I keep my camera on my desk beside me and when I spot an interesting view and have the time, I’ll try to capture it. I love the Flickers. They are large birds, the size of a crow, and covered in a bright pattern. We don’t see them often here, which makes it more exciting to capture one digitally.
The most frequent visitor I have here in the office is my omnipresent Douglas squirrel friend, Boh. She got very very fat for a time, and now she has thinned down, so I assume she has had her babies. I feel sorry for her, raising babies, and understand why she’s hungry.
Usually I am trying to fight off her attention in my office. And Pedro tries to fight off her attention at the house. She runs back and forth, playing off our soft hearts, and eats till she’s fit to burst. There is one Douglas squirrel male, smaller and thinner, that we assume is her baby from last year, who also comes. We named him Jim Bo (after his mom). And one skinny silver squirrel male who will come for peanuts, that we named Tux, for his white tuxedo chest. All three take them from our fingers. Boh is queen, and will chase both of the males away any time she spots one.
But she becomes tiresome, and I will close the window to keep her out.
It’s such a pretty back yard. Above is my view from my desk, shot through the window. I wish I had more time to work out there, and do all the weeding and trimming and planting and pruning that would make it gorgeous. Notice that tall, skinny yew and the lilac?
Hummingbirds frequently perch there at the yew and lilac, but my camera and I simply cannot handle the backlighting, so I almost never get a good shot. I significantly raised the light in the photo on the left and the bird is still black. I drastically raised the light in the photo on the right, which ruins the photo, but shows the BRIGHT magenta head on that hummingbird that I simply am not able to photograph. What makes me very frustrated is that my iphone would handle this lighting situation just fine. I can’t tell if my camera lens is bad, or what.
Conscious Engagement 
The Flicker photos are fabulous Crystal. Squirrels are as naughty as possums, only possums are only around at night thumping on roofs and jumping onto verandahs. Your house and yard look ever so good. I know your camera frustrations 🙄
Possums are much too big to be banging around on the roof! That would wake me from sleep for sure. The squirrels do romp across our roofs all day, but it’s kinda cute to hear their little feet thumping.
Yes possums do wake me when they decide to use the roof as a race track 😁
It’s all so beautiful!! Such clarity on the flicker and love the shots in the apple blossoms. Pretty sure your mystery bird is a bushtit. In fact, they usually forage near their nest so you may have one very close. Yard looks just gorgeous!
I wondered if it was a tit! I was rushing to post yesterday, and did not take the time to look it up. Since both of us were thinking bushtit, that is now my better guess. 🙂 It is wonderful to think that a nest might be close. Possibly in the Italian Cypress right next to the apple tree: it’s dense and safe.
Their nests look like a sock hanging from a branch. They are quite delicate and not always hidden.
Wonderful garden guests pictures. I’ve never known tame squirrels
Garden guests they are! And we welcome them. One thing Pedro and I marvel at is that no matter how loud the traffic noise is, the bird song is always more noticeable. Even in winter. We are fortunate to have a large empty lot behind us with a field surrounded by trees, and a small private lake nearby, that is fed by a stream fenced off as a wildlife corridor. So, while our neighborhood is old and developed and BUSY with traffic, there are refuge spaces nearby and I think that’s why we get so much wildlife here.
I’m with you on the flickers, Crystal. Gorgeous with a distinct call. They used to hang out on our Oregon property. I agree with Bonnie Rae on the Bushtit.