I'm using Binoculars!

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I guess you're wondering;
where are all the boring pictures of the passeri.
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Has she stopped with the bird pics?
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No way, no how!
Interest in aves has not waned.
It's just that I found the binos!
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Wow, what on earth is going on out there in the garden!
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Spring 2009 in Zone 9 (I believe) starts out rainy, sunny, cold and warm. Previous to mowing, the tall, seedy grass calls birds craving fresh food.
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Sweet, diminutive, crested, grey oak titmice (that's correct grammar for more than one titmouse) up in the ash, flip back and forth from branch to suet to horsehair to nest. Shiny starlings bothered them in March, checking out the old woodpecker nest in which the titmice were bustling, but a board nailed over the titmouse nest, to keep the hole to exactly 1 1/2 inches, has put a stop to that! (well, a few thrown sticks helped and I'm sure sticks on the roof must have been dropped by a raven, not by anyone missing a throw) Tueful titmous resume their labors.
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Robins skulk and freeze, dash and pick through puddles for worms. Jays glide into the front rose garden, crying their officious entrance, snatch sunflowers and bang, bang, bang them on the rusty wagon handle, gulping the seeds.
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Head bobbing quail scout out, then tiptoe and finally rush from the rockrose hedgerow; first one, then another, then the whole darn covey; spying and digging through the mulch for favorite seeds, leaving a dirty mess. Dove grey, ooohing, doves fluff in dry dirt baths soft as powder.
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Innumerable, sputtering, soggy finches and sparrows in the bird bath flap out all the water so we must refill twice a day!
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The sparrows hog the feeders. Both the white crested and their cousins, the yellow crested, who seem to have recently appeared. House finches, red heads shining, flock the tube feeder, flipping away for hoggy sparrows who, by the way, are growing as fat as the quail. Pigs! Goldfinches flock and flit, clinging in bunches, swaying the thistle sock. The tree swallows (I'm assuming they are tree swallows as no sticky mud clumps appear) are darting around after no-see-ems further out over the nursery next door.
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A male woodpecker hop, hops up, with clinging claws, up, down, sideways, even upside down in the oak at the back, tapping at innumerable insects. Ever present towhees jump and scuffle on branches, dirt, roof, even, gutsy birds, on the brick ledge by the front door.
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And ravens! They've moved from the school eucalyptus' from whence they had harassed and chased red shouldered hawks. The corvids are back to the eucs standing in our neighboring nursery. Conversly the red shouldered hawks are seen screaming in their former home and even in our garden birch. Maybe making a comeback? Now I'm missing the comical ravens, so watch what you wish for.
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Hummingbirds, both rescued and local, sip from red penstamen, pink crab apple blossoms, blue rosemary florets, and an early fuchsia to beat the band, then hover, dart up, hover, dart upward again, hover then zzzzzzzzip off over the roof to the hummingbird feeder in the back.
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Did I mention the turkey vultures, always overhead, and the Canada Geese hoarsely honking their progress across the sky in formation? I'm keeping my eyes out for the occasional passerby; the juncos, orioles (I keep a fresh half orange stuck on a branch, hoping) and red winged black bird, but no sighting thus far this Spring and how I wish the bluebirds from next door would make an appearance. Bluebird nesting boxes await, never used, perhaps deemed too near the thick ceanothus.

Our barn owls, living in tall palms at the nursery, are only heard once in a great while, low, at night.
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Anyone else?

I'll be sure to let you know.
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