This site has good critters!

Looking out  my dinette window this afternoon, I noticed a movement in the Ocotilla in the rock garden.  I thought it was a woodpecker and got out the camera.  Sure enough, it's a Female Gila Woodpecker, and this is the first time I've gotten a photo of one.  She jumped on the hummingbird feeder and hung on while she had quite a few drinks of the nectar.  Then she flew back to the Ocotilla and pecked on it, then back to the feeder.  She's a beautiful bird.

I have such a gorgeous view. :)

Isn't she beautiful?

And look who else entered the scene while I was watching the woodpecker:

It looks like his cheeks are full of seed.

I'm going to be able to enjoy squirrel antics again this year.  :)

This site has better critters that the first one. I thought when I moved I might not get the good hummers and other birds that were over there, but this is even better.   With winter coming, I'm sure more birds will be flying in for the season, too.  I haven't seen any quail yet...

From Me and Katie, have a good Monday night, everyone!  :)

Moved to the Rock Art Site, another coyote sighting

This morning Katie and I moved a few sites down the wash to the one with all the rock art.  It's a pretty level site with long views out each window and so far I like it.  I loved the other site, but just couldn't get level enough without having to use leveling blocks and I wanted to be able to move in and out easily if I want to go to town or get more water, etc.  That ramp in the middle of the site was just in the wrong place, and with thousands of acres of desert surrounding us, it didn't make sense to dig it all out.  It didn't look like that would help with the leveling problem much, anyway.  So... here we are:

Every site has it's own good points.

This coyote is smaller than the first coyote I saw, but he has some beautiful colors in his coat.

Our second coyote sighting.

 
Here are the best of the bird photos I took the last few days:

Three Mourning Doves on three rocks.

Mourning Dove on a rock.

House Finch eating seed.

 And these are the hummers:

Not much else happening around here.  The weather has cooled down and we've had a lot of wind the last couple of days, so Katie and I are hibernating in The Palms more than usual.  Our new site doesn't have a tree close enough to get good hummer shots, so that might be all for a while.  It sure was fun watching them.  I have the feeder hung in the cactus in the rock art garden, so we'll see if they come around here and if they will be close enough to get some good photos. 

Have a great Sunday evening, everyone!  :)

Coyote Sighting and Rock Art

Yesterday afternoon I looked up from my computer and glanced out the front windshield, and there was a beautiful coyote strolling right in front of us on the road.  It moved most of the way down the road and then turned left, going through the bushes toward an RV.

Beautiful Coyote

Heading off through the bushes

He looks very healthy, doesn't he?  Since we've gotten here, I don't let Katie off her leash or out of my sight.  Unless we are out in the open, I keep her leash pretty short. Sometimes during the night Katie will wake me up barking, and I can hear all the coyote calls, very loud and close.

The site next to us has some beautiful rock art - these are the ones that made it through the summer.  Someone did quite a bit of work on the rocks in the site.

Heart

Native American symbol?

Heart within circles

Flower

Eagle

This looks like Japanese rock stacking - maybe an Inukshuk?

Heart?

Isn't life interesting?

From Me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)

Happy Election Day *** VOTE ***

Well, we finally made it - IT'S ELECTION DAY!  I am a permanent mail-in voter, so I voted weeks ago.  I've been very interested in this election, more so than any other in my adult life.  As I write this we don't have any returns yet.  I'm waiting with crossed fingers and bated breath.  I'm assuming half of our Americans will be happy and half will be upset after we learn the results.  It's a close race.   I hope everyone votes.  :)

We are settled in our campsite.  As usual I've moved all over the site trying to find the best place to put The Palms.  I've been dismantling the rock lined ramp that's in the middle of the campsite. I have no idea what the original intent of this ramp was, but it's in the way - for me.  I've gotten all the rocks out and put them around the site, then I started on the dirt.  I have a small shovel, and Hazel loaned me her pick, so I 've been loosening the dirt, then shoveling it into plastic bags and dumping it into the lower parts of the site.

This photo is after I had already moved a lot of the side rocks and bigger rocks.  They were too big to lift, so I rolled them to other areas.

As great as this site is, it's really uneven - it slopes a great deal toward the wash.  Unless I'm parked right next to the saguaro cactus, the right side of The Palms is way lower than the left, so I decided to drive up onto the ramp.  With the rocks out of the way and the edges picked and shoveled away, I could drive up onto it from any direction.  I tried that, and was still uneven.  If I want to be in the middle of the site, I'm going to be very un-level.

I put all 20 of my leveling blocks onto the ramp, put a large base down and built it up.  A neighbor named Jake saw me working and came over to help.  He guided me onto the top leveling block, and I was even.  But I have to say, that right front tire was so far up on that ramp and the blocks, I didn't like it.  So yesterday I went into town and when I got back I parked in my original spot, close to the cactus and trees.

It is very cozy, and although I have more sun coming into my over-the-couch window, I have great shade cast into the area where chairs are set up - my living room. I'm also closer to the bird feeders and can easily hear the hummers when they fly up to get some nectar.

The living room.

I'm going to continue to dismantle the ramp and spread the dirt around to make the site a little more level and better looking.  It's quite a job.

This is the front of the "living area" where I put my Welcome sign and American flag.

It was super hot yesterday.  Katie and I took a nap from 2:30 to 3:30 yesterday afternoon.  When I woke up it was 97 degrees in The Palms.  I turned on the A/C and we took a walk.  When we got back it was much cooler.  :)

Here are some hummingbird photos from yesterday and today.  I'm going to get a lot of hummer shots this season!

Anna's Hummingbird

I'm not sure what this one is - female Broad Tailed Hummingbird?

Male Black-Chinned Hummingbird.

Female Costa's Hummingbird.

As always, if I have any of these wrong, please leave me a comment - this was the best I could do with my Birds of Arizona book.  Some IDs are kind of iffy.

Saturday's Sunset.  All the sunsets look like this, only the clouds make them different.

WELCOME to our two new Followers!

BJ, who lives with her husband in Oregon, and has a blog -  Joe and Betty's Adventures.   They have a 32 ft 1996 Rexhall Aerbus, which is winterized and in storage for now.  They are currently caring for Joe's 98 year old mom, and are traveling with us - through our blogs for now.  Welcome Joe and Betty!

Welcome also to "Moderate," who is a successful businessman, originally from Minnesota.  He was a Marine and served in Vietnam.  I don't see an RV blog for Moderate, but he does have some politically motivated blogs.  Click on his photo under our "Member" section for those blog links.

Welcome aboard to you all - Katie and I are happy to have you along on our adventures!

That's it for today.  From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday - and don't forget to VOTE!  :)

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!