Set the alarm last night because we needed to be up early; picking a
grandson up at Mesa airport at 10:45 a.m., Arizona time. Gabriel, almost 21, has
stepped into the adult world…has his own apartment and a big boy job complete
with vacation time. He’s flying out here for a week and has been looking
forward to the time away from work. We’re looking forward to the time with
him…haven’t spent any time alone with him since his 10-year-old birthday trip. However,
I doubt Kim and Gabe will be doing any ziplining this time like they did back
then. 🙃
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Kim’s phone woke us up this morning at 6:15…Gabe calling to say that he
missed his flight but that he’d gotten another flight which would have him
arriving more like 3 o’clock this afternoon. I turned the alarm off, and we
both fell back asleep, although not before I heard the Dawn Chorus singing
strong.
With our morning freed up, we decided to put out one of the cell
cams…decided on a tried-and-truespot along a fence on Nutt Rd. Rode the e-bikes down there, the camera stand
strapped to the back of Kim’s bike with the camera in a saddlebag. Spying on the animals…it’s just another way
that we amuse ourselves while we’re out here.
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Sat outside for about 45 minutes today just watching birds, camera in
hand. Pleased that sparrows have found the solar fountain that we put out. It’s
fun to watch them drink the water. One
drank the water as it bubbled up out of the fountain, putting its beak right
into the bubbling water. Another one drank from the pool of water that forms on
the plate. To do that, it tipped its head to the side, which allowed its beak
to slide sideways into the water. Interesting.
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Put the platform feeder on the table near the seed ring. A curved-bill
thrasher came in for a little bite of the crumbled up peanut butter balls. When
I checked it about an hour later, the peanut butter crumbles were almost gone,
and it looked like the mealworms and birdseed hadn’t been disturbed. That surprises me because the peanut butter
ball feeder wasn’t getting any notice hanging on the tree…maybe the chefs are
correct when they say it’s all in the presentation. Anyway, I added some more
crumble to the feeder to see if the trend continues.
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We seem to have an orange Rufous at our feeders…I’m waiting on someone
from the Arizona and Southwest Birding FB page to verify but until then I’m
going with Orange Rufous. One of these amazingly colored hummers made a very
brief appearance about 4 years ago and I learned at that time that the Rufous has
a long migration route and usually just stops in for a quick fill-up of energy.
As the name implies, this hummingbird has a striking orange red color with greenish
patches on its wings.
I’m not sure if hummingbirds make a high-pitched click or chirp but it’s
a distinct sound. An Orange Rufous seems to chirp faster than the Anna’s or
black-chinned hummers, which is what we usually see around here. Its fast
chirping sure makes it easy to tell when it’s approaching.
**The hummingbird has been
confirmed as a male Orange Rufous.**
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Gabe’s new flights landed him at Sky Harbor in Phoenix instead of Mesa.
His ride overslept this morning which put him at the airport about ½ hour
before take-off but after the Allegiant plane had closed its doors. Hence, the
new flight into a different airport. Kim went solo to pick him up as I had a
Zoom meeting commitment. After my meeting, I took an e-bike ride into the post
office and had returned, showered and was watching the birds again before Kim
and Gabe returned.
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My new windshield arrived while I was gone; Joe had it installed by the
time I got back. Waiting until tomorrow to give it a test drive. Didn’t have
the gumption to put jeans on…I’ll do it first thing tomorrow.
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Made a run to Coolidge for some errands, then stopped at Nacho Mafia, a
food truck that we’d not seen before. We were told this is their second year in
Coolidge. It sells more than just nachos…Kim and I had nachos and Gabe had
smothered fries or something like that. All of us decided that we’d go back
again…except Kim and I might split an order of nachos next time. Big portions.
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Changed my office into Gabe’s bedroom when we got back and as soon as
they returned from setting up the telescope, Gabe crashed. He works midnight shift but tried to make
himself light on sleep in preparation for the time change. Don’t know that
there’s a easy way to prepare for turning the clock back a couple of hours; eventually
the body adjusts.
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While Kim has been imaging the last two nights, he hasn’t kept the
results. Minor equipment errors both nights made for some unusable images.
Tonight he said everything’s going great and his target is Horsehead Nebula. This
is one that lives up to its name.
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