This morning (12 May) a Summer Tanager was seen in the Prince's Plume in our backyard.
Shortly after, it flew up, caught a bug in the air, landed on the
barbed-wire and ate it. Initially, we thought it was one of the
splotchy red/yellow second-year males of the western race, cooperi.
But later, after reviewing Sibley and Tom Heindel, we think it may have
been an eastern race rubra female. Tom said that most of
the desert sightings in May are rubra. Three cheers for native
plants! We highly sing their praises. In the last two weeks
we have seen more migrants in our native plant garden than any part of
our yard. Photos (c) Chris Howard |
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