I fill up the bird feeders once a week, usually on Fridays. I did so yesterday and, today the “rotunda” medium feeder (pictured above) is about half empty. This is typical of the day after. Later in the week, the two smaller feeders will be empty and the large feeder seems to hang on for a few more days.
In addition to the feeder shown above, there is a smaller feeder and the “bird church” large feeder.
You can see our feeder setup in this post from February of 2025.
While out on my morning walk, I snapped a photo of this little White Tailed Antelope Ground Squirrel in an alert stance in the little wash behind our house. She was looking for the peanuts that I throw out there for them. Hint to the squirrel. There is a peanut in th lower left corner of the (click to enlarge) photo.
She, shortly after I took this photo, found the peanut and bounded off into the underbrush before I could snap any more photos. We love our little desert wildlife and seeing them daily. I saw some juvenile Gambel’s Quail and their parents just a couple of moments before this photo. They, as is usually the case, were too quickly dispersed for me to get their images captured in the camera.
Each morning I get up and take Tucker out for a walk in the vicinity of our house. After he does his thing and goes back inside, I usually go back out with one of my cameras to opportunely catch some of the wildlife in the area on digital. This week, I took these photos below of some quail chick juveniles, a cactus wren in the ocotillo and an antelope squirrel getting one of the several peanuts I toss out to them.
Photos below:
We know that we already post a lot of photos of the critters, but we never get tired of seeing the wildlife around our little paradise as they flourish around us.
Click on any image to enlarge.
First day of summer – 06-21-2026 – Wickenburg, AZ.
I snapped this photo this morning in the little wash behind our lot. These are Gambel’s quail, a female adult and three juveniles running across the open area back there.
Taken with a Canon EOS R10 camera with a 55-210mm lens.
Gemini AI:
The birds captured in the photo are a family of Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii), a signature desert species native to the American Southwest.
Breakdown of the Group
- The Adult (Left): This is an adult female Gambel’s Quail. She features the characteristic blue-gray plumage, chestnut-and-white streaked flanks, and a prominent, dark, comma-shaped head plume (topknot). She lacks the stark black face mask and black belly patch of the adult male.
- The Chicks / Juveniles (Center and Right): These are older, semi-mature chicks (often called juveniles). By June, earlier spring hatches have grown quite large but retain their mottled, buffy-brown camouflage plumage. If you look closely at their heads, you can see their small, spiked topknots just beginning to develop.
Behavior in the Desert
Gambel’s Quail are famously ground-dwelling birds that prefer running over flying. They form tightly knit family groups during the summer breeding season. At this stage, the chicks are highly active, foraging alongside the adult for seeds, vegetation, and insects under the desert brush.
I asked SuperGrok to identify this bird:
This is a juvenile (first-year) Northern Cardinal, likely a young male.
- Age: The bill is dark/grayish, which is a key juvenile trait. Adults have bright orange-red bills. Juveniles also tend to have slightly looser plumage and less intense colors overall.
- Sex: Young males often show more red in the crest, wings, and tail than females at this stage, and they’re starting to develop the warmer reddish tones seen here. Females stay browner longer. The amount of red on the crest and body in your shots points toward male.
These birds molt into more adult-like plumage over their first fall/winter, so this one is probably in that transitional “formative” stage right now in mid-June. Cardinals at the feeder are always a treat in our Arizona garden!
If we spot this bird after the first of next year, he will probably look like his Dad (below), seen “hiding” in the nearby mesquite tree out back. Click on either image to enlarge.
I took the above shot this morning when this little guy came out to beg for a peanut. Here’s what the SuperGrok Lite AI had to say about him:
That’s a great close-up shot of a White-tailed Antelope Ground Squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus) in your Wickenburg backyard! These are classic Sonoran Desert residents, and your high-desert location (around 2,100–2,500 ft) is perfect habitat for them.
Key Identification Features (matching your photo):
- Size & Build: Small, about 7–8 inches long (head to tail tip), weighing around 3–4 ounces. They have longer legs than many other ground squirrels, giving them a nimble, jerky running style.
- Coloration: Grayish-brown or buff back with fine grizzling, white or cream underparts, and a distinctive white stripe on each side from shoulder toward the tail. The most diagnostic trait is the pure white underside of the tail, which they often flip up and curve over their back while running — creating a flashing “antelope-like” signal.
- Face & Eyes: Large dark eyes, small rounded ears, and a somewhat pointed snout. They look a bit like chipmunks but lack the bold head stripes of true chipmunks.
Your photo nicely captures the grizzled fur texture, alert posture, and those strong claws for digging.
Photo details:
Click on the image to enlarge.
