Dash Away, Dash Away, Dash Away Home

Our desert gets a lot of winter visitors, both human and animal, who tuck their tails under and head for cooler climes before the summer heat settles in. Snow birds, we call the humans. Here are some of the real birds who winter here, and will soon be departing for summer vacations in the cooler north.

A white-crowned sparrow.He's going to summer vacation in Alaska and northwestern Canada.

A sage thrasher. They're not terribly rare down here, but one in the city is pretty unusual, and this one turned up in the park near my office. I love urban birding.

 See his streaked breast? Or can you? It's a terrible photo, I know. This little guy spent one day playing hide-and-seek with me, so I had to settle for what I could get. He's going to summer in the Rockies, lucky bird.

Ah, but this beauty will not desert me. He'll stick with us here in the brown desert, through the hot, hot summer, and through the cold winter, with its occasional hard freezes and burst water pipes. 

I just can't help but smile when I see a vermilion flycatcher. The burst of color in the drab desert winter--a brief moment of joy, just joy, at Mother Nature's gifts.

Wait? What kind of bird is this? A Harris' antelope squirrel, practicing acrobatics.