Around Our House

A few months ago, I thought we had a cat and a squirrel visiting our yard. I had seen both of them, so I started leaving food out for them at night. It bothered me that I never got a look at them, so one night I tried to catch a look. I noticed the food was gone, so I immediately turned on the light and waited. Pretty soon I saw an opossum walking along the back wall... I don't leave food out anymore. But, we do have a wonderful assortment of birds that come to visit. I was able to take good pictures of these...

At first I thought this was a common Mourning Dove,
but later found out that it is an Inca Dove. This was a new one for me!

Great Tailed Grackle ... These are very common in Arizona,
but we love seeing them at the fountain. They really are quite beautiful

Yellow Rumped Warbler This one doesn't come around very often,

and is very shy and doesn't sit still, so I was excited to get a good picture of it

Western Scrub Jay, another one that doesn't show up
very often and is another new one for us

I thought this was a type of Warbler, but I found out that this is
a Lesser Goldfinch. I've never seen a Goldfinch this color before!

Last month we had this visitor every day for a week. For some reason, this Summer Tanager

would show up in the morning and chirp very loudly and peck at the window in my family room.
He would stay for a couple of hours and just kept fluttering and pecking at the window.

We also saw a Rufous-backed Robin and a Bronzed Cowbird
the other day, but I wasn't able to get any pictures.
They were beautiful and also new ones for us to see in the backyard.

Our other interesting news this month is that we have several leaks! The repair men came and have been trying to locate them and they have been found! Here in Mexico, it is quiet common to build a brick house, then plaster it. No two by fours and dry wall... so you can imagine it was quite the chore to find and fix the leaks...

We now have a shower with a view...

the downstairs bathroom from the garage side...

and a couple of other patches along the same wall...

and under the window. I'm not sure where the leak is coming from with this one!

But we should be leak free very soon! The repair men are doing a super job! Gracias!