Up
early on our own…what’s up with that?! It
was a cool one this morning…45o at 8 a.m. Best thing was to head to the clubhouse to
write some postcards to let the sun do its warming thing. Got to talking with today’s office worker
about lawn care, green grass, and creepy, crawly things. (The camper workers rotate.) At 10, it was still to cool to get on the
either type of bike, so we headed to Coolidge in the truck. We were on a mission to find a handheld blacklight. Just the thing to find scorpions in the dark. Yes, we’re going to purposefully look for
scorpions. Seems they’re everywhere…you
just need the right light to see them in the dark. They glow when a blacklight shines on them. We spent the morning tracking down and buying
the necessary equipment, then went about our day waiting for nightfall. We did a quick look around the bushes out by
the scope about 7:30 but didn’t see any glowing creepy crawlies. However, another thing that glows when a
blacklight hits it is pet urine. So
while we didn’t see any scorpions tonight, we found probably every spot the
dogs in the campground have peed while on their daily walks. The benefit of that was I had a chance to figure
out the camera settings so when we do see a scorpion I can get a picture of
it. 😊
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I wrote this paragraph on Saturday but forgot to put it in the journal:
A hummingbird might be making a nest in our
tree. She has been zooming in with
little…and I mean, little…pieces of grass, etc. in her beak and then flitting
in and out of the tree. I’ve been on the
lookout for her nest but if there’s one up there, the tree is doing a good job
of hiding it.
Today’s hummingbird
update:
When
I arrived back at camp from writing postcards, Kim was sitting in his chair
outside by the tree and calmly said, “So do you want to see the nest?” Well, heck yeah, I want to see the nest!
Where? Where? I knew immediately
what he was talking about…I didn’t have to ask ‘What nest?’ He told me to stand
beside the picnic table and look up.
OMGoodness! There was the
hummingbird nest, right in plain sight! At first I thought maybe she made it
overnight because it wasn’t there and then suddenly here it is, right in our faces.
But we’ve seen her working on it for several days so realistically I know it
wasn’t built overnight…but, seriously, it’s been right in front of us and we didn’t see it until today. I
don’t even have to pull branches aside to see it or anything…it’s right there!!
And she’s still bringing feathers and grass in to make it all nice and comfy…sometimes
she flits right in to the nest and other times she hangs around the back of the
tree, sneaking her way in. I literally
stood in the doorway of the trailer and took pictures/video of her bringing in
nest making material. For someone like
me, this is the pinnacle of any nature pictures I’ve taken. A hummingbird building her nest in the tree
beside our trailer, 8 to 10 feet from our door. Unfreakin’believable!!
Hummingbirds build velvety,
compact cups with spongy floors and elastic sides that stretch as the young
grow. They weave together twigs, plant fibers, and bits of leaves, and use
spider silk as threads to bind their nests together and
anchor them to the foundation. Hummingbird eggs are
about the size of navy beans.
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I took some video of her actually bringing in
nesting material and then sitting on the nest, spinning around, flapping her
wings against the outside of the nest…all very curious movements. At one point she was sitting in the nest and
shaking her little butt and I wondered if she was actually laying an egg. The information I found on worldofhummingbirds.com clued me into what I was witnessing…and no, she was
not laying an egg. 😏
When a mother hummingbird is gathering the
materials for her nest, she will carry the items in her beak. When she arrives
at the nest, Momma Hummingbird will painstaking tuck the material into the fork
of the branches to
A mother hummingbird will sit in a nest and
use a wing to press the nest against her body to mold it
into the perfect shape. She will press her rump into the center of the nest and against the
walls to round the inside. She also uses her feet. With one foot hanging onto the nest and the other
stomping the nest, she will compact the material to make a solid sturdy nest
bottom.
Mother hummingbirds will usually work on a
nest for about four (4) hours per day, making approximately thirty-four (34)
trips for materials per hour. The entire nest will take anywhere between five
(5) to seven (7) days to complete. All the while there are little eggs growing
inside her.
