Faranuf From The Madding Crowd: Adventures Living In The Chiricahua Mtns And On The Road: November 12 -- A Rare (For The Season) Hummingbird, And A Cloud Retrospective

Before the retrospective, let's get some of the day's events out of the way... Autumn is in full swing here in Portal and Cave Creek Canyon. The wind on Tuesday, which this area experienced but I didn't notice much of anything on my hike up to Winn Falls Overlook, blew off some of the leaves, but there is still enough around to create a stunning picture --

"Downtown" Portal

A few of the Coues deer are getting bolder. Now that I got rid of the ratty wooden seed tray, it seems like a few of the younger males go right up to the tree stumps that I put seed on and eat the seed right up -- and it's in the middle of the back yard. And when I go out to try and shoo them away -- they don't get shooed, but rather almost stand their ground. I come within 10 feet of one before he moves away -- not fast, but more of a casual saunter. The does and younger, smaller deer seem to be happy with just the water in the water feature; the others aren't. And I just can't fence off the back yard as I've seen them go under the barbed-wire fence that encloses my 4 acres. I replaced the old seed trays with one that is on top of a 60-inch pole -- so they can't get into that. I may have to buy some other high trays, too...but I don't want them to detract from the view. A dilemma that requires hard thinking...

I got my drill and bits from Amazon, and tried out a method a friend of mine suggested --- as the nails have flat heads, drill a hole first, then lightly tap them in (the original nails had flat heads, too). So I drilled, tapped the nails in -- and the wood splintered even more. So enough of that; I was making the problem worse. I'm thinking of hiring someone (next spring or later) to replace just the exterior wood as the interior is fine -- insulated, and with square wood panels on all the walls. I wouldn't want to mess with the electrical outlets, soft water tanks, well pressure pump, etc anyway -- they're all fine where they are. It's just the outside...

There has been an adult male Broad-billed hummingbird at one of my back yard feeders for about the past week (that I'm aware of; perhaps he's been here longer). My bird bible for this area, Rick Taylor's "Birds of Southeastern Arizona", says Broad-billeds are summer and, rarely, winter birds -- and November is in between both dates. E-bird, where I submit my observations, list them as "rare", so requires verification and, if possible, a photo. Me, I need a photo to verify what I saw, and here it is --

He is quite obviously a male Broad-billed -- red bill, blue-purplish throat, a green breast color that is greener than other hummingbirds. But I needed the photo to prove definitively what I saw. So it should be on November 12's list of rare birds for Cochise County.

The rest of the day was spent pretty much indoors -- as I a) still have the same cold, or b) have a new one. The only way I could have "acquired" a new one was through contact with someone as it's a virus -- but I'm sure doing that long hike on Tuesday to the Winn Falls Overlook didn't help things. Still, I'm glad I did it...So here's a photographic look back at some of the more impressive clouds I've seen here at Faranuf. Most have been taken from either my front porch or back deck. They're in chronological order...

Arriving in August; Portal and Cave Creek Canyon lies straight ahead (but Highway 80 doesn't)