Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bird watching Sunday

WELCOME to our two newest followers, Judy and Mike!  I don't see any information for you, or blogs listed, but if either of you has a blog, let me know so I can check it out.  Thanks for following along with me and Katie on our travels.  Welcome aboard! : )

Last night I'm sitting here with my shades drawn, and I hear a BIG RIG slowly going past me, then backing up between me and the Airstream trailer up in front of me.  It was a huge cab with a looong refrigerated trailer.  You know what that means, he needs to keep his generator going all night to keep things cold.

He kept moving the rig, lining up in front of me, then pulling out like he was trying to turn down one of the parking lanes.  Poor guy, he was a small Asian man, and he kept jumping out of his cab and running around to see what his clearance was.  The woman in the Airstream came out and tried to direct him, then she went back into her trailer.  Some security men came out in a golf cart, they talked and left.  I finally went out to see what was going on, and he said he couldn't negotiate the turn, his rig was full and very heavy, and he couldn't drive over the concrete ends that hold trees, etc., for fear of puncturing his tires.  I offered to leave my place so he'd have a longer slot to get into, and he said that would work.

So I went  back to The Palms and got ready to move her somewhere else in the parking lot, and he came running over and said he decided he'd just back out and go somewhere else.  It was after 9:00 and dark, of course, and he looked really tired.  I know the feeling, and felt really bad for him.

He backed out into the street, then had a heck of a time actually getting the trailer and cab out onto the street.  The street was completely blocked, with traffic backed up going both ways, until he was out.  Remember, this was Saturday night a little after 9:00 in front of a Casino.  He must have been so stressed.

His maneuvers reminded me of when I was trying to get to Bryce Canyon and ended up at the airport with the closed gate.  It took me LOTS of forward, turn, back..., forward, turn, back, over and over again to get turned around on that narrow road.  And that's what this driver went through.  Poor guy, he finally got out onto the street and went on his way.  It would have been better to back into my spot, get some sleep, and figure out how to leave in the daylight in the morning, but it was his decision to leave.  I hope he found a good place to sleep last night.

Big rig backing out to the street last night.

I'm getting addicted to bird watching.  It's so easy to sit here at the dinette with an audio book playing on my little iHome speakers, playing computer games and checking from time to time out the window.  There always seems to be something going on.

 The 15-Dove Tree

The doves are sitting quietly in their tree, grooming themselves or dozing or looking around, then another bird flies in.  I wondered what the dynamics of that happening are.  He flew in a few times, but never stayed long.  The doves seemed to notice.

Hey, what's he doing here?

Then a little hummer flew in - actually a bunch of times. He always landed on the top branch of the bare tree, and the doves didn't seem to pay him any attention.  He always stayed a minute and then flew off.  Then another bigger hummer came along and sat next to him.  Then they both flew away.


When the doves leave the tree, they all fly away at the same time, scattering to different bushes in the lot next door.  And then they come back by ones and twos.

There are also some kind of quails in the same area, but they seem to be under a large bush nearby.  They were hard to get good photos of, because they were behind the iron fence picking at the dirt when they came out, then when they flew across the road from me, they moved too fast.  They sure are pretty!



And the final bird shots - even black birds are fun to watch. Two of them flew onto the iron fence right outside my window.  I don't usually bother with black birds because there are so many of them and they aren't really pretty, but these guys made me laugh:

Curmudgeon Bird

Black Tuxedo Bird

I hope I'm not totally boring some of you with my bird shots, but this is the place I'm putting the best ones.  Who knows, maybe I'll make a bird book for my grandchildren.  I need to know where I put the photos.  (Any photos I put in the blog are stored in a separate folder, organized by months and further organized by campgrounds, etc.)  Someday I'd like to make up a little book for them titled,

 "Grammy's Excellent Adventures...  
with Katie in Their House on Wheels." 

Or something like that.  Include little stories and photos of interesting places and lots of photos of Katie.  Some day...

I had the window and screen open by my dinette seat for a while, to get quick shots of the birds, and three flies came in.  Later, I went after them with a little tablet that works well as a fly swatter.  (I need to get a fly swatter!)  Poor Katie, every time I try to kill a flying insect, she freaks out.  I wonder if someone hit her with something similar in her previous life.  She never goes into the cab of the truck, but here she is, hiding from her mean mom who is killing flies:

Mom, you're scaring me!  :(

Here are tonight's sunset shot.


From Me and My Dog, have a great Sunday evening, everyone!  :)

15 comments:

  1. nice bird shots..you have a great vantage point!!..poor little Katie!!..my boys don't like the vacuumn so I guess they are afraid of something!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oliver does not like the fly swatter! Cool bird pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Poor Katie !! Bennie will often do the same thing and I've had him since he was born so believe me he has never been abused. They just get scared sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your blog and the photos. What kind of camera do you use? You get such great closeups.
    Katie is the sweetest thing! Thanks for your posts.
    --Jool

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great bird shots, I had to enlarge the dove tree to count them ;-)
    Poor Katie, some dogs are just sensitive to things like that. I have some that would hide & some that will take the fly swatter away from me thinking it's a toy!
    how nice of you to offer up your space to the trucker, too bad he was having such a time of it. And thanks for yet another beautiful sunset!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AAww poor Katie. I wonder if its the sound? I love the bird pics. Its nice to see that different ones can all get along.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I had one dog, Sarah, that just could not stand to be brushed. She would see the brush and cower. If I had to brush her is was really traumatic. We figure she must have been hit with a brush at some time. We finally just had her shaved every spring. No trauma, and we didn't have to brush her.

    Katie was a rescue wasn't she? You never know what happened to her in her former life. She will probably always be afraid. Get a fly swatter!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That pretty little face hiding in the cab just grabs your heart.

    Beautiful sunsets.

    That trucker must have been way to tired and he should not have been driving. It was so thoughtful of you to offer to move.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That poor driver. I agree, he was probably so stressed. Hope he found someplace to park and sleep. And we don't get tired of your bird shots. Keep them coming. We've had our girls since they were pups and all Jim has to do is get the fly swatter out and they both freak out. Something about Mom or Dad chasing flies just really does them in.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Such great pictures. We travel with a gnome--William--who has his picture taken at lookouts and special places at National Parks. My husband has made books for our grandchildren with William pics on Picaboo. They come out great. Very kind of you to offer to move your rig, hope the driver got some rest somewhere. Are the rest areas open now in Arizona? A couple of years ago they were all closed up. Felt sorry for the truckers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Someone showed us how to make a book at a rally I attended. I don't remember the name of the web site, I have CRS. lol It looked pretty easy to do and the books she had were very nice.

    Martha

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ahh poor little Katie. Our Poppy doesn't like us swatting flies either.

    Costco online photo center can make a book for you. I think that's a wonderful idea. Loved the blackbird photos and captions.

    You are too sweet to offer to move for that poor trucker. Too bad he was having such a hard time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I try to not let them, but on occasion, on sneaks in, but then she tries to catch them. Kind of funny!

    ReplyDelete
  14. One of my Westies, who we have had since she was a baby - so NO abuse, goes crazy when the fly swatter is out. Unfortunately she has passed this fear/behavior on to our other rescue Westie...it isn't pretty! I am always afraid that someone outside will hear and think the poor pups are being mistreated. (She also doesn't like flying things...flies, moths, etc.) Can't win on that one! LOL
    I love your blog. We are not full time, just retired RVers who love to travel as often as we can!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love your blog. I visit, at least 5 times per week.

    Todd Temple

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments - we LOVE them!