A Birder's Holiday Tree

Happy Holidays!  May you have a safe and wonderful time with your family and friends.  

 Imagine if birds were a holiday tree.  You'd need to put up the lights and make sure every color would be represented.  The rule?  Use only the birds found in your area.   Here is what my bird tree would look like.......

I'd include all my pinks, blues, yellows, and reds......

......and there would be varying colors and shades of the same colors.

And what about that glowing angel on top of the tree?  I think I found one below:)

The simple truth is that there are too many choices that .....

....sparkle, glow and shine!

    I was only getting warmed up this past year.  But the new year will explode with new discoveries!

But there are just too many choices for one tree and I have 5 cats so......

I think that this may be a bad idea:)

All the shots were taken over this past year and were exciting finds. What would your bird holiday tree look like? 

Chestnut Sided Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

 Mother of pearls are some birds hard to film!  Today I went to the Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson to practice using my new scope lense for tomorrow's adventure into Willcox.  Once I figured that out, I did some birding.....

 ......and the challenge was on!  My eyes and ears are good at hearing little things.  It must be from all that teaching I do with kids.  Well it comes in hand with birding as well:)

 This bird was by far the most difficult to film and my hands had to be quick with the shots or I'd miss the opportunity.  It is rainy and overcast today so I thought I'd challenge myself to still look and see if I could find anything.

 There were several birders on the grounds and it was a lot of fun being around them.  We noticed certain areas that were higher in unusual bird sightings than others which included the bridge near the parking lot.  And this is where I discovered this rare to find bird in Tucson. 

 But the two of them would make me work for my money while doing the photoshoot. What these little birds were doing in Tucson is beyond me?  And of course, I start thinking about how this all happens and how interesting it is that birds migrate from state to state.

So there you have it....the Chestnut Side Warbler...non-breeding adult:)