The new I and the Bird carnival is up - and the host is tempting us to read every entry in order to get a chance to win a great bird book! How can you resist that?

Oh yeah, I won't enter - because I feel like I've got enough - I am one of the featured entries with the Bullocks Oriole photos :D The Oriole dropped by again today and I told him about it. He opinied that was nice, but where is that Oriole feeder I promised him?

I was actually looking at it in the store the other day, but I'm a bit concerned. I took the hummingbird feeder down because I didn't get any hummingbirds, but I got quite a flock of bees. They were quite literally waiting in line for a chance at the feeder! Since the feeder was near the front door, and our outdoor table, it was a little nerve wracking to have so many bees around us. I may buy the Oriole feeder and hang it out there by the pond. It is quite a bit further from the door.

Our little puddle has become quite popular, not only with birds, but with rabbits, black tailed jack rabbits, and now and then I see tracks from the Pronghorn Antelope around it. Although the Birdchaser refers to it as a backyard pond - I'm sure my regular readers realize it is actually the only open water for a mile or two around in our little patch of the Sonoran desert. The water troughs for the goats are also popular - but the wildlife finds the puddle easier to drink from and bathe in.

For a couple of days one of the stock tanks down the road had an exciting visitor (to me) - a Great Blue Heron! It is quite a change for me for them to go from a bird I see daily outside my window to one I hardly ever see at all.

I have some more photos to inflict on you of an oryx that has taken up with our cattle, and a pair of Goshawks that dropped by, too. I'll try and get them up tonight :D

Good birding!