White-crowned-Sparrow

Think I just met the world’s smartest White-crowned Sparrow!

We had a red ant colony at our last campsite, and as you probably know, these little guys are impressive to watch as they are able to haul relatively large loads of food on their backs, and carry them long distances back to their holes.  Well one particular White-crowned Sparrow figured this out and would just stand near the opening to the colony and pick the bits of food off the backs of the unsuspecting ants!  He did it over and over.  Sometimes it would get the ant too, they most not taste too good as the sparrow would quickly spit it out, and then pick up just the piece of food.

It was entertaining to watch, and fascinating to see such a small animal develop a learned behavior.  Unfortunately I didn’t capture any images of the interaction, this is a White-crowned Sparrow in camp last night.

Coyote Canyon, February 13, 2015.

Update:  Here are the latest conditions for Anza-Borrego wildflowers along with the latest hot spots.

A steady dose of 80 degree temps is really speeding up the wildflower bloom.  A week earlier, this was just a bunch of green plants.  Now, there is a fair amount of blooming Sand Verbena, along with a number of other species.  So far, it looks to be a pretty good year for Sand Verbena and Desert Lily, and maybe not as good for other photographer favorites like Desert Gold and Brittlebush, although it is still early.