October 31 -- The Coues Family Re-visits, I Clean Out The Water Features (Yeah, Thrillsville 2015) -- And A Halloween Party

As it rained the day before and the storm moved out during the night, the nighttime temperatures have become more seasonal, so there is a lot of ground fog in the San Simon Valley, and the town of Rodeo, New Mexico, to the east; this was taken just before sunrise --

Though the valley is a little over 500 feet less in elevation than Portal (4124 feet as compared to 4760 feet) it's actually colder there most days from November to March as it gets less winter sun, which appears later over the Peloncillo Mountains, and the valley traps ground fog which (so far, and hopefully in the future) doesn't extend up to Portal. It finally clears out of the valley around 9am, and the day here is cool, around 65 degrees. Just after sunrise, I take a photo of the section of the high Chiricahuas that had been dusted with snow the morning before, and it of course is completely gone -- 

Those tree sticks you see are left over from the Horseshoe 2 fire of June 2011, which burned over 40,000 acres here and could be seen from space by the orbital space station. It burned through much of the high Chiricahuas, and destroyed the campground up at Rustler Park, which was a local favorite. The Horseshoe 2 fire contributed to the flooding down in Cave Creek Canyon caused by Hurricane Odile in September 2014 as heavy rain fell on ground stripped of vegetation and trees and rushed down the creeks. But enough of the past, we're looking at the present and onwards to the future here... 

The Roadrunner (there were 2 here at one time, but it seems like only one has stuck around) was fluffing himself up at the crappy tray feeder (which has to be replaced eventually) in the morning --

It was a bit breezy at the time, too. A few days ago I saw him on Faranuf's roof, and about a month ago on top of the well house. He DOES get around...Then the Coues Deer family paid a visit. I'm usually without a camera around when I spot them through the sliding glass door, and are gone by the time I get it as they see my motion, but this time the 500mm lens is on the table, so I slowly slide open the door; they look up but don't take off -- 

That's Mom on the right...

They do seem to be enjoying the water, and I'm glad I'm providing them a "service" and that they're paying me back by repeat visits -- 

But I want to keep the water clean for them -- and the birds that drink and bathe in it. So I try to change out the water at least once a week. I'm getting a system down; first I take the rubber "dish" which is my other water feature out of its hole and dump out its water -- 

I put the 2 stumps with bird seed scattered on top next to the water so the birds can eat, then drink afterwards -- and they do. Though no bathing at this water feature yet. I then take the rubber dish over to the main, old water feature - the one the Coues family don't want me to get rid of -- and take the water out of that one. Since the plastic "dish" on that one is encased in concrete I obviously can't remove it like the rubber dish one, so I use a water container for the birds that never worked to scoop out the old water,  put it in the rubber dish, then dump out onto to mesquite and brush next to it. 

I of course get distracted by the views all the time I'm doing this...Once it's as empty as I can get it, I get the hose and fill both it and the rubber dish feature with fresh water -- and voila!  -- 

The rock in the rubber dish is for birds to perch on, but I've never seen them use it; they prefer to drink from the edges, and bathe in the older feature. But I'm all set for another week, and the backyard critters have clean water again. 

OK, about that Halloween party...I took photos during it, but they're on my Smart Phone and I haven't been able to transfer them either to my laptop or get internet access on the phone where I can put them directly onto Facebook and also download them. Guess I'll have to read the instruction manual...And I discovered that my phone,while about to take photos, doesn't have a flash, so I could only take photos in the kitchen area and not in the main room which had the dancing (yes, this white kid danced -- or at least moved to the music). But we all had a blast. Though it was hard to recognize people I knew underneath the costumes. I myself looked like either Jason the hockey-masked killer from horror flicks, or a demented hockey goalie, wearing the hockey mask (that glowed in the dark), a wild yellow wig that had a mohawk running down the center, black around my eyes (put on by my friend Lori), and my snake guards, hiking boots, gaiters, and knee protectors (for gardening). Many of the attendees were quite inventive; there was Saddam Hussein, with a noose around his neck ("I'm just hanging around", and repeating "infidel!" whenever someone came up to him), a Mr. Pumpkin Head with a cigar hanging out of his carved mouth (he is in real life the interim head of the Southwest Research Station, which the party was being held), a Jimmy Swaggert-like character with a huge white pompadour and carrying around a Bible, a friar in a brown robe who described himself as a "jack Christian" ("jack" meaning lapsed),  a guy with zippers on his face...and my friends Lori and Mark were  a gal with blue hair and high heels (that was Lori, of course) and the mysterious lead character, with a white "smiling" mask, from the movie "V For Vendetta". And another friend, who I didn't recognize until Lori ID'd her, was a bee-keeper with a protective cloth and mesh over her face. So we all danced, drank and had finger food, then left around 9:30 while others stayed, probably into the wee hours of the morning. What is neat is that most of the people attending were biologists, astronomers, and other professionals who you wouldn't recognize during the day...

Today I'll work on getting those photos transferred to my laptop.