Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Fremontodendren is starting to bloom!

The Fremontodendren tree is starting to bloom.  It is very popular with the hummingbirds.

Fremontodendren
Fremontodendren

Fremontodendren

Sunday, February 12, 2017

The Happy Hum of Bees!

I was walking by some rosemary that was in bloom and heard the happy hum of bees!







First Passion Flower Bloom for 2017

Today I was checking my passion flower vines for Gulf Fritillary caterpillars when I found the first bloom for 2017!  You can see that the leaves on this vine have been eaten by the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and I'm going to work really hard this year to keep them in check so they don't devour the vines this year.

Passion Flower

Passion Flower

Saturday, February 11, 2017

A White-Crowned Sparrow in the Rosemary

This morning I looked out the window to find a White-Crowned Sparrow in the blooming rosemary.




Monday, February 6, 2017

The Aloes are in bloom!

The aloes on the hillside are in bloom!



Sunday, February 5, 2017

Squirrel Deterrent!

The squirrels have been devouring the bird seeds in my bird feeders, but now I have outwitted them!  I saw this on the internet and decided to give it a try.  I have put a slinky on the pole of the feeder and now the squirrels won't even try to climb up it.  Now I have lots of birds at my bird feeders (but not when I'm standing in front of them with a camera!)!





I set up a time lapse camera hoping to get a picture of a squirrel attempting to climb the pole with the slinky.  All I got was this little chipmunk with a bewildered look.  Previously the chipmunks would climb the pole but now it just eats the seed that has scattered to the ground.