Squirrels at play, new bird sightings and skunk update

The other morning I was in the kitchen making coffee when running squirrels caught my eye and I shot some photos out the kitchen window. They were playing, fighting, climbing, chasing and sitting atop the wooden poles that separate all the sites and are along the roads.These little critters are all over the place - hopefully I won't be taking one with me when I leave.

Squirrel fight.

Time out after the squirrel fight

They love to chase each other up and down these poles.

These guys were racing around.  There's always a squirrel running across the street and dashing up a tree.

I saw some new birds, some of the photos aren't very clear, but they were the best I could get. It was getting dark - again - and they were a little distance away. I didn't want to disturb them.  Lots of birds come to the river at dusk.

Northern Mockingbird.  There are lots of these guys in the park.

Yellow Warbler - male

Yellow Warbler - male

Duck and bird - sorry, I'm too tired to do any more research on these guys. I couldn't find them when I looked them up.

Killdeer from the front.

Killdeer from the side

Good old Robin - I didn't know they had white around their eyes. I've never seen one up close before.

Skunk update:  I asked my neighbor this afternoon if he had an update on the skunk.  He said it had a bit of a recovery.  It is still not strong on one side, but today it went through his site, across the street, through the very large RV Rally Site and off into the trees far away.  It was moving slowly, resting often, and then moving on again.

Maybe the rattler's poison wasn't enough to kill him and he is recovering.  My friend Pete said only 2 of 3 rattler strikes produce poison, so maybe he wasn't poisoned, just hurt by the bite.  I don't know, but I was happy to hear he seems to be doing okay and is GONE.  My neighbor said, though, that last night another skunk was in the campground, across the street from me, eating pizza with the neighbors.  He sounded serious.

Skunk drinking at the river below my neighbor's site.

Yesterday the skunk spent the day sleeping under my neighbor's car, and woke up shortly before I went over.  He took a long time to get to the river, right below the campsite, resting after each few feet, and he finally made it.  Good by, Skunk, and good luck!

I'm thinking about leaving tomorrow.  Our 14 days isn't up until Thursday morning, but I'm starting to think about moving on, I'll decide tomorrow.  You'll be the first to know.

Our sunset last night.

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday night, everyone!  :)

The unusual, beautiful, and scarey and sad

First, I want to show you the view out my dinette window:

Isn't this a great campsite?  So it's easy for me and Katie to walk down the gently sloping hill to the water, and then look right and left to see if anything interesting is feeding or walking along the edge of the Rio Grande.  (I still can't believe I'm living on the bank of the "Rio Grande.")

First the "unusual."

The other evening, we were standing at the top of the hill and I saw the weirdest looking ducks. I've never seen ducks this color before, so I took lots of photos.  I was losing the light, but still got some pretty good ones.

When I got back to The Palms, I got out my field guides and looked them up, but they weren't shown in the Birds of Arizona Field Guide, which has most of the birds I see.  Then I checked the Sibley Guide to Birds of Western North America, and there they were - Cinnamon Teal.  Aren't they an unusual color?  I took lots of photos and couldn't see their eyes in any of them. Looking at the drawing in the guide, their eyes are the same color as their feathers, with a thin black ring around them.

There were two Cinnamon Teals floating around with two Blue-winged Teals.  According to Sibley's these two types of Teals are often seen together.

I'm sorry I didn't get the top of this bird's head - he stood up too fast and I lost him.   But I wanted to keep the photo of the white feathers under his wings.

Next is the "beautiful."

The Snowy Egrets come around from time to time fishing along the edge of the water.

They slowly work their way down the river, eyes on the water, just like some fishermen I've known.

Yesterday afternoon there were two of them, right at the edge of the river and I saw their yellow feet.  You can see this water isn't very deep.

And last, the scary and sad.

Late yesterday afternoon a few people were standing around at the edge of my campsite, and a Ranger drove up.  I went outside to see what was going on, and the camp host came over and told me there was a skunk in the area. It was either sick or dying, and was seen nearby.  She said one of the campers saw it being bitten by a rattlesnake, and they killed the snake.  So when another camper reported a skunk that was acting strange, it was presumed this was the one that was bit.

