September 19 -- A Rare All-Day Rain, And A (Nearly) Dinner Guest

Alas, no sunrise shot from yesterday, as the skies were overcast, and the sun never made an appearance all day. Then around 10am it started to rain -- not heavy, as it usually does here in short bursts, but a steady, hard drizzle that lasted off and on the entire day. It didn't bother the back yard critters any -- though I didn't see another bear print from the night before -- and a Mr. Coues made a appearance and once again chowed down on the bird seed --

This photo leads to the question -- do deer have lips? Well, if he does, he certainly seems to be smacking them...There's an interesting feature on the antler to the left (his right one). See that small pointed tine that is pointed down? An "internet friend" said it's called a "down tine" and is "an antler point or tine that grows straight down from the main beam of the antlers of a mature white-tailed deer". Living here, I learn something new every day... Mrs Coues -- I think two -- visited Faranuf's back yard at different times, too. Alas, no more sightings of the fawn I saw with Mom the other day...The hummingbirds were going crazy at the feeders during the rain, especially at the one feeder with 10 ports. At times there were actually well behaved, though they mostly were aggressive towards each other; here's a calm moment when they all got along -- 

There were 4 Gambel's Quail at the bird seed tray, too; they would disappear into the tray then the next moment explode out of it and dive into the nearby brush; here's a Mr and Mrs -- 

In between bouts of rain I was in the back yard, trying to envision how the Desert Willow would look planted in the back -- and where. As this would be my first planting of a tree since, well, forever, I downloaded from the Web instructions on how to plant a Desert Willow (the computer is really an essential tool for living in a rural area).  I pulled a few weeds with a tool I love, a Fiskars Uproot Weed and Root Remover, a device that makes it unnecessary to bend over  -- all you have to do is push  the 3 prongs at the end over the weed,  then push down on a lever with your foot, which grasps the weed and pulls it out by the root (in most cases).. It's certainly easier than being on your hands and knees weeding, and is much more successful at pulling it out at the root. Amazing what you learn out here when you have to... By this time it was nearly dinner, so I was preparing everything and, having a few extra minutes, decided to go out to the front porch and look around. I opened the front door -- and saw an unexpected visitor near the door -- 

I believe it's a male Tarantula, as males are smaller than females -- and I'd seen a much larger female a few weeks back on the driveway. I'd actually seen this fellow earlier in the day, making his way towards the house, and when I came back from the post office he was gone. At the time I actually was wishing I saw him again -- and there he was at the door. Did he bother me? No; tarantulas, despite their appearance and reputation, are actually very gentle -- and some people have them as "pets". So I let him be; for all I know, he may still be out there at the same spot...

September 18 -- A BIG Critter, And A Spectacular Sunset

Voila -- sunrise... 

I thought the sunrises in my hometown of San Pedro aka Los Angeles harbor, were spectacular -- but the ones here beat those. And part of their attraction is -- there are no buildings or other evidence of man; 100% natural. The evening before I prepared the ground around the water feature to pick up animal tracks as I was curious what large animals were attracted to it. I'd seen Javelina, Coues (white-tailed) Deer, and Gray Fox -- but as I showed in yesterday's post a "critter cam" at someone's house up the canyon had picked up a passing mountain lion, so I wanted to know if it had made its way down here. So I raked the ground, smoothing it out and making it level by moving the stones and rocks -- and Mother Nature made the ground muddy with the hard rain of the evening before. So in the morning I went out to the water feature, and saw this -- 

