Pondering the world

dang nature

When I was growing up out in the boonies, I always liked the sound of crickets at night.  Such a comforting, happy sound.

On Sunday night I changed my mind.  We have two courtyards at our townhouse--one by the front door, and an interior one completely surrounded by the house.  At first I was charmed by the sound of the cricket in the courtyard by our bedroom as I was trying to sleep.  Then I realized he was probably parked right on the step by the French door.  And he was loud.  REALLY LOUD.  Did I mention I was trying to sleep?

Did you know that crickets can chirp all night long without stopping?  Me neither.  Until Sunday.  He kind of took a breath now and then for a minute, just long enough for me to say, "finally," and start dozing off.  And then he started up again.   BREEP!  BREEP!  BREEP!  BREEP!  BREEP!  BREEP!  BREEP!  BREEP!

On Monday evening I sprayed the entire perimeter of the house outside, including the interior courtyard, with Home Defense.  Good for what ails you--cockroaches, crickets, ants, etc. 

Before I started spraying, I invited him to move into the front yard and out into the great outdoors to pester someone else.  I didn't really want to kill him, just make him go away. 

I don't think he listened.  He chirped for about half the night.  Then he stopped.

I guess he reached his expiration date.

the answer to the cottonwood question

On Saturday the second big branch came down in yet another microburst from the east.  This was the other fork of that first big branch that came down.

The picture didn't come out that well, but if you follow the power line coming across from the second floor of the house and keep looking left, that big branch just keeps on going right over the wall and over the sidewalk.  We had to be out there in the wind and get that taken down before it fell on someone or did any damage if it fell more.  I don't even have anywhere to put the cut-up branches from this one because my garbage cans are already full from the last one. 

Frank came over on Monday to look at the tree, and it looks like another perfectly good $1,000 down the drain.  We'll have to cut the tree down and replace it with a better tree in the fall.  So for now we're looking at about $250 for Frank to take some of the weight off the now-very-unbalanced tree so it might not fall over on the light post, telephone line and the wall (but then again, it might), about $750 to cut down the tree and then take out the stump in the fall, and another however much for the new tree (he suggested a honey locust).  Oops, that's over $1,000 already, right?

Isn't life wonderful?

the wild, wild west

Just in case the rest of you haven't seen your weather getting more extreme, I'll show you a bit of ours.

We're heading into "monsoon" season here in New Mexico, where we get big thunderclouds in the afternoon and sometimes even rain, usually a downpour.  We can get half of our annual rainfall within six weeks in the summer, sometimes at the rate of 1-2 inches per hour.  In a dry landscape where the ground is hard and water doesn't sink in, all that rain rushes downhill and we get floods in lower areas, and the arroyos and large drainage canals become raging torrents.

The other thing we can get with these storm fronts that move through are "microbursts," which are sudden, severe and very localized windstorms.  They can be so abrupt that it's like a semi truck hitting your house.

We had one of those on Wednesday, and it was so sudden and fierce (60+ mph) and it came from just the right direction, that it tore about a third of our cottonwood tree right off.  The good news is that it didn't fall on the porch roof and nobody was coming up the front walk when it came crashing down.

You can see the split on the left branch just above the fork.

And then I spent over an hour on Thursday morning cutting up all the branches, right after having a conversation with guests about unexpected things that can change your day.

the coyote got it all wrong

Remember all those roadrunner and coyote cartoons?  The coyote was always trying to set up some trap for the roadrunner, including a pile of seed in the middle of the road that would cause the roadrunner to stop, eat the seed, and have an anvil dropped on him.

Want to guess at how many people believe that roadrunners eat seed?  Just about everyone who's not from around these parts does, because they watched those cartoons as kids. 

We've been telling guests about the roadrunner who is hanging around Old Town and frequently coming into our yard.  A guest commented, "oh, he's coming in to eat the seed that drops from the bird feeder."

"Nooooo......   he's coming in to eat the birds."

"What?  Oh.....   ewwwww......."

I'm afraid that cartoons have actually caused a lot of people to have incorrect perceptions and beliefs about things.  On the other hand, Bugs Bunny has exposed hundreds of thousands of people to opera...

fair warning

New Mexico native finds new home

ALBUQUERQUE, NM--Despite heavy local traffic and many people in the immediate area, this New Mexico native has taken up residence in the Old Town area.

He has most recently been seen in the courtyard of the Bottger Mansion Bed & Breakfast, apparently hoping to snag another finch for his lunch.  He has also been sighted strolling across Old Town Plaza. 

His scruffy appearance indicates  run-ins with other locals, possibly birds defending themselves or neighborhood cats already in residence.

Further meals of finches from the Bottger Mansion may result in him looking even scruffier.

my sentiments exactly

ladderback woodpeckers

It's been a good spring for new birds this year.  The only problem is that we see them and identify them, but they only stay for a couple of days.  We've had Eurasian collared doves, a sharp-shinned hawk, a roadrunner, and even heard some calls of different birds that we haven't been able to see.  They're way up in our Chinese elm trees.

The latest was a pair of ladderback woodpeckers, but so far we only saw them for two days in a row and haven't seen them since then. 

I found this photo on another website.  They got it from the Stokes Field Guide.

nature in action, again

On Tuesday we were heading out to feed our Starbucks habit when Steve pointed out the roadrunner in our yard next to the bench.... eating another of our baby finches.

While most people might recognize that roadrunners eat things like snakes and lizards, they don't think about the fact that these birds are carnivores.  That means they eat meat.  Like baby birds.

I'm starting to get a bit cranky about that.

nature in action, unfortunately

Our daughter and her husband were visiting for five days.  On Monday afternoon, Becky and I spent some time enjoying the antics of some baby finches in the yard.  There were four fledglings and one seemed a little older than the other three.  The three younger ones stayed pretty close together while the fourth one was wandering farther away.

On Tuesday morning we were in the dining room when I happened to look out and see a sharp-shinned hawk perched on the back of our bench with his catch in his talons.  He had caught one of our baby birds.  I was sad to see that, but that's nature, isn't it?  However, when he finished with that one, he went back down the ground and picked up a second one that he had killed.  And when he had finished and left, we went out to inspect the damage (and wash off the bench).  It looks like he killed all three of our baby birds at one shot.  I'm sure they were all huddled together behind a bush and he hit the jackpot.  It doesn't bother me so much that he killed and ate one baby bird, but that he didn't eat the second or third babies. 

Bugger.