Kim said he made it to bed about 2:40 am…I’d
be a lousy alibi witness on that one because I didn’t register any sound or
movement once I fell asleep. He wanted to process all the images from last
night to see if cleaning the camera took care of the artifact (dark shadows in
the image). It appears to be gone…but is it? Unless a person is very familiar
with the look of a certain Nebula, it seems it’d be difficult to know what
should or shouldn’t be there. And looking at other images online helps but there
can’t be a direct comparison because data collection and processing vary from
person to person. Images can look similar but not identical. This morning, he
did a breakdown of his stacking process. While the image he took last night
looks good to the untrained eye, he’s not convinced that it’s as clean as it
could be. In his mind, there’s still work to be done.
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When the alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I was very tempted to skip
today’s observation for the Breakfast Hour of Birds Study. But I carefully
climbed over Kim (it’s the bedroom set-up), put a jacket on over my PJs and sat
outside to observe. The sun had risen but wasn’t over Newman Peak yet, so I’d
call it early daylight. Birds were active in the bushes, hopping around and
chirping. At 6:43 a.m., a sparrow landed on the suet cake to eat. Breakfast is
served! A hummingbird arrived at about the same time. I made note of it and
went back to bed.
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Yesterday, I received email and text notifications about changing the
clocks for Daylight Saving Time. Both times, I made a mental note to do it, then
I’d remember that we’re in Arizona, where that doesn’t happen. Michigan is now
three hours ahead of us. Our bodies and minds may not have had any adjusting to
do this morning, but it’ll catch up with us when we leave at the end of March.
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I’ve been thinking about the burrowing owls we’d found on Harmon Rd…since
one was smaller and darker colored than the other, were they both adults or was
there an adult and juvenile? I turned to Google and found that male and female adults
are virtually indistinguishable unless they’re seen together for a direct
comparison. They are very similar in shape, size and color.
Color: Brown mottled with
tawny colored spots. However, the male is typically paler because it spends a
good deal of time above ground on guard duty or hunting, therefore, he has a
sun-bleached look. Females are darker due to spending more time in the
burrow.
Size: Between 7 ½ and 9 ½ inches in height, with the
male being slightly larger than the female.
Facial features: Both
sexes have yellow eyes and a ‘unibrow’, making them look stern and judgmental.
Unibrows are used for communication, along with other behaviors, to signal
agitation or danger. Male unibrow may be slightly more prominent. Yellow beaks.
After all the reading I did today about burrowing owls, I feel confident
in saying that we saw a male and a female.
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Burrowing Owl Trivia: Burrowing owls do
not ‘hoot’, they ‘coo’. Burrowing owl
chicks will mimic the sound of a rattlesnake’s “rattle” to ward off potential
predators. Juvenile owls are brown and beige puffballs.
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Rode back to Coolidge with Joe to meet up with Wes and Sandra at the
Cotton Days Car Show. They’re a couple
we met when we first started coming out to this KOA. Haven’t seen them since maybe
2021. Currently they’re camping in Apache Junction. Sounds like they’ve ping
ponged around Arizona for a few months. They own a farm in Minnesota and grow
corn and soybeans now. Since harvest was early last fall, they’ve been on the
road since sometime in November. I don’t
recall hearing how long they plan to stay but I suppose that would depend on
the planting season for their crops.
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Rode the e-bikes down the Nutt Rd. where Kim played with the drone,
having it track us from the front as we rode through the desert. Made for some
interesting video.
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I’ve read that gas prices have spiked all over the country. I can only
talk about what I see here. Regular was from $2.89 to $2.99/gal and diesel was
in the $3.60 to $3.80 range when we arrived. Then the United States and Israel bombed Iran
and as a result, fuel prices have jumped. Regular is now hovering around $3.50/gal
and diesel is ranging from $4.29 to $4.69/gallon. I can only imagine fuel prices
are worse in Charlevoix because they are usually the highest in our corner of
the Mitten.
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Yesterday, the temperature might have peaked at 70o. Today, it
was back in the mid-80’s with the forecast saying that it should be back in the
90’s by the middle of the week. Yowsa!! I see lots of sitting in the shade in
my future.
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Cloud cover again tonight, so Kim
can’t put his plan for determining which piece of equipment is responsible for messing
up his images into play. I think the image of the Heart Nebula is fine, but he
isn’t satisfied with it. Maybe tomorrow night.
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