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
Liked the butterflies and the sunrise photos and the continuing saga of living in Portal. Keep up the excellent journalism, well written and fascinating to read. HGTV is featuring house hunting homes off the grid.
ReplyDeleteHi Wes -- Still have insomnia, eh? Yes, life in Portal is GOOD. I'm not living off the grid, of course -- and I don't plan to. I haven't decided yet whether to get solar panels -- knowledgable people here say it's not a good idea for this house due to the way it faces. But at the very least I'll get a metal roof as the composition shingles may fly off in a high wind. They haven't yet, but they're over 8 years old -- and I can afford it once my IRA kicks in come the latter part of February.
ReplyDelete