October 9 -- "Patch" Is Back, Along With A Wary Coues Deer Family

I got up at my usual 2am, writing the daily blog, and while putting out the humminbird feeders (habit; the bats used to drink from them and leave a snotty mess, and now that they've migrated, well, there are other things that are attracted to them) I see a beautiful lenticular cloud over Silver Peak. I grab my camera but, alas, it's too dark -- and it's dissipated already. But it's a sign of a very interesting day -- as if EVERY day here isn't interesting... There are clouds in the morning, hugging the higher peaks, and I take a shot of one in early-morning light shadowed by the clouds --

Then I go to my the house of my friends Mark and Lori, putting more sugar water into the hummer feeders and more bird seed too (they've had really good birds in their back yard, like Plain-capped Starthroat, and Blue-throated, hummingbirds) then watering what seems like their innumerable number of plants. After that, I go pick up my mail. One of these days I'll have to take a photo of the Portal post office (yes, we have one, and a library next to it); it's small and has only PO boxes, little old-fashioned slots with combination locks that you spin to open up. No opening with keys here...You spin a tiny dial and open your box with a combination like "spin 3 times then go to the middle of A/B, then spin twice to the right to E, then once to the left to I". It took about 3 weeks for me to get it right so I could open it myself...About an hour after I pick up my mail, I get a call and it's from "Postmistress Joan" ; there's a big package there that has just arrived "and come down and pick it up as it's taking up a lot of space at my table'. So I go back, and it's a 16-pound bag of bird seed that I'd ordered from Amazon. (I order a lot of things from Amazon; it's so convenient to have it mailed to you out here in the "hinterlands", and it's cheaper for the most part, too.) In the afternoon, my neighbor, friend and real-estate guru Helen drops on by -- with a salt lick brick. It's to keep the deer from chowing-down on my bird seed; they lick that and hopefully it takes their mind off the seed. It's getting kinda expensive to buy the bird seed to feed the birds; I don't want to feed the deer with it, too. I do some weeding around Faranuf; it's becoming a daily thing to do as the grass and weeds seem to sprout up all the time here. While walking in the back yard I don't watch where I'm going -- and nearly step on "Patch" the Big Bend Patchnose snake who's become an official Faranuf Resident. Yikes!  I've never seen him out of his burrow before, and he slithers back in. He just startled me; he's about 2 and 1/2 feet long, perhaps 3 at most, and is slender , not "bulky" like a rattlesnake -- which I have yet to encounter. Later in the afternoon, I come across "Patch" again, and he's outside his burrow -- 

He's harmless to humans, eating rodents and lizards, and is non-venomous. If you have a snake in your back yard, he's just about the perfect one to have. I tell my snake-leery friends that he's a GOOD snake, and an official Faranuf Resident. 

Later in the afternoon, others visit Faranuf's back yard who I wished could gain the status of at least Occasional Faranuf Resident...The Coues Deer Family -- Mom and her 3 fawns -- drop by for a drink at the water feature. The only thing is, I put a rubber dish full of clean water into the feature, and covered up the rest of it with 2 boards. The older water feature has no outlet so cannot be emptied except by evaporation, so over the months it's become slimy and well, kinda disgusting -- and animals drink from it, and birds bathe in it. Now, it may be ok for them, but not for me. So eventually I'd like to replace it with a better, cleaner water system for the critters, but until then I bought a rubber "dish" that I'm able to replace with clean water. Over the past few days I've notice the birds beginning to use it; they were a bit hesitant at first, but now they're drinking from it, and perhaps they'll eventually bathe in it, too.  The deer, however, are another story. First, here's the new, temporary water feature setup -- 

So the Coues Deer Family came, and saw that. Somethings different...and later I found out, from an Facebook friend who also has deer visit her back yard, that the deer don't like the smell of plastic -- or  new rubber. So the family comes to drink -- and are VERY wary --- 

Dang it!  And here I was, trying to help them..

.

They never drink the water. 

Well,  I gotta drink something! 

I feel terrible, so once they've gone I take the boards off, and let all the critters have their choice of the "old" water or the fresh water in the rubber dish. The aforementioned Facebook friend who's had experience with feeding deer said to soak the rubber dish in a mixture of baking soda and hot water, stir it around and let it sit for awhile; that should get rid of the rubber smell that the deer seem not to like. Meanwhile, I'll try to clean out the old, stinky water in the concrete-line basin as best I can as I want them to come back and be assured of a place to drink, and in comparative safety...