The Ring-necked Ducks in the ponds near Phoenix were so much fun to watch. When they saw people on the floating boardwalk, they immediately swam close. We did not feed but others do and the park allows feeding in some areas so whenever we went to that area, they swam close. It was still early morning and the sun reflected off the trees turning the water gold and the blue of the sky reflected making spots of blue in the water, complementing the golden hues.
Since I moved into my new home in October, almost two months ago, I have spent almost no time here because I have been traveling. Cooking here has been mostly microwaved meals so now that I am home until the first week in January, I am looking forward to cooking in my lovely new kitchen. Yesterday I decided to make marinara, a delicious recipe from Lidia Bastianich. This recipe is so simple and has just a few ingredients: canned San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, crushed red chili pepper and basil. I’ve been making this recipe for years and started adding mushrooms and a rind from Parmigiano-Reggiano but it takes just 15 to 20 minutes to produce a delicious marinara that is better than anything found in a jar. I serve it over spaghetti squash that I’ve baked and shredded. It took me longer to set up the shot (food styling is not easy) than it will to cook the sauce. The tomatoes (crushed by hand) are the red color in the background, with basil, mushrooms, and a clove of garlic (it calls for 7 cloves) in the foreground.
The tiny Costa’s Hummingbird is one of the smallest birds in North America. It measures just a hair over 3 inches and weighs a mere 3 grams. Last week near Phoenix, this little guy posed in the mid morning winter sunlight in a shrub called Velvet Mesquite. It seemed to be feeding on the tiny bugs on the leaves and caught in webs. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Costa’s is a year-round resident of the area and its favorite flowers include the California Fuchsia and the Chuparosa, both native plants with tubular flowers that hummers prefer.
The tiny Verdin, a Bushtit-sized bird, differs from the tiny Bushtits in that it is a mostly solitary unlike the Bushtits that move in a brigade. The Verdin moves acrobatically through the trees and leaves of the Cottonwood and desert brush searching for tiny insects, a few of which are visible on its beak. Seconds before I took this shot, this Verdin was inside the curled leaf nibbling on the tiny bugs when it suddenly dropped out of the secluded protection of the leaf into the open and looked back as if to scold me for watching. It brought to mind Midnight Cowboy‘s Ratso Rizzo (played by Dustin Hoffman) who challenged anyone who got in his way as he crossed the streets of Manhattan saying, “Hey, I’m walkin’ here” along with a few curse words. The Verdin, with a challenging look of its own, could be saying, “hey, I’m eatin’ here!” No curse words included.
The Black-crowned Night Herons spent much of their time tucked into the shrubs surrounding the ponds, still as still can be as they kept watch for something to eat in the water below them, or napped in a secluded, safe place. Only a couple of times did I see them actually flying far enough that I had the time to train my lens on their flight. The shrubs made a very busy background but at this point in its flight, the dark water and the dark recesses of the shrubs made the mostly white bird stand out from the busy-ness. The sun in its low winter trajectory lit up the bird’s face and made its bright red eye pop.
A Say’s Phoebe poses on a mesquite branch.
A Great Blue Heron waits on golden pond.
To me it was the Warbler Tree. It’s really a Cottonwood tree but one filled with Warblers. Each time we stopped there, we found four or five species of Warbler feeding, flitting through the foliage from leaf to twig to branch to trunk and back again. It was a challenge to find these tiny birds hidden in the dense foliage so we could photograph them. We even began to develop “Warbler neck” from staring straight up in search of them. I’d only ever experienced that pain in Magee Marsh. But it was well worth the sore neck. This tiny Northern Parula suddenly popped out from behind a leaf giving me a clear shot at it. In seconds, it disappeared behind a leaf and was once again hidden from view.
Watching the Ring-necked Ducks on a pond from a floating boardwalk made me think of big duck heads bobbing in inner tubes. Looking at them head on, their yellow-orange eyes staring into mine, they took on a very “angry bird” look. But despite the intense gaze, I couldn’t help but be amused at the flotilla of feathered inner tubes bobbing below me.