The small tracks on the right are probably deer, but the one on the top -- well, see those claws? It's probably that of a black bear, the only type of bear here in the Chiricahuas. I was expecting mountain lion, so this was a surprising find. A bear -- or bears -- have been seen here, in fact a friend said he surprised one in his back yard that was holding a hummingbird feeder in his paws and chugging down the nectar. The bear was more scared than he was, and "rushed" off into the brush. So it's kinda thrilling to know one has visited Casa Faranuf's back yard...Later in the morning I did a major weed-whacking job on the driveway. As I've mentioned before, I'm the only house on "S Faranuf Trail" -- and the "street" is actually my long driveway. It does tend to get grassy, particularly in strip in the middle and along the edges, and eventually can lead to a "trail" with a tight fit. It's a long driveway as it winds around and comes out on the north side of the house, when it would be more practical -- and shorter and more direct -- to come out in the area of the garage on the south side, but it's too late to change it as there's lots of growth -- mesquite and such -- in the way of carving out another driveway. So there's a lot of grass on the edges to cut down. I donned my weed whacking gear -- hat, goggles, cloth respirator, long-sleeved shirt, long pants, snake guards, and boots -- and started whacking away. I'd also bought a new harness for carrying the string trimmer; it goes on both shoulders, as opposed to the one that came with the trimmer that goes on only one, so both shoulders take the weight of the trimmer and your shoulders don't ache as much. I could REALLY tell the difference, and the trimmer didn't seem as unbalanced, as if it would swing around. So I weed-whacked for over an hour, getting about 2/3rds of the driveway done, then raked up the cuttings and put them in big trash bags -- THAT was actually the hardest, and longest, part of the job. No snakes to report during all that time, which is a good thing though I know they're out there...In the afternoon I cut down those big feeder hangers that looked like human stick figures with their arms sticking out. Remember them?

The one on the right is hidden by the porch post. I got a hand saw and sawed them down to just above the metallic "thingie" about 2/3rds of the way down. They were in the way of the view -- and they just looked, well, weird. So now they're history...In the evening it clouded-up as it had done the night before, but this time it didn't rain. So instead we had a quietly spectacular sunset -- 

Other people in Cochise County, where I live, reported and took photos of wildly colorful clouds -- and rainstorms that we on the east side of the Chiricahuas never got. The weather can be "eccentric" here -- rain on one side of the street, and clear, dry skies on the other. But it's all part of the allure of living here..

September 17 -- A Possible Mountain Lion, Snakes, And An Evening Thunderstorm

First, the obligatory sunrise --

My friend, neighbor and real estate guru Helen came over on her mountain bike to deliver bread that she'd bought for me during her "Costco Run" the day before; I gave her some Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownies in return. She then said "you have snakes tracks in your driveway". I walked back out with her to the front gate, and she pointed out two snake tracks -- saying one looked large and it could've been a rattler.  Does seeing evidence of a rattler on my property, er, "rattle" me? Not at all. I have 4 acres, with most of it overgrown with mesquite, grasses, and other high-desert flora, so I'm sure they're all around me. (Just so long as they don't mass attack the house, like an episode from "The Outer Limits".)  Then I raked up the cuttings of grass and weeds from my last stab at weed-whacking, and watched the clouds come in over Cave Creek Canyon -- 

There was a 50% chance of "scattered thunderstorms" for the evening -- but I got that from weather.com, which is not the most reliable of weather prognosticators. But in this instance, they were right; about 6pm sheets of rain moved down Cave Creek Canyon, accompanied by thunder and lightning, creating a watery curtain in front of Silver Peak -- 

This is one of the things I love about living out here -- the changes in weather in just a few hours' time. It rained -- HARD -- for about 10 minutes, then it moved to the east, down into the valley, and it cleared up here. I'd actually wanted the ground to be wet -- because I was checking to see if a certain visitor was checking out the water feature. I'd had Coues deer, Gray Fox, cotton rats and birds use the water. which is kind of rancid as it doesn't drain -- I'll get rid of it and build a water feature off the ground -- but THIS possible visitor was something special. Up in the canyon remote cameras have been set up, and it filmed a mountain lion --

Mountain lions, aka cougars, have been seen on occasion in the area, even in "downtown" Portal, and a friend had an encounter with one in his back yard; when he did what you're supposed to do with a cougar -- look bigger, yell, make towards his direction -- he said the cougar merely gave him a bored glance, then turned around and ambled off into the brush. My friend Helen said I could very well have a mountain lion checking out my water feature, so recommended that I smooth the ground near the water with, say, a rake, wet it, then check the next morning for animal tracks in the wet dirt. The heavy rain did the trick, so this morning I'm going to check for tracks. What will I do if I find some big paw prints? Revel in the fact that nature is coming to my back door...

