Love Birds

I was a little bit worried that our tree-trimming would scare off the local bird population, but I'm happy to say that we still have a cacophony of chirping coming from the back yard. The culprits for some of the most twittery of the chirping are a small flock of peach-faced lovebirds. Last spring we had a couple of them in the yard, but now we've got a group of 8-10 of them, and they were still hanging around last night, after the cutting was all done. I didn't have my super-telephote lens on the camera as I was walking in the yard, but did pretty well with my kit zoom lens, and some judicious cropping.

Tree Trimming

Between the heat of a Phoenix summer, and all the travelling I've been doing (and yes, will soon get back to posting pictures from), the yard has gotten a bit unkempt. So I've spent some time the past week or so trimming all the hedges, bushes, and many of the trees. The highest of the trees, the palms, were going to be the biggest challenge, and Jaime wasn't so keen on me buying a stepladder & chainsaw and attempting to do it myself. When a knock came at the door a couple days ago, and the guy on the other side asked me if I wanted him to trim the palms, I decided I should take him up on the offer. He and his friends came by yesterday to give them all a haircut. Almost a mohawk in some cases, but they are now a lot lighter, and the dead branches and dried out seed pods all were taken down and carted away. Turned out to be just in time, as well, since a big ol' monsoonal storm ripped through the area last night, and there are more forecast for this weekend. Pictures above and below show the trees before trimming on the left, and after trimming on the right. Quite a shave! Now maybe I should do the same for myself...