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!  :)