Skywatch Friday: Finally it Rained!

Thunderstorm in Sycamore Canyon 7-14-10 2:09 PM MST

Drenched Costa’s hummingbird 7-14-10

Skywatch Friday!

So…Who Ate The Rabbit?

Desert cottontail carcass 7-9-10 (Read the beginning of this story here)

All day long the rabbit lay in the wash. On Saturday morning I went outside and it was still there. Saturday afternoon a kettle of turkey vultures circled overhead, but none came down to earth, and there the rabbit lay. Saturday night is was still there as I sat on the terrace and kept vigil while talking to my daughter. Sunday morning and there the carcass lay under a thick gray blanket of storm clouds. Gus and I went out for breakfast. We returned home under the same gray skies but no rain. The air hung thick and humid with no sweet relief from rain. Sunday night a red watermelon sun slipped from behind the shelf of gray clouds and slid below the western horizon. I walked out to the front yard once again and peered into the wash. The rabbit’s body lay where it fell and looked as if it were melting into the earth. Darkness fell with cloud banks warring and distant lightening illuminating the edges of the clouds, but still no rain.

In the shade of the mesquite tree 7-12-10

Now it is Monday morning. Sometime during the night the gray wool clouds slipped away leaving a hazy blue sky that looks like faded denim. It is 81 degrees as I step outside at 8:30 a.m. to eat my breakfast on the terrace in the dappled shade of the mesquite tree. A light wind is tossing the branches and teasing my hair. I sit here with my bins and scan the wash trying to see if the rabbit’s body is still there. I know exactly where to look. It is by two clumps of brittle bush with a stick that flipped up and fell across its body when it dropped, but from this angle I discover that a creosote bush is in my way and I cannot see.

Finches 7-12-10

I finish my breakfast with Costa’s hummingbirds zipping by my head, lesser goldfinches picking thistle seed from the feeder behind me and purple martins twittering and chirping as they fly overhead. Down in the wash I see at least four live desert cottontails running around and nibbling on the grasses. Gambel’s’ quail scurry about in various family groups, the parents calling and cooing to the young ones in constant communication. I see a lizard flip its tail up over its back and race up the riprap towards the top of the wash. I realize how lucky I am to live in such a place where wildlife is so prevalent. I do not need a zoo; I live in the midst of a wildlife park!

Down in the Wash 7-12-10

With breakfast over I start my chores in the backyard first filling feeders and birds baths and watering the plants. With that task done I finally head to the front yard to clean my bird fountain, fill those feeders, and water those plants. Now it is time to find out. Will the rabbit still be there?

Where the rabbit lay 7-12-10

I set the hose on the purslane and walk the few steps down the sidewalk to the best vantage point for seeing the rabbit. I locate the two brittle bushes and gaze at the fold of the earth. I look for the stick that lay across the rabbit’s body, but the rabbit is gone and the stick is about 4 to 5 feet away farther down the wash. Okay…so who ate the rabbit?

The stick 7-12-10

I take my bins and scan the nearby bushes and trees. I see no sign of hair or bones anywhere. This particular wash is really a manmade retention basin for storm runoff and as such it is fenced all around to keep people and pets out of it. Three years ago it was little more than dirt and stone with a few trees the developer put in as landscaping.

The corner of the wash where I threw the dead rabbit 7-12-10 

Since then creosote bush has moved in, along with brittle bush, desert grasses, a few weeds and some wildflowers, but as yet there are no cacti growing. Still, it has filled in quite a bit.

The Closed Gate 7-12-10

I see the fence everywhere with the gate that is halfway across the wash closed and I conclude that it probably wasn’t a coyote who got the rabbit, so it must have been something with wings. If it was, it either came during the night or early this morning, and whatever it was must have carried it off, for there is no body or evidence of a body anywhere around. Nature has taken care of its own. Perhaps that dead rabbit is feeding a parent or some chicks. One creature dies so another can live. This is the reality of life in the desert.

My Backyard Flowerbed 7-12-10

I pull my hose back into the backyard and water my final flowerbed. The hose is running at almost full and I am flood irrigating this one bed which I have yet to run drip lines to. Suddenly I see a tiny wet mouse climbing the block wall desperately. It makes it to the top, its gray-brown coat soaked and dripping, its long tail dragging a wet stream behind it. I think that it is going to sit there in the sun and dry. It is so upset that it doesn’t seem to mind me being so close to it. I have my bins but not my camera with me. I step down off the low wall I am standing on and take the few steps inside to exchange bins for the camera but when I return in less than ten seconds the mouse if gone! I search for it everywhere but I cannot find it. This is also the way of the desert. Where creatures appear and disappear before you know it. Life is happening all around me all the time it seems. I get to see these little glimpses of nature and almost every day there is a new drama happening outside my window. I only have to open my eyes and observe it.

