Wednesday, March 6…I Like Birds (Eels)

    The cell cam is sending us notifications, which means everything is working as it should. However, sometimes animals show up and sometimes there’s nothing.  I think it’s a nearby branch moving in the wind that’s tripping the shutter.  Still…it’s working.

   The first night a jack rabbit and a pack rat showed up. Last night a coyote showed up.  When we saw the video, it was obvious there was more than one.  The lead coyote had started to come under the fence but then stopped and turned around. At that point we could see several glowing eyes moving around in the background.  Wonder if it saw the light of the camera and was too wary of continuing.  About five o’clock tonight, a roadrunner came wandering through the hole in the fence.  It stopped stock still for about 8 seconds before hopping towards the camera.  Again, I wonder if it heard the camera kick on.

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   The camper has needed to be re-leveled for some time. We’d talked about doing it for more than a week…today was the day to git ‘er done.  This wasn’t a matter of just raising or lowering the stabilizer jacks…Kim wanted to move the camper and put leveling blocks under a couple of tires.

Halfway through this process, as I stooped to move one of the blocks, I realized the horned lizard had crawled into one of the space in the blocks…that discovery momentarily halted our project. It had flattened itself so the question of whether it was dead or alive was settled when Kim moved the block. The lizard skittered away a couple of inches but now it was directly beneath the tire. After it rested, it then moved further under the camper which put it out of the danger zone. Kim was able to continue with moving the camper onto the blocks; the lizard had stayed put and Kim managed to catch it.    

   Our next-door neighbors have been here longer than we have. Kim has talked to them…gave the kids some space pictures he took and lent the dad some tools to make car repairs. So, when Kim caught the lizard, I knocked on the door to ask if the kiddos wanted to see it.  Didn’t take long for them to appear in our yard, thrilled to be able to check out the little guy…then they took turns holding it before releasing it. Their dad, who wears an IBEW shirt, is doing some electrical work over at the solar power company and they’re staying here in the campground for the duration.  They’re from Arizona but claim to not be from any particular town…meaning they travel to where work is available. The kiddos, Maya (11), Miley (7) and Malachai (4), are home-schooled and quite entertaining.

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   It was cloudy today and somewhat cooler than we’ve been experiencing so far this year. We didn’t walk this morning; instead, we leveled the camper and talked to the neighbor kids. It wasn’t looking so good for riding the bikes, so we took the truck to the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert.  Seemed like a cloudy day activity, especially given that we were going during the afternoon when the full sun can be brutal.

   Saw lots of birds but probably the most notable were the Great Blue Heron and two types of egrets. The Snowy Egret has a dark bill and yellow feet; the Great Egret has a yellow bill and is larger, although that’s hard to determine unless they’re standing next to each other.  We saw the egrets in separate areas of the preserve, and I’d be hard pressed to say which was larger.  We used the bill color to tell them apart.

   The Preserve has been taken over by Desert Cottontails…they are everywhere and not afraid of people. There were numerous dogs being walked today and I was amazed at the restraint they showed when the rabbits or ducks were near.   Although if a dog were walked there regularly, it just might be used to them.

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   The cloudy day had turned into a cool cloudy night early on, but Kim kept checking. At about nine o’clock he headed out to do some imaging. Cool nighttime air wafted in when he closed the door. It doesn’t matter that the temperature is hovering in the mid-50s, it chilled my legs. I sure wouldn’t be going out there wearing shorts like he is.  Nighttime chill calls for a bit more covering.  I asked how it was going when he came back in, meaning the imaging…he simply said he had to get warmed up. I just smiled.