In early January my wife and I made a short trip to the Palm Springs, CA, area.  Like every journey I make, I took my camera with me.  I was surprised at how far the greater Palm Springs area stretched and at the density of the development, but it didn’t stop me from taking photos of the birds.  What I’m going to do is post photos by the day I took them, so there will be overlap in the species of birds and there may be photos posted later that are either bettor or worse than previously posted photos.

Probably 70% or so of my photos consist of Costa’s hummingbirds, Verdin or Yellow-rumped warblers of the Audubon race.  (I’m convinced that the Palm Springs area is the winter reservoir for all of North America’s Audubon Yellow-rumped warblers.)  My first day in Palm Springs (proper) consisted solely of a male Costa’s hummingbird at a friends’ residence, which you see here.

In this last photo, you can clearly see how the bird’s gorget is not part of the birds other plumage… it is a separate shield of feathers that can either be laid back against the breast or raised, presumably to catch the light and intimidate other hummers.

My Nikkor 200-400mm lens went back to Nikon (at substantial expense!) in mid-January for a zoom ring that has gotten progressively harder to manipulate.  I have no idea how long repairs will take, but I will be without my primary birding lens for some period of time.  I expect to have cataract surgery in February so both of these incidents may limit posts in the near future.  If things get bad enough in terms of time I’ll retrieve some old unprocessed photos from the thousands in the hope chest and publish those.