Curve-billed thrasher (Western) 7-12-10

For now, the curve-billed thrasher feed next to white-winged doves and cactus wrens.

White-winged dove 7-12-10

Mourning doves coo and chase and purple martins sail above. Pyrrhuloxias feed next to northern cardinals and house finches and above it all the turkey vultures glide on desert thermals waiting to do their job.

Juvenile Gambel’s Quail trying to get at seed 7-12-10

So, who is in and around the yard today?

1. Gambel’s Quail
2. Turkey vulture
3. Red-tailed hawk
4. Mourning dove
5. White-winged dove
6. Costa’s Hummingbirds
7. Gila woodpecker
8. Gilded flicker
9. Common raven
10. Chihuahuan raven
11. Purple martin
12. Verdin
13. Cactus Wren
14. Curve-billed thrasher
15. Canyon towhee
16. Northern Cardinal
17. Pyrrhuloxia
18. House finch
19. Lesser goldfinch
20. House sparrow
21. 4 cottontails in the wash
22. 1 lizard
23. 1 drenched mouse

Oh, and Poetry is happening once again on Kathie’s Poet Tree

Turkey Vulture Drama outside my Den Window

Turkey vulture flying overhead 7-9-10 Nikon D80 70–300 mm lens

It is Friday morning, hot and sunny with a strong easterly wind. When I go outside to fill one of my bird feeders I spot a poor dead rabbit in the road. Perhaps it is one that eats my purslane and I should not be sad, but I am.  I hate to see any creature killed by man’s vehicles. I am wondering how long it will take the vultures to find it as I go back in the house.

I am sitting inside the den writing and looking out the window when one shows up. I grab my camera and take this photo from inside the house through the den window and the fence, then I creep quietly out the front door and sneak down the side of the garage, across the front of it, and around Gus’ truck which I intend to use as a blind.  I do not want to disturb the bird or spook it off its prize.  I want it to clean it up from out of the road. However, before I can even get into position I see the vulture flying up right over my head.  I thought I had spooked it as I start taking pictures. Then, as I whirl around and snap away I see a couple walking up the sidewalk right past where the bird had been. They ask me if it is a hawk but I tell them no, it is a turkey vulture, which is nature’s version of the clean-up crew.

The vulture circles several times then tries to land again but a car comes by and scares it off. It lifts off into an azure sky on wonderful and powerful dark wings.

I wonder how it must be to soar over rooftops and circle in the clouds.

I then decide to take matters into my own hands.

I walk over to the poor dead rabbit, pick it up by the end of its foot, and throw it over the fence into the wash! It must have been newly killed this morning for its body is still somewhat supple and the blood still looks red instead of black. Its death does not scare me or gross me out, I only feel sorry for its untimely death in such an unnatural manner. But this is natures way of providing for the others.

I call this giving it back to nature. I figure this way nature can take its course but if the vulture comes back it won’t be in danger from the cars and trucks anymore.  And if it doesn’t, I would rather see it decay and become part of the earth again than to get run over and mashed by car after car. The carcass settles with a soft thud into the dry desert grasses. The dark eye stares blankly into this void. The rabbit’s soul is gone. A few minutes later I am not surprised when a raven lands on the carcass instead. I had seen them hovering around the area also.

I grab the camera once again and this time creep out the back door to see if I can snap a photo but the wary raven hears me and takes off like a shot!

So, I go back inside and wait. The turkey vulture comes back but he lands in the road where the dead rabbit had been.  He stands there looking around and looking confused even though the rabbit is only 20 feet away from him over the fence in the wash. Then a jeep comes by and the vulture flies off.  It  does not return and neither does the raven.

Meanwhile, at my nearby bird feeders the rest of the birds feed as if nothing has happened at all.

I keep track of the rabbit in the wash all day long and though I remain inside so as not to disturb the birds the vulture and the raven never return. Just before sunset I check once again and its limp body still lies in the grass. One question remains: Will it still be there in the morning? You never know what happens in a desert night!

