Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Critters Moving Right Along

One thing about living in the desert, the critters are fleet of foot and VERY wary.  It's hard to get pictures of anything that moves faster than a gila monster.  Just the same, I keep my camera right at the back door.

Honestly I don't know how these guys can live in this 107 degree weather!  Especially the fuzzy bunny rabbits!  Wasn't I surprised to look out the sliding glass door and spot THIS guy.  I haven't seen a jackrabbit in 40 years.  Way back when, we used to have hundreds of them on the ranch.  As soon as they moved the huge contingency of Hmong people in, the rabbits disappeared, as did anything else that might resemble food, including crawdads, bullfrogs and catfish.
At any rate, this guy has a big pair of ears for a reason.  As soon as I snapped the first picture, even though I was inside the house, he heard that click and instantly stopped.  WOW!!!

The quail on the other hand, although a little skittish, could care less.  These are pretty tough little guys.  I watched one yesterday take on a really large road runner and chase him clear off the property.  I had no idea quail were so aggressive!!
Once the morning fray was over, I proceeded to get something done.  I need to register my truck in Arizona.  I tried online, but that was a big waste of time.  I'll just call instead.  Whoa .... almost an hour and a half later, someone finally picked up.  

I know everything is shut down due to the virus thing, but instead of laying those people off, why don't they set them up at home for answering phone calls?  I guess that would be too simple.  Anyway, lucky me got an appointment to have it taken care of.  The Voodoo doll must be occupied elsewhere.  I'm even getting an Arizona ID.  

By then, it was lunchtime.  Time to burn something to eat.  It's really hard to get a grilled cheese sandwich browned to perfection.  I spent the rest of the day finishing up this quilt.  
In the meantime, I've been completely obsessed with getting pictures of the Neowise comet.  I have a cool little app called SkyView Lite.  You can open it night or day and it will show you exactly where every star is, including all the crazy names they have.  Look for Gemini they said.  Prophetic since that's my birthday month.

Every morning when I went out at 4:00 to catch it, there were clouds in the Northeast.  No bueno!  NOW the only way to see it is to look to the NorthWEST after the sun goes down.  
So this was me ..... waiting and waiting .....
At least I got a nice sunset picture.    
Neowise decided to stay hidden and my camera battery died.  Better luck next time.  If you're in a dark place for the next couple of nights, you might be able to see it to the Northwest, just below and a tad to the left of the Big Dipper.  I'll post some REAL pictures of it tomorrow, along with another guest at my water station.





12 comments:

  1. Nice that you are having so many visitors to your watering hole as well as getting an appointment to take care of business.
    Be Safe and Enjoy the landscape.

    It's about time.

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  2. Great picture of the jackrabbit. Those ears!

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    1. Aren't they crazy? You can almost see through them!

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  3. You talk about MY critters! Yours are fascinating and I'm so envious that you get visits from my favourite little guys, the quail. I miss their little chatter as they scurry around. And a Jackrabbit! How many times at Elephant Butte LSP I traipsed OFF the trails to catch one on my camera. Lovely!
    Congrats on the truck and ID business getting scheduled. :)

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    1. That's right Patsy ... you were always chasing down the Jackrabbits!!! They are just so cuddly!!

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  4. Why is it that all these places are shut down, but the police still has their speed / running stop lights / running stop signs traps still going? (Yep, someone got a ticket yesterday for rolling through a stop sign...first ticket in 15 years or so)

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    1. OH NO!!!!!!! I heard all the speed traps were going on. Not only that, but in Atwater they set up a guy walking across a busy street and wrote up something like 20 tickets for people not stopping until he was clear across the street. I guess they aren't very busy.

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  5. Looking forward to tonight's pictures of the comet. I was shocked yesterday when I went into the DMV and immediately got a window. Now the RV is registered and I have a tag. :) $1500 broker though.:(

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    1. Ouch Doug .... that is a sad face!!! I can't believe you were able to walk right in. Out here you can't go anywhere except Walmart without an appointment!

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  6. Love the jackrabbits, we've got some big ones here too along with cottontails! I love the quilt! Beautiful sunset...now that we know where to look, we'll have to give it a try and see the elusive comet :)

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