There is a cactus up by the clubhouse that
I’ve named ‘the Lorax’ simply because it looks like something that Dr. Seuss would
come up with. It took some roaming around on the computer to
find its rightful name but I did it! Its
flower stems are quite distinctive…reddish flower stems stick out perpendicular
to the cactus column. I’ve been tracking their growth throughout the time we’ve
been here. That flower stem was what I
was looking for in my search. According to the website horticultureunlimited.com,
the Lorax is actually a silver torch cactus.
I typed ‘Arizona cactus’ to start my
search and while lots of cacti pictures and descriptions popped up, there was nothing
remotely similar to the Lorax. I even
got Mandy up at the office involved by asking her what it was called. She didn’t know but was willing to help with
my quest. Finally, I typed in ‘upright
cactus with red flower stems coming out perpendicular’…the silver torch, among
others, popped up. J I’ll still call it the Lorax but it’s good to
know the right name.
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While we were sitting at the Gu-Atchi Trading Post, a man with an
exterminator business advertised on his truck stopped by. Kim took the opportunity to ask about
scorpions. The bug guy said that it’s
probably a bit early for them to be out much…next month as temperatures rise,
they’ll be everywhere. We’re not giving
up…the temperatures are supposed to be steadily in the 80s for the next week or
so. We don’t want to see lots of them everywhere, we just want to see one or
two. We’ll take the truck out to a
remote desert area (a mile down the road would qualify) and walk around out
there. In the meantime, I’m having a fun
time just playing with the black light.
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I woke up this morning thinking about ‘Hannah Hummingbird’…hoping that
we didn’t scare her off with our being out around the camp yesterday. But then I remembered that we were here first…she
built that nest knowing there were people in the vicinity. Then I got to thinking about her sleeping
habits. Birds don’t ‘sleep’ in a nest
every night, only when there are eggs or young to be tended to. Saw Hannah last night at about dusk and she
didn’t show up at the nest until maybe 9 or so this morning. Made me wonder where hummingbirds spend the
evening/night hours when they aren’t in a nesting phase. worldofhummingbirds.com
to the rescue again:
When hummingbirds sleep, they go into a
hibernation-like state called Torpor (pronounces TOR-per). This is a really
deep sleep. Their metabolism will lower to one-fifteenth (1/15) of normal.
Their body temperature will drop to the point of
becoming hypothermic. Their heart rate will drop to about 50 beats per minute.
Their breathing will slow to the point that it looks like they have stopped
breathing. By sleeping like this, hummingbirds can save up to 60% of their
available energy.
A hummingbird will settle in a favorite
perching place that they feel safe in. If the hummingbird is a female with
a nest of baby hummingbirds that
cannot care for themselves, the mother hummingbird will sit on the nest.
They will settle in with their neck retracted and their head forward. Their
beak will point up at a sharp angle and their feathers will fluff out, making
them look like a cotton ball.
When hummingbirds sleep and are in the
Torpor state, they have been known to hang upside-down. If you find a
hummingbird that is hanging upside-down and they appear to be dead, it is
actually more likely that they are just asleep. They will probably not even
respond if you touched them. If at all possible, leave them alone and they will
wake up when they get warmer.
It takes anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour
for a hummingbird to fully recover from torpor. Once they are up and about, the
first order of business is food. The hummingbirds
will eat 25% of their daily intake as soon as they recover from torpor.
I continue to marvel at that fact that we get
the privilege of watching the nest building phase. I sure hope our activity around here won’t be
a bother to her once she lays her egg(s).
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Left
about noon for a ride that Rapunzel said would take about 4 hours. We managed to turn it into a 6 ½ hour
ride. It just happens. Mapped out a big loop that took us through
the Tohono O’odham Reservation (Indian Route 15) to Why, AZ. From there headed north on AZ 85 to Ajo and Gila
Bend, where we jumped on US 8 to head back to Picacho. It was a great day to ride…roads were good, traffic
was minimal, sun was out all day with no clouds and the temperature reached 81o.
A person could get used to riding in
shirt sleeves on a warm sunny day like today.
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Stopped at a cemetery on the reservation. It’s located at the base of a hill with a
fence around it…quite good sized. The grave sites
are spread out and decorated in much the same way as the memorials along the
highway. Plastic flower wreaths,
candles, flowers in vases, toy cars, rocks…all are used adorn the
grave site. Wooden crosses with a name
stenciled on seems to be the favored way of identifying the deceased…some have
dates, some don’t. A couple of sites have
the standard issue military marker…very basic, the kind that used to be
free. I assume they still are. Then
there are several graves up the hillside.
These have a walls of rocks built up and weathered logs laid across the
top of the walls. The rocks are maybe
the size of a small child’s head…not easy to gather and stack. It was all very interesting to me…and the
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We didn’t take a bicycle ride today. By the time we got home on the big bikes, it
was too dark. Our bicycles don't have
lights on them, only reflectors.
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Kim switched out his scopes and wasn’t
having good luck with his finding scope so he shut it all down and came back to
camp. No sense in getting frustrated and
angry at that equipment. He’ll think on
it and make necessary adjustments for tomorrow night. The opportunities to image haven’t been as
plentiful as he was hoping…there have either been high clouds in the night sky
or the equipment goes wonkers. But tomorrow
night if the sky is clear, he’ll be back out there.
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Bike
miles today: 236
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