Blue Grosbeak

When I drove out my canyon and reached my mailbox yesterday morning, my birding mentor Beth Cobb was parked and doing a bird count. " See that?" 

I looked around, and noticed a bunch of birds flittering around in the distance. 

"Blue Grosbeaks. They are everywhere this year. One year it is varied thrush's, two years ago it was robins, now the blue grosbeaks have landed."

I drove up to my birding spot at SJWA later in the afternoon and captured a shot of this particular breeding male snacking on a bug.

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I saw a long tailed weasel in the yard the other day. 

They are native to the area, fierce predators of rodents and gophers and really beautiful creatures.

This may be only the third one I have ever seen in the yard but my wife says she sees him fairly regularly and that he lives in our lantana.