September 16 -- Faranuf In Pictures

I didn't do much yesterday -- I felt like I was on the verge of coming down with a cold, so I took a Benadryl about every 6 hours, and even though I feel like the cold got knocked out, I of course was a sleepyhead the entire day -- but didn't sleep. So, as I didn't go out on any adventures, I thought this would be a good time to highlight Faranuf. These photos were taken last December, shortly before buying the house. But of course before we get into that, here's yesterday's sunrise --

OK, on to Faranuf. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, and 1566 square feet. It comes with a detached garage, which has been well-insulated by the previous owner -- who also had the manufactured, Palm Harbor house placed here on a concrete foundation. There are tiedown also underneath the house, in case it gets windy and decides to do a "Wizard of Oz" spinning around in a tornado. The roof is composition shingle, and though it's weathered the weather here for nearly 8 years, I think I'd feel better (and safer) with a metal roof. One shingle on the pitch of the roof has flown off and is missing, but that's a pretty good record for an 8 year old composition roof surviving in this high-desert Arizona climate. Here's a front view of Faranuf --

Yes, it's a pretty barren front yard, but eventually I hope to plant shade trees. That front porch was put in by the original owner; there are 2 other porches, one on the left side that leads to the detached garage, and the other is the long back porch. The porches are on top of concrete posts, so if there's a flood (and the house isn't on the flood plain, so it's unlikely to happen) Faranuf will weather it. Here's the garage --

It's well insulated, has two "fans" on the roof for ventilation, and plenty of shelves to put things. It's a 2-car garage, so Tundra Dos has plenty of room. The concrete incline into the garage is a nice touch, but that's what distinguishes this house from many of the rest -- it's full of nice touches that you wouldn't ordinarily think about. There are motion sensor lights all around the garage and on Faranuf's porches, but I had them pointed down to the ground so it wouldn't affect the clear skies for the astronomers at Sky Village, about a mile or so to the north. Moving to the back of the house and the back yard, this is looking north -- 

The previous owners had Direct satellite TV, and left the satellite dish and controls with me. But I haven't hooked them up yet -- as I really don't have time watch TV yet. The back porch runs along half of the back of the house, and again is on concrete posts to keep it above the ground. The 2 tall posts are where you can hang bird feeders, but they're coming down as they detract from the view of Cave Creek Canyon -- and I really don't use them as I have to get up on a ladder to hang the feeders. The building in the back is the well house, which houses a water softening system that I can't  make heads or tails of, but the folks who installed it come service it once a year (driving 300 miles round-trip from Tucson). The actual well is behind the well house. I have 4 acres, but Faranuf and the back and front yards take up only about an acre or so of that; the rest is mesquite and other desert trees that grow wild. I might sally out during winter to do some trimming and cutting, but that will be when there is less of a chance of a snake encounter. On the north side of the house is the York heat pump -- 

It provides all the heating and air conditioning to Faranuf, where the temperature is controlled by a thermostat. The house is all electric, so the electricity bill can be somewhat high if you're not careful. Since it's just me living there, I close off the 2 bedrooms and close the vents in them so the air goes only into those areas of the house that I use. Most of the homes here have wood-burning fireplaces to keep things warm; Faranuf is one of the few that has a heating system. Now on to the inside -- 

Here's the kitchen. As you can see, it's quite spacious. The refrigerator (two door, with the freezer section making up the entire left side) and electric stove (VERY efficient, and I'm not a big fan of electric stoves) are on the right. The dishwasher -- the quietest one I've ever had -- is on the left. As you can see, there's plenty of cabinet space. and space below the drawers has pull-out drawers on a small wheel system, maximizing the storage space. The microwave is in the back, and the doorway leads to the laundry room (washer and dryer, again the quietest I've ever had), full-size freezer, and pantry, which are here -- 

Here's the kitchen area looking towards the living room --

And here is where I'm sitting right now -- the computer desk -- 

The master bathroom, which I use, has 2 sinks, a walk-in shower to the left, a large walk-in closet, and a huge soaking tub that you can see, which is great after, say, a hike or bike ride --

That, as "they" say, is Faranuf in a nutshell. It's a great house, immaculate and well kept, with top-notch appliances and features. Creature comforts in a rural area...

