Joshing around at Joshua Tree

I camped at Joshua Tree National Park last weekend for one night. I was lured with the promise of glintwein (but the culinary master forgot to add sugar!) and the prospect of spotting some desert birds in the morning (though my companions behaved just like “Beavis and Butt-head” when they should have been silent!).

I was pursuing some kind of Passerine with the camera. It would have made a great a shot, as the subject had a beakful of cottony fibers, but she was too clever for me. And as I shut down my camera in despair, I heard a suspicious sound: “tap tap tap tap tap.” Then again, I heard it. I thought that there was a problem with the zoom mechanism of my camera, and I even held it to my ear with my head cocked to the side. In that moment of foolishness, sitting on the rock and “listening” to my camera, I shifted my plane of focus, and there I saw . . .

Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli)

19 October 2008 at Joshua Tree National Park

Tits can be perky even in the desert!	I am in the one in focus.

Despite my company, the subject allowed me to approach.	The white eye-stripe is visible.

On the roadside, when we stopped to eat sandwiches, I saw Black-Throated Sparrows (Amphispiza bilineata).

Here he shows his best side.	He seemed to be listening to the live acoustic serenade of “All Apologies.”

~ by finchwench on Saturday, 25 October 2008.