As usual we were up and out reasonably early, knowing that we had to do laundry and pack up later today. There was paucity of birds on the South Fork hiking trail we had done already twice with good results. Our Advent church choir has done an anthem in the past about Holy Week – And no bird sang. It seemed true today.
The weather was hotter than before too, although the slight breeze made it pleasant. After about 2 hours on the South Fork Trail we visited another area that supposed had warblers, which we had seen fleetingly before but didnt photograph. Nice campgrounds and waterfall and lots of warblers but thats it. Visited both feeding stations in Portal, and did get a better photo of a Calliope hummingbird – recognizable more from its posture than its looks: its so stumpy that it never sits to eat at the nectar. We also saw a Virginia warbler, which excited the person running the feeding station because it was so rare – but it left so quickly and never returned. So, the birds that SHOULD be counted but cant because of no photo: Roadrunner, Virginia Warbler, and
warbler. Our newly discovered Merlin app also identified another birds song, but we didnt even see it. Guess that cant be counted either, huh? We were thwarted on a few other birds too, but no one really cares about those as much as we do!!
We drove a few blocks down the road to get a closer view of the – where at least half the folks have their very own observatories! Of course the dark sky is one of the other things we missed out on too because of the full moon.
We drove over to the much bigger town of Rodeo NM before settling in for the night. It had one RC church, a P.O., RV park, grocery store and restaurant, and not much else.
The local newspaper is for the entire HUGE country of Cochise, and it seems like a town called Benson is where most of the action is, but we have no idea where that is.
Tomorrow we are planning to watch our church 11 am service at 8 am local time, and then drive to Carlsbad NM. The following day seeing the Caverns and driving on to Seymour TX (home of Baylor U?), then to Springfield MO, then to Indianapolis to visit with our friend we met in Aruba, Jesse Mertz, and to crash hopefully in a bed and not the couch. And then home to try to get my glasses mended, ha ha, and of course to wrap up the final details for leading the Lutheran Marriage Encounter in Streetsboro. What a blessing that will be too!
We wanted to keep track of our gas and mileage (in case we do this again??!!) and so far its been 109 gallons, $421 on gas, for a distance of 3246 miles.
For those of you who like seeing photos of dinners out, weve failed you - except for the odd hamburger or taco salad, weve eaten in, packed sandwiches, and lived on Sams carnitas meat and rotisserie chicken! Tomorrows breakfast, as we used up the last eggs and oatmeals? Leftover rice made into rice pudding.