September 15 -- A Bike Ride Up Cave Creek Canyon

But first, the obligatory sunrise just before 6am, taken with the Canon 7D MKII and 100-400 f/5.6 lens, now able through the download of firmware able to use the 1.4x teleconverter just so long as the aperture is greater than f/8 --

I've decided to pick up playing the classical guitar again. I've played it off-and-on (mostly off) since I was 7 or so -- but I was never very good at it despite lessons. I never liked doing scales and things for warming up -- I always wanted to go right to the guitar compositions. But it's frustrating and relaxing at the same time -- and I hope to get good enough that I can play for small audiences here. But that won't be for a long time yet...After breakfast I loaded up Diamondback, my hybrid bike, and took off down  Portal Road. It was a great morning and hadn't gotten hot yet, though I like to have my ride finished by 11am at the latest. I was riding up South Fork Road -- the paved part, more about the unpaved section in a moment -- when I saw an Turkey Vulture way up high, flying the the east. Then I saw another, then another; there must've been a total of at least 100 "TVs"; the roost in the canyon, then come flying out during the morning, heading for the valley. It was an amazing sight -- wave and wave of Turkey Vultures, appearing suddenly from the distance like bombers in a huge formation. I stood there on my bike with my mouth open, so forgot to take photos. But it's a common occurrence at about 7:45am, so next time... I headed up the road, passing closed campgrounds (and who knows when they'll reopen; the Coronado forest service cites liability issues -- but they can give liability as an excuse to keep the campgrounds closed ad infinitum, with the POSSIBILITY of flooding) then came to the unpaved section of South Fork Road, world famous for its birds (and sign saying "No tapes beyond this point") and you used to be able to drive it up to the picnic grounds, but since Hurricane Odile last September it's been a mess, and probably will never be "fixed". The road is "ok" up to the bridge and Forest Service cabins -- then it's a rocky mess that not even high-clearance, 4WD vehicles can negotiate. The flood from Odile was so great that South Fork creek jumped its banks, cut a swath through the road, and now part of it is on the other side of the road from its original route. All this time I was glancing up a the canyon walls, with their green covering of lichen -- 

And in that photo you can barely make out a bird (possibly a raptor) in the top-center blue of the sky. Here are more views of the canyon walls -- and yes, the rock covering is REALLY that green --

There are shallow caves here -- hence the name Cave Creek Canyon. The Native Americans, hundreds of years ago, used the caves as burial sites and for other reasons. There's a unique one with a white rock that, depending on who you talk to, either is naturally white or was painted that color by someone who climbed up. It's known locally as either the Madonna, or Virgin Mary, Cave as that is what some people see in it -- though I just see another rock -- 

That's the "Virgin Mary" on the left. There were quite a few butterflies fluttering about, but the majority seemed to be this one -- Arizona Sister (thanks to Lori Conrad for the definitive ID) -- 

After pushing my bike through rocks and the creek crossing the road, I came to road's end at the picnic ground. This area is known for its birds -- but on that day you wouldn't  know it; all I saw or heard were a Flicker, Plumbeous Vireo and Mexican Jay. No Trogons (5 had been spotted there a few days before) or any other exotic birds. I finally left after about an hour and headed back down the jumbled road, the route easier than going up it. I arrived back at Faranuf just before 12pm. I puttered around until 4:30 when I went to the Painted Pony Resort in New Mexico to discuss "things" with a few friends, then on coming back got this photo of the Chiricahuas, with "angel light" or "God Rays" or whatever you want to call them -- 

Just another great day in a long string of great days.. 

