Busy Busy Busy..

No rest for this little guy.  He's working the ocotillo from sunrise to sunset.  My "blind" is just sitting in the parked car next to the flowers.  I wanted to add this because I noticed the shot of the black chinned hummer I posted the other day is actually out of focus when you click to enlarge it.  Not so on this, which is my best hummer shot ever!  Click it.

In The Yard Today.

Tarantula Hawk.  Check it out, this is one big wasp.  The body is about 2" long.  Click the link for the scientific stuff.

Wow! That's A Lot of Pixels!

You won't believe your eyes.  Hat Tip to Frank Vigneri..  Hmm, I've got some tree frog close ups in my archives...

Birds and Blooms.

In the past, we're usually long gone from Deming by this time of year.  We've never seen the bursting forth of life that starts happening in the desert about this time of year.  Now that we live here, that's about to change.   Having  the plants we have in the yard gives us a front row seat.

First up is the Ocotillo,
of which we have half a dozen samples in the yard.  A couple of weeks ago, they sprouted a group of red buds at the ends of their "stalks".  I took a closer look at them and realized that they would bloom even further, but I had no idea this plant that actually looks dead most of the year, would bloom like this.

The nectar naturally attracts members of the local hummingbird population, like this Black-chinned Hummingbird .

There's another, larger hummingbird hanging around, but I haven't captured his image yet.  It's either a Broad-tailed, or a Ruby-throated.  My money's on the Broad-tail.

Not hanging around the Ocotillo, but a new bird for me, is this 

Wilsons Warbler.  A bird that looks like it bought a bad toupee.

I've also seen a Scott's Oriole in the yard on a couple of occasions now, but haven't got its picture yet.

This is only the beginning.  I can't wait to see what happens with the prickly pear cactus.  Still no sign of the Mexican Poppies on the mountainside.  Still waiting.  If it happens while we're still here, (we have to take off on a shooting trip late next week), you'll be the first to see it.

"The Bird" 1954-2009

All through its history, there has never been a shortage of characters in baseball.  In 1976, there was no bigger character than the Detroit Tigers Mark "the Bird" Fidrych.

It was quite a jolt watching the local news tonight and hearing that Fidrych was found dead under his dump truck in Massachusetts today.

In 1976 I was living in Saginaw, MI. The local and national media was all abuzz about this eccentric, but amazingly talented pitcher who was starring for the Tigers.   Several of us with the day off, decided to drive the hundred miles south to see Fidrych pitch.  We got there, but the game was rained out.  We spent the next several hours drinking beer at the legendary Lindell AC bar.  So, while we missed seeing history on the mound, we did spend some time in a historic bar before schlepping back to Saginaw.

R.I.P.  Bird and the bar.

A Little Quiz.

So... I took this picture on my mountain hike yesterday.

From Up and Down the North Floridas

It was on the side of the road up the mountain.  I know what it is.  Do you?

(click on image for larger view)

Mission Accomplished!

Don't think I mentioned it, but I'm going through one of those "bachelor periods" that happen a couple times a year.  Margaret flew off to New York late last week to visit with her kids, then made the hop to Michigan last night to visit her mother.

The fun addition to this trip is that she'll also be looking at vehicles.. something to load up with a fair amount of stuff from our storage unit and haul back here to New Mexico.  Right now, so I've been told, the leading candidate is a Ford cargo van.  We'll see what happens.

So with a lot of free time on my hands, and a cool (but very windy) day at my disposal yesterday, I decided it was time to climb a mountain.  There're plenty of them available, but I picked one that I can see from the back porch.  There are a couple of towers up there, so it makes an inviting target.

I filled my pack with water, a box of crackers, my Kabar knife, and binoculars, put my camera on the harness and walked away from the house at 11am.  By noon, I was probably a little better than halfway up.  I should note that this isn't exactly "technical climbing".  I only had to use my hands a couple of times, but the last bit was damn steep, and the rocks were shifting around. The wind was blowing strong enough to practically blow me up the hill.

Two hours and fifteen minutes after I started, I was back at the house, soaking my shaking legs in the whirlpool bath.  Today my legs are very sore, as I knew they would be, but not too bad.

Next time I do this, I'll make sure that someone knows what I'm doing.  It's not exactly wise to go off on an excursion like this alone.  But I do want to do it again.  There's a higher point on the Little Floridas I want to try.

Meanwhile, here's a little slide show.. images I stopped regularly to capture (and catch my breath) on the way up and back down again.  Enjoy.