This campsite is for the birds - and froggs

It took a couple of days, but the birds have found us!  The Anna's Hummingbird below is a good-sized hummer, and he makes a sound when he comes around that is loud and gets my attention.  I found a big old hummingbird feeder in a bush that was obviously left over from last year's campers, snagged it, cleaned it up, filled it with nectar and hung it in one of my trees.  It almost immediately attracted this guy.  I haven't seen him eating yet, but he likes to guard it from the surrounding branches.

This morning I took the feeder down and a bit later, I heard all this loud hummer buzzing and looked out my kitchen window.  Poor guy, he was looking for the feeder, and it was gone. His colors were so vibrant in the sunlight, I grabbed my camera and got a good shot of him.  Look how his beautiful colors are blazing in the sun.

Resident Anna's Hummingbird

 I remember this bird from last year. I think it's a female house finch.

And here they come...  a flock of 11 Gambel's Quail running toward the seed dish.

Pecking at the seeds on the ground.

And they emptied this flat seed holder.  
It's a top to a container, and perfect to put the seed in.

We've had  other visitors too:

 Hazel came by with Fleur and Power a couple of days ago, and we had a nice visit.  The Greyhounds are so well-behaved.

I gave the dogs chew toys, and Katie kept her eyes on Fleur and Power to make sure they weren't trying to get her chew toy.  No, Katie, they have their own.

Hazel brought me a gift - an Amaryllis that should bloom right around Christmas - Thank You, Hazel!

 Christmas Amaryllis - it's nice to have in my kitchen.

Yesterday, in the early evening, Denise arrived in Quartzsite.  She came in right at dusk, and this morning she snagged a great campsite behind me on the other side of the wash.  She's got a beautiful saguaro cactus in her site, and some rock work that a previous camper did.  She and Bennie got all settled today, and I think she plans to stay a while.  Who wouldn't?

Denise and her cup of tea came over last night for a visit.  Bennie, too.

 

Katie and Bennie saying hi.

 Denise's rig parked nearby last night.  The next morning, she moved to a great campsite.

Then this morning I noticed a car near Denise's rig - Geri and Terry were visiting.  Later, they walked over to visit me, too.  It was really nice to see Geri and Terry again.  I met them last year, right before I had to go to San Diego to the hospital, and they were gone when I got back.  I've enjoyed reading Geri's blog during the last year and hoped to see them this year again. After checking out my campsite and walking around with Denise while she was looking for hers, they picked a super site behind me, too, next to Denise.  They went back to the RV park they were in, checked out and now are settled in their new site.  I should have gotten a photo, but didn't - maybe tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they're having electrical issues - Terry worked all afternoon trying to diagnose the problem, but so far no luck.

When we stopped for an overnight at Cabela's last week, I bought a "frogg toggs" pack.  I wasn't sure if it would be blazing hot this month at Quartzsite, but I wanted to be prepared.  I had planned to buy something like this at one of the little businesses here, but thought I'd better snag this while it was right in front of me.

There were a couple of days last week when it got up to 95+ in The Palms.  It honestly wasn't uncomfortable - this dry heat is amazing!  But I didn't know how much the heat was affecting Katie, so I decided to get out the frogg toggs.  I bought the smaller one, it's in the shape of a triangle and cost me $10.99.  It was big enough for me to cut off one side of the triangle; I used that piece to tie around my neck, and used the rest for Katie.  I soaked it in warm water, which the directions said to do first, wrung it out, and soaked it in cool water.  I wrung it out again and tied one around each of us.  They really work!  I didn't think about the heat again, until I was getting too cool and took them off us.  I folded them and put them in the fridge to keep them cool.

And here we are in our frogg toggs: 

I thought this was a great picture of me - love the haircut, I did it myself.   :)

Of course, Katie's hair always looks good.  She didn't mind wearing the toggs, she's such an easy dog.

The clouds turned pink during our beautiful sunset last night.

From Me and Katie, have a great evening, everyone!