I had a cormorant in my yard for a day. Now, I've seen cormorants down by the ocean and once or twice in largish ponds. But I live at least five miles from the coast and I don't have a pond. Even the kiddie pool (for the dogs) is empty and turned upside down.

I've seen gulls fly over, but usually in winter, when a storm blows them inland. I can't even recall seeing gulls in August.

But a cormorant roosted in my jacaranda tree overnight.

Eventually, when it didn't show any sign of going looking for food (It sure wasn't going to find any fish in my yard. The raccoons got even the poor little feeder goldfish when I tried to start a container pond.), we figured it was sick. My nephew and I managed to get it into a dog crate and took it to a local nature preserve (Madrona Marsh). Someone from there was going to take it on to Internation Bird Rescue.

It was a baby hummingbird almost exactly a month ago. This month a cormorant. I shudder to think what's going to land on my doorstep around labor day.

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I'm in Gardena (local talk folks) and I see seagulls all the time. But have you seen the big pelican that hangs out at Alondra Park? I know there's a lake with geese and ducks and such but this pelican is like a sentinel. I got within two feet of him and he wasn't the least bit intimidated. I don't know if he ever makes it over to the ocean (as you said, about five miles away).

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That pelican's great-great-great grandpa wasn't hatched yet the last time I was at Alondra park. I was thinking about that just yesterday as I was driving to Madrona Marsh with a cormorant in a dog crate in the back of my car. Might have to pay it another visit one of these days. I usually end up at Wilson Park with the dogs, but they like a change every now and then.

Someone suggested that the cormorant might have come from Alondra park, which is a bit closer than the ocean.

There used to be a cockatoo (I think his name was King Tut) that was the official greeter at the San Diego Zoo, but he died several years ago, now.

And, yes, Utah is quite a ways from the sea/ocean, and the gulls we have are California gulls (even though they are the Utah state bird).

Of course, this is August, and the seagulls and the other birds have deserted the area...some should start showing up before the end of the month.

(My mother's preferred bird food is "baby goldfish" crackers.)

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My own birds? Well, this gray catbird follows me around when I mow the lawn, and, in fact, has for at least six years. There's a birdbath in front of my house (my mother changes the water on that, too), and blackbirds and bluejays and the occasional cardinal show up.

There are these blackbirds with red chevrons on their shoulders (or where their shoulders would be if they had arms)...somebody told me once they were Baltimore orioles but I'm not so sure, and haven't got a bird book to hand to look it up for sure.

Burrowing owls show up from time to time---they're considered an endangered species, but there are reportedly more of them here in Cape Coral than anywhere else.

Robert, I think Baltimore orioles have some white on their wings and an orange belly. What you describe sounds like a redwing blackbird.

It would be nice if this forum had a preview option for posts, wouldn't it?

There are a lot of redwing blackbirds in our area, but what I love are the hawks. There are many, former farmland - good vittles I think! (many small rodents.) One landed near my "truffula tree" (looks just like a tree from the Seuess book The Lorax) and was at least a foot tall, his wingspan when he took off must have been five feet or more. My family and I were on the patio when he took off and most didn't see him, but EVERYONE heard the whoosh. Unbelievable.

I have several pairs of morning (mourning?) doves in the yard. Or one pair that is *everywhere.* A regular roosting of robins in three or four locations. And Kildeer - who this year chose my tomato planter box as their nest location. They're very funny birds, make a big racket and do the whole "look at me and my broken wing pay no attention to the nest over there" thing to distract me. As a result, my tomatoes stink this year since I avoided them the whole month of june to give the new family a fighting chance (3 of 4 eggs hatched and little kildeer went scampering around the yard for another month. They're a walking bird, little legs moving like a flip book.)

Oh - and a duck built her nest in a secluded spot near the dryer vent. We live *nowhere* near the water, but we've had duck nests in the yard before. This one was surprising because this year we have a dog, and she LOVEs eggs...she didn't find the nest until the ducklings had hatched, though, thankfully. I have no idea how that mama duck walked her babes to the nearest pond, though, which has to be more than 1/2 mile away.

This week I've noticed a lot of activity from a few wild canaries/goldfinches - not sure why, maybe some new hatchlings? One sounds juvenile to me but I have no idea. It's interesting to me how seasonal the birds seem to be, as much as the plants in the garden! We had a robin's nest in the eaves of the house early in the season, then that nest was vacated and a new (louder, messier, and more annoying - barn swallows?) bird family moved in for a while. They're now gone and I've got to get a guy out to fix the hole in the eaves. I've noticed different kinds of birds at different times of year over the years we've lived here and the biggest thing this has taught me is to keep my eyes open and to stay observant of the world around me. Things change, yet over time there are patterns to be detected. Very interesting.