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. 

September 13 -- Pulling Up Posts Part II, And The Deer Clan Re-Visits Faranuf

The sunrise was spectacular once again --

This was the first day in awhile that I had all to myself -- so I planned to take advantage of it. As the temperature was predicted to get to 90, I wanted to get an early start on pulling up a few more posts and fencing. I took out the wheelbarrow, loaded it with the shovel and other things to dig with -- then took a photo of it -- 

That's the fence post and fencing I was going to pull up -- and behind it is my well house, NOT an outdoor lavatory as one of my friends said. Pulling up the posts is a pain. A friend in Portal, John, said to fill the hole you're digging around the post with water -- that way to soften up the ground to get it out easier. I used the shovel and a pickaxe -- and needed a lot of tiny rest breaks. Eventually I pulled everything up, and now it looks more like a yard -- 

I'll be weed-whacking the grasses on the edges, to give the snakes less of a place to hide. And yes, I'll be wearing my "snake guards" while I'm doing it... 

I try to keep everything organized -- well, someone's gotta do it, and there's just me!  So my garage has everything in its place -- 

The big case on the top shelf to the left is for my 500 f/4 lens -- and the blue thing on the bottom shelf is my Yamaha 2000-watt generator, used with Discovery II, my travel trailer, as a backup for the solar power panels, and when I boondock with no power outlet to plug into. (I thought I could use the generator as a backup power source for Faranuf in case the power went out, but I can't figure out how to plug it into the electrical system without shorting everything. ) And on the other side of the garage -- 

The cans of wasp/hornet spray are the green cans on the top shelf (they spray up to 27 feet, important when you are facing an angry army of wasps) and my Stihl string trimmer (aka weed whacker) is on the middle shelf. By this time it was around noon, and the clouds had moved in over Cave Creek Canyon -- 

I took this photo from behind the back of the garage. After relaxing and closing my eyes for a bit, I decided to finish re-treating the front porch -- and had just enough of the treatment left to do the job. Then an early dinner (chicken thighs, rice done in my "new" rice cooker, and a salad) , followed by taking my 500 f/4 lens, and binoculars out to the back porch to watch the evening wildlife activities. I wasn't disappointed. A male Pyrrhuloxia came in -- 

You can distinguish Pyrrhuloxia from Cardinals, which they superficially resemble, by their larger, "crooked" bill. And there was the return of 2 of the Green-tailed Towhees,which I think are a bit early for this area; I always thought they just winter here -- 

Having the 500 f/4 with the 1.4x TC is great in this situation, as these birds are at the furthest reaches of the back yard -- about 100 feet from me, and I don't have to disturb them since I have a long lens, and still get good shots. Then the parade of Coues (white-tailed) deer started. Here's Ms. Coues, doing a "Linda Blair" thing, looking backwards as she did in "The Exorcist" -- 

Then about 15 minutes after her, two male Coues deer visited the water feature and bird seed tray -- 

The next one had magnificent antlers still covered in velvet --

What a way to end another extraordinary day at Faranuf... 

September 12 -- "Heritage Days" at Rodeo and the Chiricahuas

"Heritage Days" has taken place at the Chiricahua Event Center for the past 7 years. It's 3 days of farmer's markets, crafts, music and talks ranging from water issues to Apaches and their horses. And it's a great time to see friends, and meet new ones. But before we go there, here's the ubiquitous sunrise, this time reflecting off Cave Creek Canyon --

