intro to the yard

Originally posted at Seetrail; backdated here.

The yard around the house is scruffy, mostly native, mature Juniper and Cottonwood type trees - a few unidentified shrubs host MASSIVE amounts of pollinator creatures - see Matt's previous post for photos. There's a sage (?) bush in the yard that is teeming with unidentified caterpillars... and what else occupies the yard?

Birds:

Turkey Vulture 7/4
Eurasian Collared-Dove 7/2
White-winged Dove 7/2
Inca Dove 7/5
Common Nighthawk 7/2
Black-chinned Hummingbird 7/4
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 7/4
Vermillion Flycatcher 7/2
Ash-throated Flycatcher 7/2
Cassin's Kingbird 7/3 nesting
Barn Swallow 7/2 nesting
Cactus Wren 7/5 heard
Northern Mockingbird 7/2
Curve-billed Thrasher 7/2
European Starling 7/4
Canyon Towhee 7/4
Great-tailed Grackle 7/2
Bronzed Cowbird 7/2
Orchard Oriole 7/4
House Finch 7/2
Lesser Goldfinch 7/2
House Sparrow 7/2
*domestic red junglefowl 7/3

Butterflies:

Queen 7/2
American Snout 7/4
Sleepy Orange 7/4
Lyside Sulphur 7/4
Gray Hairstreak 7/4
Texan Crescent 7/4
Western Pygmy Blue 7/4
Reakirt's Blue 7/4
Orange Sulphur 7/5
Question Mark 7/6

We're of course cheating on both lists - if it was seen on, over, or on the edge of the property, it has been counted. Also, for birds, if it was heard from the property, we're counting it.