It was a GOOD sunrise yesterday...The temperatures are about 10 degrees cooler, and clouds are contributing to that. They're becoming extremely photogenic; here's the scene just after sunrise of "False Portal Peak" from my back yard --
And about a half-hour later; the Chiricahuas change their appearance depending on the clouds and light --
I had to do something to save Desert Willow; it was under attack by grasshoppers that are eating the leaves, and because of the warm weather it's getting heat stressed -- and needs more water. So I build a water well around it -- a "moat" that both stops the water from overflowing and gets the water deeper down to the roots. I soak it for at least a half hour, and will do it again every day for about a week unless there are thunderstorms and rain, both of which have been forecast here in a few days. As far as the grasshoppers, another friend who lives on an isolated ranch in Montana and has been a veritable mine of information as she too is trying to keep costs down recommended 2 drops of Dawn per a quart of water, and spraying that on the leaves, and that should help to keep the grasshoppers off the desert willow. Now a mention of one of my photos...I submitted 2 photos to an online contest put on by Arizona Highways magazine; they pick 50 of the best photos and post them on their Facebook page. The theme is changed weekly, so this week it was "Black and White". And -- one of my photos was selected! It was the lightning photo from about a month ago, when we had the terrific lightning display. I'd kept the shutter open for about 2 minutes -- and got multiple lightning strikes --
It was posted in Arizona Highways' weekly album -- though they are viewed alphabetically by first name, so as mine is Steve it was one of the last ones to be seen, and people had run out of comments by then. But still, it's the proverbial "foot in the door" -- and I'm a Happy Camper once again. And one of the birds we saw the day before at Willow Tank, where the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is making an appearance, turned out to be -- a Dickcissel. A friend who wanted to see the "STFL", while waiting, said "what's that small bird on the wire?" I took about 10 shots, zoomed in on it --and couldn't tell what the heck it was. Sparrow sized, yellow breast, markings below the eye, a yellow streak above, and a large bill. I sent a few of the photos to my friends Lori and Mark Conrad, veteran birders also from the South Bay of LA who also bought a house here once they retired, and they made the call of it being a Dickcissel, a bird usually seen only east of the Rockies. But Lori and Mark had seen one at Willow Tank at least 10 years ago, and Rick Taylor here reported another one being seen
in October 2003. Willow Tank is what is called a vagrant trap -- birds fly in the wrong direction for whatever reason during migration, and as Willow Tank is the only large pond on the east side of the Chiricahuas, they spy the water (when it has water) and stay there awhile. So I report the Dickcissel on the Arizona/New Mexico "rare" birds list serve, and now it joins the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher there as a rare species for Arizona. The evening ends up with Mark and Lori coming over to use my oven (theirs is broken and the repair guy won't come out until near the end of the month) and my sharing a fish dinner made by Lori, and once again there is good food and conversation. Who can ask for anything more?
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