It was a busy morning walk
for bird sighting...saw a road runner scoot across the road, our presence
flushed two quail out of ground cover, we watched a bird atop a saguaro and
then we saw a quail in a pecan tree. So
glad we both had our cameras. The quail
sat in that tree for about 10 minutes, just looking this way and that way. I
have a good zoom on my camera so after I got a few pictures I crept closer to see
if he’d flinch, figuring if he flew off no harm done. He stayed put so I was able to use less zoom
and therefore increase stability as I approached. More pictures were taken. Of course I could only go as far as the
perimeter fence around the pecan grove...Kim thinks maybe I was 35 yards
away. Got some great pictures. I researched the type of quail we saw and I
believe it was a Gambel’s Quail.
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On our
walk we also encountered some ants doing a cleaning project. At first it was hard to tell what they were
doing because it seemed they were just milling about but after watching for a
while we decided they were cleaning out a hole.
Most of them were carrying stones/pebbles/big sand out of the hole; we
watched one very determined ant try to hoist a pebble much larger than itself out
of the hole. It was interesting to see
that others came to his aid and helped him get the pebble above ground where he
carried it away by himself.
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| Arrow pointing to pebble and ant. |
Now when we were watching I thought that the
debris was secured up by the ant’s head...then I looked at my pictures and
revised my conclusion. It looked like
the debris was being carried by legs in the back. THEN I looked closer and realized it was hard
to tell which end was head and which end was rear on these ants. I did an image search of ‘ants with big heads’
and found one that looked exactly like the pebble carriers we’d been
watching. Once I had a name I could find
out a bit more. This was a colony of Pheidole
xerophila which are divided
into major and minor workers. We’d
stumbled across a bunch of major workers cleaning out what might become a
nesting chamber. Everything I read
mentioned their strong mandibles which aid in carrying large loads. I couldn’t
find anything that spoke to how they see where they’re going if they have a
load in front of their face.
And now I have looked at enough enlarged ant pictures to last me a
lifetime. Nasty looking things up close!
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About a month ago I made an offhand remark
about saving up for a new camera. Kim
took the route of asking for forgiveness instead of permission and bought me a
new camera...the newest version of Canon’s point and shoot...I’m not a DSLR
person...I want the camera to do the work for me. 😏 It arrived days before we left so
the camera and I are still getting used to each other but I’m impressed so
far. The camera hasn’t said what it
thinks of me.... 😉
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Took a ride to Coolidge to pick up the items
we forgot on last night’s shopping trip.
It was a sunny day with temps in the 70s but a wind made for a little
chill when riding. Came back to find
that the wind had had a bit of fun with our awning and patio rug. Nothing was damaged but the awning will be
out only when we’re in camp.
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About 6 months ago Kim’s wallet started
causing some aggravation in his hip when sitting so he started throwing it in
the console when driving or just putting in on the counter/table/desk when he’s
not in the truck. However, remembering
to grab the wallet is a new habit that he’s having a hard time learning. More than once he’s gotten to where he’s
going and finds that the wallet hasn’t made the trip with him. And no wallet means no license. Happened again today on our bike ride so he
bought a smaller wallet that can hold the essentials. Because it’ll fit in his front pocket he can
keep it on him all the time and it shouldn’t cause the hip/leg pain.
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Had a quick lunch after the bike ride, then
Kim went to set up his telescope and I went for another bike ride. Too nice out to stay still and I’d already
done my walk. Made a big loop...started
by heading east on the new frontage road.
It’s really not ‘new’ because there was a frontage road there before but
it appears they took the defunct entrance ramp to the highway and brought it
around to merge with the existing frontage road. Then took out the section of frontage road
that had been bypassed. Unfortunately
they only resurfaced up to where the two roads connected; it would have been
grand had they continued the resurfacing the entire length of the frontage road
because that it was rather bumpy. Oh,
well, maybe another time.
Went over to look at the crow’s nest in the
saguaro out on Park Link Rd. and just continued on until I got to the Tom Mix
highway (AZ 79). Stopped at the Tom Mix
Monument for a bit, wrote in the visitor’s log then took pictures of a critter
that resembled a prairie dog. One glaring
difference between it and the prairie dogs I’ve seen is its huge eyes. When I got back to camp I googled ‘Arizona
prairie dog with big eyes’...and I found several species of animal that looked
similar but I settled on the round-tailed ground squirrel. --------------------
I saw what looked like new nesting material in the crow’s nest although I didn’t see any birds around. I may need to come back at some point to get a picture of inside the nest. I bought a new blue-tooth selfie stick with that very project in mind. Now I need to find some really long sticks....
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It rained ever so slightly on my afternoon ride. Enough maybe to make the plants sit up and say, “Oh, hey! What was that?” but certainly not enough for their roots to feel any impact. There was rain in the mountains for sure and I was hoping it was heading northeast and not coming toward me. I was fully prepared to try to outrun it but that wasn’t necessary. While the sky looked very threatening, no more rain fell on me...although the wind sure picked up.
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I’ve had an opportunity to really look at the new location of the highway and Kim is right...it’s less than ¼ mile away, maybe more like 400 yards. I imagine 4 football fields would fit between where it was and where it is now.
Because the underpasses are gone we no longer have direct access to the frontage road on the westbound side. Have to take the frontage road near the campground about 11 miles east to access it and I’m not quite sure how to do it if I turn west on the nearby frontage road. I’d turn right, go over the overpass but then what? Went by there three times today and never looked. I see I have some more exploring to do.
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Bike miles today: 137
Total miles: 442
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| Afternoon ride... |
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| Morning ride...to and back from Coolidge |
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