SW thumbs, day 4

You might recall about a month ago there was a post about our nephew, Oliver, taking over the internet. Well, he's still at it. This time he got to meet his new cousin, though. So while Oliver garbled at his new cousinlet, she squirmed... and my sister kept Oliver stable and the cousin propped up the cousinlet. I took pictures and chuckled.



a reunion of cousins



...yes, we figured out the full-screen chat option, just so two infants could sputter at each other and thrash the keyboards soundly.

After everyone was herded away for their naps and thoroughly rested, there was this matter of everyone going to visit Grandma. Everyone. So we bundled up the cousinlet, cousin-in-law, cousin and the puppy... and Grandma fed us the most delicious kebabs ever. And I got to play with Grandma's puppy, the 10 year old westie.



carpooling with a 5 year old puppy to Grandma's house

There's a bit of digital camera confusion here, so I apologize. I'm quite certain that these moth pictures are from day 5, but since day 5 will be full of rings anyway, these lovely "mothtuids" (moth + noctuid, even though they're not all noctuids) will get lumped into day 4. Besides, my camera was chewing on a new battery and still thought that day 5 was day 4 anyway. Among other things, this day 4/5 was when my altitude adjustment kicked in at 1 am and those delicious kebabs became an offering to the porcelain goddess.

Adobe = fun for moths, even if the time stamp might be confused. Here are a few midday finds:



mystery moth and exposed bird dropping moth

I find it fascinating that only one of the moths we found even looked remotely like the adobe that it was on - everyone else looked like they'd be more at home on juniper bark.



closeup of first mystery moth, more mystery moths

In true time confusion, here's a look at the backyard sanctuary and its evening invader... no, the statue of Mary did nothing to spare Matt from having a mantis investigate his shoe and then pant leg.



Also in honor of time stamp confusion, I present an evening's find after a visit to Randall Davey Audubon... a very skittish bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) and a very freshly deceased checkered garter snake (Thamnophis marcianus). Pretty sure we were there on day 5, but that's ok.



At some point, "day 5" will be the completion of the smeagol post, in which you were all exposed to a very glowy preciousss.

SW thumbs, day 3

Alternate title: the lift not taken (or) piles and piles of pictures



the lift & the view

As previously mentioned, the ski basin was one of our designated birding areas - and all sources suggested that all we had to do was take the lift to the top of the slope, hike around and see birds. So of course the lift was undergoing maintenance when we were there. Having no lift, we managed to wear ourselves out pretty easily, just having come from a whopping ~400 feet above sea level (and 2 weeks earlier, from 4 feet above sea level).

Here's where we hiked up to, and if you look closely you can see a strange mountain creature.



the finger points to the top of the lift, the mountain creature photographs butterflies

Since I can't leave any windows alone, I had to take another picture of the basin's shiny windows. You should be able to see the window decal a bit more clearly than the last time this window was featured. And since I can't leave streams, rivers, or any reasonably tolerable body of water alone, I had to stick my feet into this trickle of moving ice...



window, stream

Now, I've promised to keep this blog as clean as possible when it comes to grotesque imagery, but that doesn't mean that the occasional flesh wound won't show up. Thankfully, there's no visible flesh wound on these next two thumbnails, but it's startling to find a dead fledgling Hermit Thrush (presumably, at least) when you're seeking "the pink shrub." In Abilene, peeing in the wilderness meant squatting behind a cactus, so the mountain offered much more suitable, er, habitat. Regardless, here's the first dead bird of this post:



dessicated baby Hermith Thrush (?), unknown cause of death

So up from the basin we trekked - starting at a bit over 10,000 feet, we ventured to nearly 12,000 (and managed to keep breathing). Since we stopped every few feet to look at bugs, the ascent took a while. The "insects at elevation" post has a full list of butterflies for the day. Now to make up for that dead bird pictured above, here are a few butterflies:



Arrowhead Blue (Glaucopsyche piasus), Purplish Copper (Lycaena helloides)

Green Commas are so charismatic that I do need to dedicate a good chunk of this post to them. Here is what other Green Commas see when they look at other Green Commas, and the view of what Green Commas see. If that statement wasn't too confusing ;-)



While we're featuring seriously beautiful creatures, here's another Green Comma and my adventure partner. Matt is posing under the "Adventure Land" sign, it would seem... and adventuring with a pair of sticks that would otherwise double as ski poles. If only there was snow.



While in "Adventure Land" we did see this Gray Hairstreak - sadly, the brilliant orange on the proboscis doesn't show up very well in the first photo, but the leading edge of the wing is quite apparent.



