Three items on the agenda for today. First, I DO have at least one male Broadbilled hummingbird. I got a good look at him the other day, and he is gorgeous!

Second: a couple of days ago as I was about to sit down for an afternoon look at the pond and birds, I spied a snake moving across my garden area, a BIG, black snake, probably over three feet long. I ran to get my camera, but by the time I got back it had moved into the upper part of the pond and was crawling under the turtle that spits out water. I managed to get a couple of pictures before the snake moved on out into the desert, but it doesn't show very well. It was basically black and thick, very like a fire hose, with light-golden broken bands on the lower part of its sides. I'm almost positive it is a king snake, but I'm not sure what kind.

Finally, the tree above, which is on the west side of our front porch, is a dormitory tree. It is actually a double tree: part of it is an ornamental orange, and the other is a Meyer lemon. For some reason at least one part of it is in bloom right now, about four months out of season. I've taken to watching from the front porch right before sunset, and a lot of birds are roosting in this tree. I've seen a baby cardinal or pyrrhuloxia hop into the tree; I've heard cactus wrens in there, I think I saw a couple of hummers fly in one night, and there are a lot of quail. Last night I saw two childless quail couples and the couple with the three school-age kids (by now probably freshmen in high school). The big family is usually the last to go into the dorm. I haven't checked it out in the monring, so I don't know what order they wake up in.