And the cloud formations about False Portal Peak -- 

After breakfast, I wanted to try out a new weed-pulling device I'd just received from Amazon. It's a 3-pronged device that has a long lever at the bottom where you push down, the prongs dig into the ground around the weed, and then you pry it up -- and the weed and root are in the prongs. It's quite a clever device, it works -- and it saves your back from bending over. I was getting into pulling up Russian thistle (read tumbleweed) and lost track of the time, when I receive a message from Helen reminding me of Heritage Days. After pulling up a few more weeds ("just one more"...) I head down to the Chiricahua Event Center, where all the big gatherings around Portal and Rodeo are held. It was a packed parking lot, with lots of trucks and guys in cowboy hats (I was wearing my usual baseball cap, and had sunscreen on -- I never step outside without putting some on), and as the parking lots were full I pulled off to the side of a road, with weeds and bushes under my 4-wheel-drive truck, and hoped the hot catalytic converter wouldn't start a fire underneath Toyota Dos. (That would be rather embarrassing to happen to the new guy -- not to mention raise my insurance rates.) I got to the hall in time to hear part of "Bats in the Bootheel", where the speaker was talking about bats in, among other places, Cave Creek Canyon, and assuring folks that local bats don't have wingspans of 3 feet as bats in other countries do -- or drink your blood. They DO drink the nectar from hummingbird feeders that are left out overnight, and sometimes leave a slimy mess on the cover. The next presentation was about the water aquifer beneath the San Simon Valley, and the state it's in (pretty good compared to most other aquifers; it's where I get the water from my water well). Then after a snack break there was a fascinating talk on the "Crystal Cave Mapping Project", A veteran "caver" from back east has a team going into the labyrinth of chutes, wormholes, and rooms twice the size of the presentation hall and mapping the routes. The cave system was discovered by an eccentric who left detailed descriptions of the cave, and at the time people thought he was nuts -- "all that can't be in a cave under our feet!" But the current mapping folks found out he was right on most counts, though he used primitive caving instruments all of his descriptions in a journal. The entrance to the cave has since had a gate put over it, though I hear the key to the gate is available somewhere in Tucson, but that's probably changed now there's mapping going on. After the cave presentation there was "Living With Coyotes". I'd heard coyotes early in the morning when I stayed at the Cowboy Room at Rodeo's Mountain Lodge and RV Park prior to buying Faranuf, and it was one of the weirdest sounds I've ever heard; it was like an alien chorus. Like in most places, coyotes are considered to be a nuisance and shot when seen, but concrete evidence shows that the more coyotes are shot, the more the females have kits; there seems to be a direct correlation. Which means that the best policy to keep the population down would be simply to leave them alone; they eat mostly berries, rodents, and lizards and very rarely go after livestock. And as there are Mexican wolf programs both to the north and south (in Mexico) re-introducing wolves to the area, people get wolves and coyotes mixed-up , and end up killing the wolves, which are protected species. Apparently there's a legal clause that protects people who say "Well, I didn't know it was a wolf!" but it sounds like ANYbody could say that and get away with it. But the bottom line is that the more coyotes killed, the larger the population grows. Then as I didn't have a ticket for the buffet lunch, my friend (and former resident of Orange County) Maya Decker and I went to the Rodeo Tavern for lunch, then got back in time for "Archeological Findings at Cave Creek Midden Site", which occurred on Kim Murphy's property just outside of Portal . Kim was the local game warden, and when he passed away about a year ago I got a few of his things -- a bed he made, an old dresser, a signed Rex Allen movie poster (Rex Allen was born in Willcox, on the northwest edge of the Chiricahuas, and was a famous movie cowboy from the 40's) -- and an old lamp where Kim had hung arrowheads tied on to strings. After listening to the presentation, I began to wonder if they were old...Then we went on the "Mountain Lions in the Chiricahuas/Peloncillos", which is of special concern locally as there have been mountain lion sightings right in "downtown" Portal. Even my friend John had encountered a mountain lion in his back yard; he used the recommended technique of looking right at the mountain lion, acting larger than he was, making noises and slowly moving towards the lion -- but the lion merely looking at him as if to say "what are you doing that for?" and, when he got bored, just turned around and walked back into the underbrush. It was obvious the mountain lion had been "habituated", i.e. was used to humans, which is not a good thing for the lion to be. In Arizona, you must have a license to kill a mountain lion; in New Mexico, ANYone can kill a mountain lion -- and you need nothing, not even a license. Just your gun. And now there is a new proposal in New Mexico to allow snare and traps to aid in killing mountain lions. It's all controversial, and as you can imagine there is much debate on both sides of the argument. After the talk on mountain lions there was a presentation on Apaches and their horses, detailing how the Native Americans initially got their horses from Spanish incursions across the border from Mexico -- and eventually became a horse culture. The Chiricahua Apaches, with such legendary figures like Cochise and Geronimo, still have history here. The last presentation was by Bruce Thompson, the caretaker at the Painted Pony Resort, talking about restoring private rangelands, rehabilitating them to a least a semblance of their original state, as now the majority has been taken over by invasive grasses and weeds -- when it hasn't been turned into a dust bowl due to no vegetative ground cover. The Heritage Days presentations ended on that note. I went back to Faranuf, had dinner, then sat out on the back porch watching the birds come in for the last time that day -- and saw 3 Green-tailed Towhees in the outer periphery of the back yard, the first ones I've seen since I've been at Faranuf. They're mostly considered to be wintering birds here, so I was surprised -- and pleased. They made it 30 birds species (that I could recognize)  for my Yard List. Tomorrow it will be more weed whacking, removal and yard maintenance... 

