Monday, March 23…Sidewinder (The Charlie Daniels Band)

 

    Early this morning, the outside air felt less oppressive than it has the couple of days. Certainly wasn’t cool, just less dense. The heat and very little to no breeze has made movement feel less like walking and more like slogging through thinned pudding.  Of course, back home, humidity would be responsible for the heaviness in the air…or possibly smoke from a wildfire somewhere in Canada.

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   We were out the door at about seven this morning. Kim gave Mom a tutorial on her bike, she took a short ride to check seat height and tilt, and then we were off to take advantage of the ‘lighter’ early morning air.  But not before Kim set Mom as the point of interest for the drone and put it in front of her, making her the star of the drone action video today.

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   First, we rode to the cell cameras on Nutt Rd so Kim could remove a branch that’s been activating Camera #2 and sending pictures of nothing. Getting to the fence entailed some off-roading in the desert but Mom was up to the challenge. From there, we took Skeleton Lane to Harmon Road.  She was willing to go farther so we rode to Johnny and June’s, but no one was outside the burrow.  I’m still hoping for a glimpse of the youngsters before we leave.

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   On our return trip down Harmon Rd, we passed a snake. Had to turn around to see if it was the dead kind or the alive kind. It was a rattlesnake but not a diamondback; it was paler and flatter. It appeared to be alive: tongue was flicking in and out and the rattle moved ever so slightly, but not in a menacing FAFO sort of way. 

   Kim really wanted to pick it up…both my mom and I really didn’t want him to pick it up. Mom had already started riding and as he continuing looking for a stick, I walked to my bike, saying, “You’re gonna do what you’re gonna do, but I’m not sticking around to watch. If you get bit and yell loud enough, I’ll call 911.” I heard him say as I took off to catch up to Mom that he just wanted to get it off the road so it wouldn’t get run over.

   He did find a stick to convince it to get off the road. He said watching it was the coolest thing because it crawled sideways to the side of the road. So, a sidewinder, which was confirmed by someone on the Reptile and Amphibian Facebook page. No rattles from a live rattlesnake.

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   Mom survived her first e-bike ride. Kim bought her a water bottle yesterday and we told here that she had to take it with her everywhere. Too darn easy to dehydrate in normal Arizona weather…this extreme heat multiplies that risk. We did an 8-mile ride which she said was no problem. It shouldn’t be a problem for the legs when there’s a throttle available; now, being a problem for the butt is a different matter.

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   Sat outside when we got back. When the shadow of the camper was no longer sufficient to keep us in shade, I extended the awning. Perhaps an unintended consequence of trying to get more shade is that the awning wouldn’t allow the heat underneath it to escape. At least that was my theory, but maybe the day was just naturally warming up. This is know…it sure got hot sitting under that awning. I checked it out online and while I didn’t find any collaboration on my theory, I did find a solution: put a fan outside…helps dissipate the heat and keeps the bugs at bay. A fan has been put on the ongoing Walmart list. **Update: Not sure about the efficacy of the fan…maybe a standup, oscillating fan would have been the best choice. Don’t really have room to store a stand fan for the ride home and honestly, I really didn’t want to spend that much money.  

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   One thing I’ve noticed from watching young sparrows through a zoomed in camera lens…their beaks seem to have yellow ‘lips’ or whatever the edge along a beak is called. The adult sparrows have dark beaks. The yellow is called a ‘gape’ and is explained this way on the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance website (swibirds.org):

When baby birds are hungry, they beg for food from their parents. Chicks hold their head up high, cheep, and open their mouth as wide as they can to show off their gape. The “gape” is the interior of a bird’s mouth- and it is often very brightly colored on baby birds. Red, orange, yellow and pink are common gape colors. Some birds also have spots or other markings to add contrast. This gaping behavior and the high-contrast colors trigger feeding behavior in parents. They can’t ignore a chick gaping in their nest and are biologically wired to put food into gaping mouths.

I also learned that the youngsters I’ve been seeing are called ‘fledglings’ and are described like this: Fourteen to twenty-eight days old, they have left the nest and do not return. But they’re still being cared for and support-fed by their parents in nearby trees or shrubs or on the ground. They are practicing flying and foraging but may not have mastered these skills yet. This is a spot on description of the behavior I’ve been seeing.

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   This afternoon we took a ride to Coolidge. Since we were close, we went to the pyramid on Poston

Butte in Florence for another try at a drone fly-over. Then on the way back to Picacho, we saw several massive dust devils in the distance. Kim and I quickly changed places so he could get the drone ready to put it in action when we got close to the biggest one. It fizzled out before he could get the drone close but a couple more were forming and following the same path as the big one. We were like storm chasers, but with dust devils. Then we did some exploring around the pecan groves. Flew the drone over groves between Picacho Hwy and Barrett Rd. off the frontage road. Pecan groves appear to be popular nesting sites for crows because so many came flying out of the trees and a couple even tried intimidating the drone by flying close to it. Silly crows…this drone doesn’t give in to intimidation. 

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   Sky is cloudy, so no imaging tonight.