A while later Katie, who was sitting in her car seat, started barking and looking out her window. I looked over, and there was the skunk in our campsite.

I went outside to snap a photo; it wasn't moving and appeared to be dead. I went over to the camp hosts' site and told them where the skunk was.  The wife said the Ranger told them if it died overnight, leave it alone and an animal would probably take care of it.

At 4:45 am, Katie started barking and woke me up.  There was a weird barking near us that lasted for about 20 minutes, ending with a keening sound that went on for a while.  I got out my flashlight and looked through the window, but couldn't see anything. It didn't sound like a dog or coyote (a neighbor said it might have been a fox).

This morning I looked outside and the skunk was gone.  The camp host came over and we checked the area, but there was no fur or blood, nothing in the loose dirt showing it had been eaten or dragged away.  I thought a larger animal might have grabbed the skunk in it's mouth and carried it off, leaving no trace.

Later in the morning, I looked out my window and saw Phyllis, a camper from across the street, stopped at the river's edge taking a bunch of photos up toward the trees.  When she walked by The Palms, she stopped and said the skunk was there at the base of the tree, sleeping.  I was really surprised, apparently last night it wasn't dead.  Good thing I didn't get too close.

I went down with her to see it, and got some pictures.

The man camped next to me was walking along the river - he was the first one to report the skunk - and as we were talking the skunk woke up.  (Obviously these were taken with my zoom lens).  It turned around and looked at us, then down at the man, then back at us.

Poor thing. It obviously wanted to be alone and we were disturbing it, so I went back to The Palms.  When I went back after a while, and it was gone.

I went back a little while ago, and there it was stretched out by the tree.  I must have missed it the last time I looked.

 
A couple of people came by and we started talking, and it slowly moved to a hole at the base of the tree and settled there. As it was turning around very slowly, making it's way to the hole, it raised it's huge tail at us. It didn't spray, but I definitely heard what it was saying and went home to The Palms.

I guess Fish and Game will come by and take care of the skunk, but they have such large areas to cover, who knows when they will get here.  I think the skunk is dying and has no energy to move much, but of course, just in case it's dangerous, it is still a little scary.  It's too close to where people are taking their kids down to the river this weekend. 

I'm definitely going to keep Katie (and myself) away from bushes and piles of leaves, because of the skunk and any other rattlers that might be around.  I always do anyway, but I'll be especially vigilant during the rest of our stay.

From me and Katie, have  a good weekend, everyone.  :)

Beautiful Bullock's Orioles and Western Kingbirds

This Bullock's Oriole landed on my hummingbird feeder with a "thunk," and kept looking around - I wonder what he was thinking.  Or waiting for?  He was there for a while.  This is the order of the photos taken:

I remember when the first Bullock's Oriole landed on this feeder.  It was late afternoon and the sun was streaming in through the window.  It was hot inside The Palms, so I had closed the shade down almost to the bottom of the feeder.  Suddenly, "Thunk," and I looked over and saw the bottom of the feeder with this big yellow tail hanging down.  And that, for sure, was not a hummingbird!  Of course, I jumped up with my camera, slowly tried to raise the shade and he flew off.  Rats!  But you always have more chances in this life - right? - and all these photos are proof of that.

And then he looked right at me before he flew off.

My own personal Angry Bird!  :)

Later while taking a walk, I looked up and discovered there were lots of nests in the Cottonwood trees.  They looked like the Bullock's Oriole nests I saw at Pancho Villa State Park, and I think the Western Kingbird that was hanging around this nest was maybe trying to use it?

 

This bird appeared to be guarding this nest, and didn't go very from from it.  I thought maybe this was his nest, but it's not the type of nest Kingbirds make.

Can you see the fishing line that was used to attach this nest to the tree?

He sure was trying to get inside.

If you look at the bottom of the nest on the right side, you'll see another bird's head and tail. :)

He seemed a little large for the nest, but could sit on the edge of it.