September 11 -- A Skunk, and Chasing Butterflies and Birds

OK, instead of perusings, musings and summarizations, it's back to Everyday Life In Portal...One of the advantages of getting up early here (like 1:30am) is (well, 4.5 hours later) you get to see some awesome pre-sunrises. Yesterday's didn't disappoint --

That was taken with the 100-400 f/5.6 lens at about 350mm; here's the wide view, taken a few minutes later with the 17-55 f/2.8 -- 

After that eye-opener, I replenished the hummingbird feeders -- and saw a new visitor to Faranuf's back yard -- a Striped Skunk -- 

There are 4 species of skunk native to Arizona and the Chiricahuas -- Striped, Hognose, Spotted, and Hooded, with Striped probably the most common. It was snuffling around in the grass, probably eating grasshoppers (of which there are many here) and ants (I can only hope, as there is a colony of harvester ants right in the center of the yard) . He seemed unaware of my presence, and I never got close as, taking photographs with the 100-400 lens, I stayed about 30 feet from him, until I came out of the back balcony, he saw me - but not before taking this photo -- then loped off into the brush near the well house. A cutie -- and looked sleek and well-fed. After that, it was watching the hummingbird frenzy at my feeders until I went to Lori and Mark Conrad's house where I joined Bob Beckler, a veteran birder visiting from my old stomping grounds of LA's South Bay, and we all piled into Mark and Lori's car and headed up the dirt Trans-Chiricahuan road. We stopped first at Turkey Creek, just after the turnoff to the tiny hamlet of Paradise, and went looking for a somewhat rare species of butterfly that Mark and Lori had spotted a few days earlier -- Red-Bordered Satyr. It's found only above 6000 feet near mountain streams and open deciduous forest,  flies only from Sept-Oct, and is seen in parts of Arizona and New Mexico. We found them almost immediately -- 

They fly in a somewhat "loping" manner, almost never in a straight line, and very rarely "sit" still. I lucked out with this one. There were other species of butterfly on that stop, including Red-Spotted Purple, or White Admiral -- 

After that, and stopping along the road a few times to check out birds, it was on to the high Chiricahuas and Rustler Park, a meadowy area with a campground that was burned during the Horseshoe 2 fire in 2011.The meadow survived fairly intact, but the campground was torched along with the high ridge behind the meadow. I had memories of a thickly-forested area in 2008, when I camped there...now all gone. We found Mexican Chickadee and Olive Warblers high up in the forest canopy, then headed back down the road to catch dinner at the Portal Cafe before it closed. Dinner with Bob, Mark and Lori was full of good conversation and food, I bid adieu to all of them as they were heading out the next day --- and I returned home to Faranuf, still amazed that this IS my home, and I am now a "Portalite"... 

View of False Portal Peak From My Back Yard