Watched a splendid male Vermillion Flycatcher using the stockpond for his giant birdbath–he repeatedly dropped from a high branch into the water a few (safe) feet out from the bank, hitting the water face first and going completely under, the process looked like a tern’s dive in miniature but in red and not white. I could watch his back bob to the surface and he’d be out and airborne in such a flash that there was no saturation of feathers to bog him down.

Wandered through the far north “pasture” (#4) to see what might be in this area of vegetation more typical of the arid slopes around us, and found Black-throated Sparrow in abundance; I don’t think I’ve ever seen this species where I usually carry out my work in the lush grasses across the other fields. A Ladder-backed Woodpecker worked over the mesquite there, too.

Bewick’s Wren singing in The Lane.