been a first of season female American Goldfinch that feeds along side the solitary Pine Siskin and the 15 to 20 Lesser Goldfinches.  A Fox Sparrow is still present among all the ground feeding White-crowned Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows and Field Sparrows.

Butterfly number are still high for such cool weather – Dainty Sulphur (20), Orange Sulphur (3), Sleepy Orange (2), Variegated Fritillary ( 3), Common Checkered-Skipper (2) plus lots of bees.  The 5 Monarchs that were here have moved on.

The 1 inch of rain we got has jump started a lot of forbs.  For the year were are at a little over 8 inches…hopefully the rains predicted for this weekend will come too…25,000 gallons of drinking water in our tanks…

Yesterday Sherry had oral surgery to start the process to replace the tooth she lost when she fell in September. Doctor cut a bone from her chin (inside lower lip) and screwed it in the spot where her tooth came out.  She is on pain pills and antibiotics.

Target Practice

Last year we gave our grandson Trent a .22 cal rifle for target practice here on the ranch.  He has become an expert shot.

Hiking Love Creek Preserve

We had a lot of family get together's over Thanksgiving - my son and his family came down from Richardson and I took them hiking at Love Creek Preserve.

The Red Oaks and Big-tooth Maples were a little past the best colors, but still beautiful.

The recent rains have helped keep the springs running.

New visitor to Oasis flushed all the birds

We have been seeing this Sharp-shunned Hawk around the ranch and it has now found the Oasis.  While I am feeding the birds coming to my feeders, I am also feeding the Sharp-shinned Hawk as it darts into our feeding stations chasing any slow leaver and stops occassionally to get a drink.

Sage Thrasher, Fox Sparrow, and Big Axis

We had our second record for a Sage Thrasher on the ranch and later in the day a 3rd record found down on the SE end of the ranch.  There appears to be several out of normal range records of Sage Thrashers this year perhaps due to the drought and fires out west.

The really well marked Fox Sparrow we first saw when we returned from Brazil is showing up from time to time.

Walking into the living room one early morning and looking out into the front yard we were a little surprised to see this pair of Axis Deer.

My friend helped me load the deer feeder with corn and we plan to put some alfalfa out too.  We did a deer stand watch after we filled the feeder and counted around 40 Axis and 15 White-tailed Deer - mixed bucks and does.  The Axis were on the property next door, but the often cross the fence and visit the ranch too.