Hummingbirds, finches and mockingbirds in Las Vegas NV—autumn sees plenty of bird activity

                Here we are two-thirds of the way through October and the birding scene at Las Vegas hummingbird feeders is still hopping. Costa’s and Anna’s hummer come regularly to feed. True to their natures, Costa’s sticks around for picture time and Anna’s leaves at the least provocation. I was watching an Anna’s male feed at the north feeder. He didn’t perch, but fed while hovering above the feeder. When he finished he turned to look at me watching him from the window. The sun was just at the right angle to cause his gorget to flash a wonderful rosy red and he quickly flitted away. Even if I had camera in hand it would have done me no good. He was too fast for my camera.

                Costa’s hummer must be a natural ham. He just loves getting his picture taken. True to form the Costa’s male that came to feed at the west side feeder perched at the feeder, took a long drink of sweet water. Then he hung around long enough for me to grab my camera, focus and snap a picture, and another, and another until I had four pictures to choose from.

Young Costa's still feathering out on Oct 14, 2013

                I wasn’t so fortunate today. I was outside, a young finch sporting his just beginning pink chest landed on the ant moat of the feeder. He wasn’t interested in drinking water. To him it was just a resting place where he could softly chirp. While he sat there a hummer flew in, sat on a perch right below the finch and got himself a nice long drink of sweet water. All this happened in front of me. I had plenty of time to take the picture, if only I had had my camera. Such is life.

                As I finish my walk with the dogs in the morning the first light of day starts to show up on the eastern horizon. The mockingbirds greet the coming dawn before any other bird even knows it is coming. There is one bird sings that time of day that causes me to think ‘Robin.’ Then he continues his song and throws in some more of his mimicking so I know it is not a robin, just my mockingbird. I don’t have robins in my neighborhood. I do know that robins are common just four miles from my house. Now I have to wonder:  where did my mockingbird learn the robin’s morning song. Is he a transplant from further south? Or are there robins closer to my neighborhood than I know about?

Mockingbird sitting on my neighbor's roof vent, one of her favorite places to chirp from.

                I decided to check out the closest location of a reported robin sighting to my neighborhood on http://ebird.org/ebird/map/ only to find they had one sighting of a robin and that was on Mt. Charleston. It’s time to get birds submitting species sightings. Then I decided I had better take my own advice and report my Costa’s sighting of this morning. The latest sighting of the Costa’s hummingbird in Las Vegas NV is November 4. That’s a little more the two weeks away. It will be interesting to see if mine stays longer than that. Two more weeks and I’ll know!