September 14 -- More Weed-Whacking (No Snakes), and Ms. Coues Returns

The sunrise was exceptionally memorable that morning -- the red made it look like there was a fire in the vicinity, but it was all done by Mother Nature --

And looking west about 10 minutes later at Cave Creek Canyon -- 

I wanted to get the rest of the fence posts removed along with the grasses and weeds along the periphery of the back yard to the mesquite (the snakes can have those), so for the last fence enclosure --  I'm keeping one for now as I may put the Desert Willow in that -- I used the method that has gotten me to this point; use the shovel to dig a hole in front of the post (they're called T-posts as that's the shape of the bottom part, an inverted "T"), fill it with water from the hose to soften up the ground, use the 2-headed "pickaxe" to dig deeper around the post, curse a few times because it won't come out of the ground, wiggle the post (well, more like wrenching the post) back and forth to loosen it, walk away for awhile and do some weeding with the weed-puller, then (hopefully) go back and yank it out. The last post is of course the one that refuses to come out -- and I'm right next to some mesquite with its huge thorns, so I have to be wary about not brushing against it (mostly successful). I then get my Stihl string trimmer, fire it up, and weed-whack all the grass at the edges of the yard, all the way to the mesquite. I'd say that, including both the front and back areas along with Faranuf, I have about an acre of property that is clear of brush, mesquite and other spiny trees and plants that seem to reach out and grab you if you pass by them. The other 3 acres - well, it's overgrown and I'm not going to venture into it, at least not until winter when the snakes are in hibernation. So I cleared the grasses and weeds -- wearing my snake guards, long pants, T-shirt, long shirt, boots, safety glasses, and a respirator just in case, well, of anything happening (rocks can be thrown up by the weed whacker; I've been whacked in the head at least once by flying rocks). Finally, 3 hours later, it's all done, I rake up the cuttings -- and call it a day for back yard work. Besides, it's getting hot, and I'm sweating heavily inside all that getup. After lunch I vacuum Tundra Dos (first time in, well, over a year) then get books out of the garage. I forgot I had them; friends suggested that I try "old-fashioned" book reading, the kind that has pages (for those of you who don't know what books are) and no light from, say, a Kindle or computer that can mess up your "circadian rhythm" where your body thinks it's daytime and sunlight when it is in fact nighttime; that may be one of the reasons why I wake up at 1:30am or so. (Alas, it was unsuccessful; I did fall asleep reading a book, but I still woke up for good at 1:30am.) I had an early dinner, then took my 100-400 that now due to a firmware was able to focus using the 1.4x teleconverter (though at f/8 at the minimum aperture; prior to that the TC was useless on the 100-400 lens) and sat out on the back porch, watching the wildlife come in. Hummingbirds were flying around in a last-minute frenzy, and contrary to public opinion, they are generally quite nasty to each other and extremely territorial; the Black-throated Sparrow residents were at the bird seed tray, then the doves came in and drove everyone off the tray -- at one time there were 3 species of doves together, Mourniing, White-winged and Eurasian Collared -- until the Canyon Towhees came in and drove the doves off. (Birds for the most part aren't very nice to each other when it comes to food.) I saw a few Wood and Cotton rats that came in from the underbrush -- they're the one critter that I have no compassion for -- and a beautiful Green-tailed Towhee made a brief appearance before being driven off and never returning. A Pyrrhuloxia family including a begging juvenile was at the far trays, Chipping Sparrows came in, the Cottontail rabbit was munching on some grass, the ubiquitous House Finches were there -- and hummingbirds were zipping around. It was quite the bird spectacle -- and then Ms. Coues deer came in, tentatively at first, looking at me all the while -- 

but except for taking the one photo I stayed as still as possible as I wanted to encourage her to trust me, and use the water feature. She finally did, drinking some water, then ambled back into the underbrush (you can see how overgrown the rest of my property is by looking at this photo). Everyone leaves for the night at about the same time, so I get the opportunity to take a final photo of a billowing cloud colored by the sunset over the Chiricahuas --

and another day in paradise comes to a close..Today (the 15th) will be a bike ride up South Fork with the 100-400 and hopefully see the fabled Elegant Trogon -- 5 had been reported along the road the other day -- and other good birds.