It was actually from the morning of the 18th, but I had to figure out how to convert the video to MP4, and as I never had to deal with video before, it was a learning process. But I finally found a free program, Any Video Converter, that seems to do a good job, and sound and resolution are pretty much the same as the original. But I'm getting ahead of myself... I left early once again, heading down Portal Road and turning onto Stateline Road, which is an official New Mexico birding route and runs along the Arizona/New Mexico border. It's mostly ranch land, with mobile homes and some battered trucks and a junk yard, but the birds like it and it's in the middle of the San Simon Valley. Bendire's Thrashers are here, and I saw one (I think) up on top of a bush the other day, but it flew off before I had a chance to photograph it. Would be a Lifer for me, though....I headed back down Hwy 80 and once again didn't see the Golden Eagle. It's probably a good thing he's off the road, as there is always a chance he would get hit by a car if he went after road kill. My friend Helen says it's happened a few times on that stretch of the road, and when she sees a carcass on the road, she gets out of the car and throws it to the roadside so that if the GE does go after it, he's out of the way of passing cars. That's a good idea, so I'll be bringing disposable gloves with me wherever I go out. Though I sometimes do have a highly developed gag reflex, and lifting a bloody, smooshed animal body by what's left of its leg... ugh. But I'll give it a try. I went for the White-tailed Kites again, but was skunked once again. It's a beautiful drive on the dirt road to the west, though; here's a photo looking to the north, taken from the road; the tall peak is Portal Peak --
There wasn't much in the way of birds in the morning, so I headed back to Faranuf. I checked up on Discovery II and she seemed quite happy in her new surroundings --
A friend said she's smiling; I replied that her "eyes" were crinkled up from smiling and that no, I wasn't smoking funny cigarettes...There will be a "wind event" here on Tuesday, so that will be a test of how the canopy fares in high winds. It should (better) do just fine. I met friends Brendon and his wife Lynn at the Portal Cafe for lunch. Due to this blog and my posts on Facebook, they're considering buying property here for their retirement years -- which is still a long way away, but you can never be too prepared, especially living out in an area like this. My friend (and their real estate agent, along with being mine) Helen dropped by, and she asked if I would like to help with checking out the blind up near Barfoot Park that she and Noel had put up to watch the Short-tailed hawk nest. They "discovered" it in 1986, and it was first sighting of an STH this far west; usually they're in, say, Florida. She said there will be climbing and bushwhacking involved, but hey, how often does a chance like this come along? So I sign on. Kathleen, our librarian of "the best little library in the world", is also there at the outdoor dining area, along with Marjorie, who along with her husband Vaughan rented out Faranuf while I was in the last stages of Travels With Discovery. Kathleen was born in Bishop, CA, in the Owens Valley, which I was considering moving to before my dream of living in the Chiricahuas became a reality. So we have a love of Bishop and the valley in common. After saying goodbye to Brendon and Lynn I headed back to Faranuf, pulled some weeds (a daily occurrence here, and it's not even the monsoon season yet) and had a Blue Apron dinner in preparation for having my friends Lori and Mark over the next evening for another dinner supplied by Blue Apron. If you don't know, Blue Apron is an online food service that delivers packaged ingredients for 3 dinners, along with detailed instructions on preparation and cooking (I wouldn't have even considered buy them if they didn't supply that). It's pretty useful if you're running out of supplies and there are only 3 "eateries" within a 50-mile radius. That night I had Cuban sandwiches -- pork, cucumbers, and melted cheese on toasted rolls. They supply the ingredients, and you cook it from scratch. It's expensive at around $60 for 3 meals, but you can get enough food for 3 out of each meal, so the price is not too bad. The trick is to make it all edible -- but the Cuban sandwiches were very edible.
I bought a Stealth cam to photograph/video any animals that might come to the back yard water feature during the night. With the accompanying strap, I attached it to an old bird feeder post that I never got around to sawing down -- good that I didn't ! It's high-resolution , with sound. I turned it on the other night, took out the 32GB SD card the next morning, downloaded an online program that converted it to MP4 so I can play it on Facebook -- and here it is...
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