Palm Springs

We are back in California, recovered from the monthlong trip to Australia and Fiji. We decided to skip the Super Bowl and go to Palm Desert. Here's a few birds we saw.


Verdin


Cormorant

Birding in Palm Springs: Mesquite Golf & Country Club

We took a quick trip to Palm Springs for some food, music and birding. We don't photograph our meals, but here are some of the birds we saw.





Greater Roadrunner



Abert's Towhee




Verdin

UCR's Verdin

Verdin

A verdin has been coming to UCR's botanic gardens for each of the past 4 falls. This year, a friend spotted it building a nest. Chris and I just had to go see it. We think it's building a roosting nest for it to keep warm in the winter.

It's a cute bird, but it would never tolerate an east coast winter.

Birding in Palm Desert

We went birding in Palm Desert. The big horn sheep were pretty neat. We also added two birds to our life lists: a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher and a Black-throated Sparrow. It was fun to see the Verdin and also the Phainopepla even if we can't pronounce it.


Big Horn Sheep




Black-tailed Gnatcatcher



Verdin


Black-throated Sparrow



Phainopepla