I spent a couple of hours walking around the Sacramento Old Historic City Cemetery.  There isn’t a lot blooming in the gardens yet, of course – it’s February – but some flowers were showing off, and I did get to do a tiny bit of birding, and was surprised to see a pair of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies flittering around.  During my walk I came across Mockingbirds, Scrub Jays, Bushtits, sparrows, Oregon Juncos, Northern Flickers, hummingbirds, doves, Robins, House Finches, Starlings, Goldfinches gobbling up pollen from the pine trees… and the catch of the day: a female Nutthall’s Woodpecker poking around the trees… The Bushtits were “nectar robbing” from some flowers.  Their beaks aren’t made to dip down the log necks of the flowers, so they found the blooms where Carpenter Bees had bitten ting holes in toward the base of the flower, and got the nectar through the holes.  The birds are tiny and move so fast it’s hard to get a clear shot of them, but I managed to get a few fair ones.

I walked around for about 2 hours (time flies when you’re having fun) and made it back to the main gate just as a ranger showed up to close and lock it.  Nick. Of. Time.