Having eventually survived "Adventure Land" and the ski basin itself, Matt and I stopped at the overlook on our way down. Apparently we were admiring 3 states, but there were Western Bluebirds and Olive-sided Flycatchers distracting us. Thankfully, we were oblivious to the view when sneaking glimpses of our shared life Pine Grosbeaks at higher elevations, while Common Ravens and Clark's Nutcrackers occasionally flew overhead (always heading east for some reason). Nonetheless, we did document our time at the overlook.



behold, the look of the overlook

Alas, this post would be incomplete without our last dead bird of the day. Sadly, some of us get "life" birds this way (Kentucky Warbler and Long-eared Owl for me), so here's the roadkill that happens to be Matt's "life" Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus). It's technically the only Dusky Grouse for both of us. Thankfully I did see a slightly more 3D version in 2004, in California - but that is now known as the Sooty Grouse. Both were considered Blue Grouse until 2006, when the species was split.



roadkill Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus), grouse tail

The next post should be packed full of bugs and snakes and dogs and people (oh my?) ...and most of them will be alive!

SW thumbs, day 2

Having survived our first night in the dry air, Matt and I were treated to a morning adventure at the local farmers' market. The Santa Fe Railyard is undergoing an inspiring revival on a social, community, environmental and overall brilliant scale. It has trains (passenger ones!) that function regularly - and is turning into quite the pedestrian hub. The cool morning, freshly baked goods, fresh fruit and scattered musicians really made me feel like I was at a European market. Sigh.



the cousin-in-law, cousinlet, the SF railyard tower

After marketing and lunching and admiring locally produced yogurts and cheeses, we snuck away so the cousinlet could nap. Our afternoon meanderings took us to Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary, which borders other protected lands (in the 1930s someone must have trespassed or something, because the watershed area has been off-limits ever since).



habitat, rock squirrel & mule deer, observer of junipers

Randall Davey Audubon center has an absolutely delicious butterfly/hummingbird garden near the education building and visitor's center, so even if it's too hot or late or inconvenient to trek the trails, there's quite a lot of activity before the trail head. Due to the tract being an old homestead, there's even a tremendous historical presence with the old residence, courtyard areas, lawn and giant cottonwood trees to wander beneath. It was in the lawn area where we saw our first Williamson's Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus), though we were unable to get a photo.



camel cricket (Ceuthophilus spp), Ichneumon spp, peculiar creatures



infographics - the one at right is full of "graphic novel" style enthusiasm

As for that window picture below, there's a decal (ineffective) and quite a strong reflection... but really, when am I ever on vacation and not taking pictures of shiny windows? At least there were no bodies. Aside from windows, the trails at RDA are also of great interest. The trails start just beyond the admin buildings and offer little shade, but there are scattered benches and gems of wisdom, such as the Shelley quote below. Yes, I was thinking of Laura. Delight is such a wonderful word, even if it often hides under the umbrella of "joy" (not that "joy" casts a shadow).



"For love and beauty and delight, There is no death nor change." - Shelley

Another feast with the family, cool night with dry air, and day 2 found its end.

SW thumbs, day 1

Upon arrival in New Mexico, our first major undertaking was finding a bagel. Alas, no photo is available. Rest assured, cream cheese was involved. Mission accomplished, we found our shuttle and proceeded to nap our way to the Ghost Ranch, which was neither a ranch, nor ghostly. It did provide us with a wonderful opportunity to investigate outdoor sculptures, though. Matt quickly found a kindred spirit, a raven in a Texas hat, and I marveled at the much-larger-than-life cairn of apples/crushed soda cans.



Matt & raven



cairn, Heidi & raven, giant chicken, Matt & guineas

We barely had any time to get into trouble before the cousin showed up and whisked us off into the foothills to meet our newest cousin (close enough to a niece). At a whopping six months old, she has ultimately mastered attention-getting, toy-dropping, joyful sputtering and a host of other handy tricks.



Lest we disturb naptime, Matt and I consulted our sources to determine which local spots might harbor birds. For Florida, we planned for months. Ok, weeks. For New Mexico, we booked our flights two weeks early, sent an e-mail out when we arrived, used our Google-fu and somehow managed to determine that higher elevations would mean more new things. Matt likely snuck in a bit more research, but I was just happy to clamber around some new turf. So we were off to the ski basin! Appropriately, that link is for wild flowers, not skiing ;-)




Highly reflective windows. Quiz: do you see the "bird proof" decal?
Hint: it's on the right side of the left pic and it's ineffective.

Aside from traipsing around the parking area and eying big shiny windows, the veg surrounding the parking lot was teeming with insect life. Lush meadows of flowers harbored the previously posted photos that Matt took of our charismatic new find: green lattice moth. For location, comedy, perspective and scale, here are a few shots from my camera.



meadow, flowers, stalking the green lattice moth

Of course, having been chided for taking so many pictures of birds and bugs and plants, we had to remind ourselves to take pictures of, well, us. So from the perspective of the moth, I present a self portrait of the photographer from moth's-eye-view. Also a portrait that a kindly old log snapped for us with the help of the camera's handy timer that I finally got around to using after a year. There's even a tree-perspective shot of Matt, the waifish observer on the trail of giants.



portrait by self, portrait by log, portrait of Matt

Venturing back down from the basin heights, we were treated to an absolutely divine meal that our beloved cousin-in-law prepared. After making our way up the ridge behind the house, stuffed from dinner, Matt and I listened to the yippings of distant and not-so-distant coyotes and watched the sunset.



evening from the hills

Next up... predictably, will be day2 =)