I thought it was strange this bird seemed so interested in an Oriole's nest - I know some nests are re-used by different kinds of birds, but this nest is so different than the ones Kingbirds construct.  Did he want to use it for his own nest?  I think that's exactly what this nesting couple is doing.

This photo taken the same day but in the crook of a tree looks like it might be the nest of another Western Kingbird from what I learned through on-line research:

A Western Kingbird's nest?

They build their nests with grass, twigs, leaves, and other materials they find - like string, paper, thread and fabric or wool pieces.  They line the nests with the cotton material from the Cottonwood trees, feathers, and other soft materials.

I did a lot of research on-line, and did find one photo from Se Etta Moss in Canon City, CO that was an Oriole's nest used by a Western Kingbird.  Their nest that was on a pole had blown down, and they took over this nest.  You can see the eye and beak and white throat of the Kingbird as well as her tail sticking out on the left side.  I didn't notice the bird itself until I read the text and really looked.

Can you see the bird?  It's lying on it's back. Is that a cool photo, or what?   I wondered how the Western Kingbird would fit in the Bullock's Orioles' nest - and here's the answer.  A good example of "a photo is worth a thousand words" as well as "where there's a will, there's a way."

This is another nest here in the park with the fishing line more visible.  It's nice to see the old filament line that sloppy fishermen leave behind being used for something positive:

Look at all that fishing line!

 From me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

The Gypsy Wagon

A man named Ray and his home-made RV pulled into the campground yesterday, and of course, it caught my eye.  I think it looks just like a Gypsy wagon with the rear outside kitchen, outside lighting on the side, and the door and windows, etc.

Katie and I stopped on our afternoon walk and talked to him.  He didn't mind at all giving me a tour of the whole thing, and said it was okay to take as many photos as I wanted for a blog post.  He didn't want to be photographed, so I tried to crop him out of the pictures.  He said this is the maiden voyage of this homemade trailer which he built in his garage. 

 

Note the little solar lights on the roof. He has holes up there to fit the lights into, and they collect all the sun's rays during the day, then at night he can bring them inside the trailer to light up the space. He also has a bag of stuffed animals and puts a couple on the roof, switching them out from time to time. The two in the photo above are his favorites.

You can see his bed through the open door, above.

He made covers that he uses to safeguard the windows when on the road - to protect the glass from rocks, etc.  When he is camping, he opens the covers and holds them in place with chains to let in the light.  The top covers act as small awnings on both sides, and if he wants to put his chair outside near the window by the entry door, he can use that window's bottom cover as a table.  The chains are white, but he plans to replace them with black chains so they will match the trim.

See the little pipe sticking out the side?  It's there to pull cords through when he's in an electric site.

Ray said the first time he saw a teardrop trailer, he really liked it, and started planning.   When he started building it, his girlfriend said she wouldn't travel in a trailer unless it was Five Star Trailer, so....

The back panels come off to access the kitchen area, where he has a two element gas cook top and storage for food, drinks, plates, etc.  He installed an electrical outlet panel on the top right side to use if he needed to plug in electrical items.   Note the shelf above the electrical outlet.  A lot of thought went into planning this little homemade trailer.  :)

The little RV detaches from the the flat top trailer in case he needs it to haul his motorcycle, but otherwise, the RV is attached securely to the trailer and towed by his truck.  He uses his truck for storage of his clothes and other things that won't fit in the trailer.

Right inside the entry door, if you look up, there is a wine rack installed on the ceiling:

I talked to Ray briefly this morning on the way over to the showers and he was packed up and ready to move on to Percha Dam State Park.  I asked how he slept last night, his first time sleeping in the little trailer, and he expressed fake horror at the night he spent.  Then he said, "Of course, it might have been from too much wine!"  He said there are a lot of changes he's going to make when he gets back home in a week or so.

It's a super cute little trailer, and Ray is very proud of it.  He did a nice job building it and all the little touches really make it special.  But when I walked back to The Palms, I was feeling fortunate to have so much room, air conditioning, heat, lots of windows, all the things I have in The Palms that allow me to live so safely and comfortably.

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