Jo's Morning Walk: Morning With a Mockingbird

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Morning With a Mockingbird

Enjoying the beautiful weather and nice bright morning. I am at the dining table having my coffee and toast when suddenly there is a large bird at my patio fountain. Reaching for my camera slowly, I whisper, "Welcome to the fountain".

Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos measures 10 inches long with a wingspan of 14 inches. Here are a few shots from a morning of watching the Mockingbird from the dining table. This beauty has been in my yard from his fledgling days. He first lands on the plumeria tree and gingerly flies down to the fountain.

The Mockingbird is done bathing and flies off. I want to show you a shot from the dining area to see how close my fountain is from my camera. My camera is resting on my dining table. The only reason I think the birds are calm coming to the fountain is that the dining room sliding glass door is closed. I am shooting my shots through the glass with all lights off and that probably makes it harder for them to see me. LOL, yes, that is an Orange-crowned Warbler in the bath.

Here are a few more birds that came for a quick bath. Here a nice looking White-crowned Sparrow enjoying his bath.

A male House Finch wants his turn.

A female joins him.

A Townsend's Warbler makes a quick visit. He has been visiting and bathes at least twice a day. One healthy clean bird!

Back to cleaning my flowers on the patio.

A White Crowned Sparrow makes another visit.

Look who followed him in. A Mourning Dove!

Comes closer.

The dove finally hops onto the fountain.

The Mourning Dove measures 12 inches long. The fountain is only 9 1/2 inches wide at the top deck and it has a 1 inch lip so the water area where the bird can bathe is only 7 1/2 inches wide. The dove checks out the fountain but realizes it is a bit too small for his body and does not make any attempt to hop onto the top tier.