February 7

It was very rainy on Saturday, but I still had a pretty good day with 39 species, 5 new. I saw a Double-crested Cormorant fly over the ponds early in the morning, right before it started raining. I could hear Killdeer calling all morning, but it took me a long time to finally find a pair of them. Swallows seem to enjoy rain and the bugs that go with it, and I saw about a half dozen Tree Swallows zipping around. A Cassin's Kingbird was near the visitor's center in the morning. And I found 3 Western Sandpipers hanging out on the peninsula on pond 7.

A male Costa's Hummingbird in a Palo Verde tree.

Because of the rain I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I took a few from the patio. There was a male Costa's Hummingbird who was energetically defending one of the feeders. Every time another hummingbird (a female Costa's, I think) came near he would just chase it off. The funny thing was he didn't seem to mind sharing the feeder with this Verdin.

A male Costa's Hummingbird and Verdin meet for lunch.
I can't believe I managed to get a photo of this!