I saw her going through this routine several
times in the 20 minutes or so I watched her from the shadow of our door. Separate times she brought in a piece of
grass, a feather and some spider web silk.
She sat on the nest, then brought her head back and thrust her beak down
underneath her body to tuck her treasure down in the nest. And don'tcha know that one of the many Kodak moments I caught on camera is going to be made into a
poster for my side of the trailer. This
is going to be so fun to watch!
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The
temperature got down in the 40s overnight…a tough time to be sleeping in a
tent. I know this from experience. This morning I talked to one of the two men
staying in a tent next to us. Yes, he
said in his German accent, it got cold but a tent is all we’ve ever camped in. Meaning maybe they’re used to it?
Yesterday they spent the day at the Grand Canyon, which must have been a 3 hour
drive one way from here. Anyway, he was
very impressed and tried to explain that it was so big that it looked like a
picture. I think I understood what he
meant…the layers of color in the rocks, the depth, the width, it’s all so much
to take in and there are times it looks more like a picture than this
incredibly real ‘big wonderful hole in the ground’ right in front of you. Surreal vs. real. This evening I talked to both of them…they
spent today at the Pinal Air and Space Museum and visited the nearby Air Force
Base, checking out the planes and taking a tour. I believe one of them called it an air show. When I asked where else they might be going
and seeing…they’re going to Houston on Wednesday to see another ‘air show’…almost
apologetically the one talking explained they are interested in aviation. He then talked about how wonderful the
weather is and that it was -9 C in Germany today. What?! He didn’t know what that equated to in
Fahrenheit and neither did I, but we both knew that 32o F is equal
to 0o C. And to think I was worried about them last night being in a
tent in the cool Arizona night air…
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Today’s
bike ride was about exploring. I had
seen a paved road turning off from Indian Route 15, perhaps another route
through the reservation. I looked it up
on the map…it was Indian Route 42, which traveled west through the Tohono O’odham
Nation Reservation and then headed north to US 8. At that point we’d be about 16 miles west of
Casa Grande. That’s what the map showed
anyway….only way to find out for ourselves was to ride it. We could always turn around if the pavement
ran out. It was exactly as billed...it
went west, then it swung up to the north and we merged onto US 8. It was a good road…no surprises except for
one lone cow alongside the road. That
was a surprise.
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Before we headed out for our ride, Kim gave me an early birthday present. The proper name is ‘circulator seat pad’….I
call it a ‘butt pad’. It ‘promotes air movement
and reduces heat build-up where the rider’s body touches the seat’. What that really means is that a rider’s butt
won’t get sweaty. On a long rides, butts
get sweaty…the annoyance of damp pants is real. Kim has a butt pad and on long hot rides, he
says it’s essential to a comfortable ride experience. So I got a butt pad for my birthday and, of
course, I tried it out today. I’m please
to say that my butt didn’t get hot or sweaty…which means it gets two thumbs up
from me!👍👍
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Out
on our ride today, I saw what I thought was a hawk sitting on top of a
saguaro. I turned around to get a picture. It wasn’t until we were looking at the
pictures in camp trying to identify the bird that we realized he was standing
on one leg. Kim thought he just had his
other leg pulled up, but a close examination of the pictures doesn’t show his
other leg. Hmmmm….is it possible I found
a one legged Cooper’s hawk? Interesting...
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The Germans were cooking hot dogs on the grill
and it seemed prudent to get out on our bicycles at that time so I didn’t embarrass
myself by joining them for supper. It
smelled so-o-o good!
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Kim is out imaging tonight, looking for
scorpions as the telescope/camera does its thing. He says that everything with the scope is
going perfect, so maybe we’ll both have new pictures to put up on the wall
tomorrow.
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Bicycle miles today: 6.1
Bike miles today: 97
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