Today in Sycamore Canyon

View from my front yard. Could these clouds be a promise of things to come? 7-9-10 @ 9:52 a.m. MST

Blue skies and a few puffy clouds greet me this morning. A hot wind is blowing strongly from the east, a good sign that there could be rain coming. My plan was to turn on the computer and start writing right away, but then I notice a couple of bird feeders are empty, and those flowers over there look like they could use a bit more water, and, oh look! juvenile Scott’s orioles in my yellow bells bushes in the front yard and you know I have to stop and watch them, and so, it is now 11 a.m. and I have not even eaten breakfast yet!

Yellow bells tecoma stans in my front yard 7-9-10

If you want to attract wildlife to your yard, these bushes are perfect.  This morning when I went to open the front bedroom shutters I found 8 to 10 lesser goldfinches perched in the branches and gleaning some sort of tiny insect of the leaves, flowers and seed pods.  Then I noticed a pair of juvenile Scott’s Orioles were in the bushes with them, along with a few house sparrows.  I frequently find desert cottontails napping beneath these bushes or coveys of Gambel’s Quail.  Hummingbirds are attracted to the tubular yellow flowers as well as orioles, and it is not unusual to find cardinals and pyrrhuloxoias seeking shelter in the branches either. This plant is deciduous, drought tolerant and it likes heat. However, it does need a regular watering.

With all the birds and wildlife I’ve attracted to my yard some of my plants have not fared so well. I wrote about the purslane that I fenced off in a previous post. Well, that one is starting to come back, but…

…now the larger plants are suffering and I fear I will have to fence them off also.  I can’t help but think that as soon as the monsoon arrives and the rain waters the desert it will bloom so richly that my garden plants will finally be spared.

I am trying to enhance this bird feeding area on the north side of my house. This is the view I have when I look out the den window. The den is where I do all my blogging and writing. Plus, by encouraging the birds to feed over here, it keeps my backyard cleaner and it doesn't disturb the birds when we go outside.  However, I still keep birdbaths, thistle seed feeders and nectar feeders in the backyard.  I try to attract the more gentle birds there and keep the raucous guys over here. Since curve-billed thrashers often come to the feeders I prefer to attract them on this side as they will kill hummingbirds. By feeding the hummingbirds in the backyard they can feed in peace and relative safety.

Meanwhile, in the front and side yard my cacti are doing really well and this one in particular has sprouted some new growth.  I do not know what this one is called, but it is my favorite. Gus, however, likes the bunny ears prickly pear cactus he planted. 

The Bunny ears is up in far left corner of this photo, the poor struggling purslane are just beyond the golden barrel cactus. We planted 3 small saguaros which are doing really well, but we will be long gone before they ever get tall. Planting a saguaro is something you do for future generations and the life and health of the desert. It is like believing there will be a future and that it will be good. It is a spiny hope.

This morning’s clouds have started to thicken. Perhaps we really will have rain today!

 

Turkey Vulture flying over my head in Sycamore Canyon 7-9-10 @ 11:50 a.m. MST taken with the Nikon D90 18-200mm lens.

Meanwhile, a Turkey Vulture drama has been developing outside my den window.  I have been popping up and down while writing this post to get pictures with both the D80 and the D90. It is not over yet but I will be posting that story next instead of what I intended to!

Skywatch Friday: Sunset

Sunset as seen from my backyard in Sycamore Canyon 7-1-10

See more amazing skies at Skywatch Friday!

My 3 Men

Alex, G 3, and Gus. 7-1-10

This was the last night we would all be together. By morning Alex, Diane and Natalie would be gone and Mary Grace would be getting ready to get on a plane. We are missing one son and my daughter here, but I was thankful for those of us who could be together. I love this picture of my guys and I will look at it often when I think of my son off fighting in the war. For now I will remember their happiness and their smiles.

This is My Sister

Kathie and Mary Grace 6-29-10

This is my sister, Mary Grace.  She is 3 years younger than me and while I used to think she was a pest I now can’t spend enough time with her.  Since she lives on the other side of the country, I rarely get to do that, so I was thrilled when her family decided to buy her a plane ticket to come see me for  her 50th birthday.  Yes, she is 50 and no, she doesn’t look it! We had a great time while she was here and she even got to meet her new niece, Natalie. Now she is gone, the holiday is over and life is getting somewhat back to normal.  I have lots of photos and stories to tell.  As always, there will be birds. I just off-loaded my photos today.  Look for more stories starting tomorrow!

Mary Grace on Mt. Lemmon 6-30-10

Mary Grace at Agua Caliente park 6-30-10

Mary Grace and Natalie 7-1-10