March 18 -- Some Birds Of Willow Tank, And Discovery's New Home Goes Up

I'd heard there were 2 White-tailed Kites in the vicinity, and as they're somewhat rare for the area I headed out early in the morning to check them out. Alas, I was skunked and didn't see a trace of them, though I knew the area and trees where they were seen. I may go again early today (the 19th). On the way to the Kite location, I was driving east down Portal Road when a hawk "accompanied" by 2 Ravens flew out of the grass on the shoulder and went up to the fence lining the road. What I invariably do, when I'm driving and see a bird, is continue driving for about a mile, then finally decide to turn back to check things out -- and of course the bird by that time is gone. This time I was only a few hundred yards down the road before I turned back -- and the bird, which turned out to be a juvenile Red-tailed hawk, was still on the fence post along with the 2 Raven escorts. Seeing me, it flew a little further off to a tree snag, but I was able to get a good photo with my 500mm plus 1.4x TC attached; if I'd had a shorter lens like my 100-400 this wouldn't have turned out so well -- 

Yes, that's blood on its beak; it was having breakfast when I flushed it off the side of the road. After that start, in spite of the Kite no-show, I knew it was going to be a good day birdwise. I went back to Willow Tank, the migrant trap here that was being rehabilitated, to see what was there, and got some birds that were different from the day before --

 "Mexican" Duck, more closely related to the eastern US' American Black Duck than a Mallard ...

Mr. and Mrs. Northern Shoveler...

The Mexican Ducks fly off...

A Lark Bunting...

Curve-billed Thrasher..

Lark Sparrow..,

And as I was driving back up Stateline Road (which runs along the Arizona/New Mexico border, thus the name), heading back to Faranuf, I saw this Greater Roadrunner up in a tree --

A friend of mine here had mentioned that there were a couple of Pullman cars, mostly in a ruined condition, scattered around the San Simon Valley. A rail line ran through here, going south to Douglas -- in fact, the small town of Rodeo was "created" as a train stop. Here's one of the Pullmans, about a half-mile off Stateline Road; this is looking east to the Peloncillos --

But I had to get back to Faranuf, as this was to be the day when Discovery II would get her new "home". I'm glad I got back when I did; I was expecting the installation crew at noon, and they arrived at 9:30. The exact spot for the canopy had already been laid out and marked, along with the electrical and water lines that ran underground from the well house. I asked the crew if I could take photos of the canopy going up; they said yes.

At the beginning... 

The frame..

They're putting up the end gable here. 

The worker on the right in the above photo is hammering in the anchors that will hold the canopy into the ground; Arizona state law requires that all buildings have to withstand winds up to 90mph. The canopy will have 2 sets of anchors, the other being "mobile home anchors", similar to what you find in manufactured homes. He had a difficult time pounding in the anchors as there are a lot of rocks underground. I asked him what they do when the anchors won't go in all the way; he says they cut off the part that doesn't go into the ground. 

The entire structure is made of 14-gauge steel; it also comes in 12-gauge, which would be stronger but more expensive, and probably (hopefully) not needed. The structure also comes in different color options; the ones I chose are the exact same colors as Faranuf. 

The installers need electricity to run their drills and things, so I have them use an outside electrical receptacle. I was inside the house when the doorbell rang; one of them said the power went out. Apparently they'd tripped the circuit. I checked the circuit box and the switch to the outside receptacles was in the "off" position. I tried putting it back to "on", but it wouldn't stay; it kept on flipping back to off.  Odd. Luckily I don't use those plugs very often, but I still have to find out why it tripped, and how to fix it.

Almost done...

 The truck and trailer that held the canopy materials. 

And -- voila!  Discovery has a home. 

It will be very windy here for a few days next week, so it will be a good test to see how the canopy handles the wind, with Discovery parked in it.

I had dinner at Lori and Mark's house, then we went to a slide presentation given by my friend Noel Snyder, a wildlife biologist who's been involved, along with his wife Helen, in bird surveys like those for the Yellow-billed Cuckoo and California Condor. His talk was on butterflies, of which he's an expert, too. It was fascinating, and makes me want to go looking for b'flies with my macro lens. So all in all, a very productive day, like so many other days here in Portal and the Chiricahuas...