We were up with the birds as usual and soon after breakfast were sitting outside in the back watching the birds eat their breakfasts too. It was very chilly but we also walked the perimeter.
We did see another javelina. Evidently the big male we saw yesterday has a bad back leg, which David noticed, so his name is Gimpy. And 2 more outside the property. And a handful of - they are large!
We drove into Portal, which has a post office and library and general store/restaurant but isnt actually incorporated. We wandered around the town (1 block?) and stopped at some feeders. It seems for residents to set up feeding stations, put out benches and chairs and a donations box for the birds, and invite the public to enjoy them.
It was approaching lunch time so we had lunch sitting outside. David was thrilled to capture a SPHINX moth enjoying the nearby flowers. Davids hamburger was yummy, as was my taco salad (that seems to be what Im regularly getting).
changed from about 54 when we first went outside, to about 79, so we ducked home for some cooler clothes before driving off to Cave Creek Ranch – and one of the most famous feeding stations. It was very nice. And all in all we gathered an amazing SEVEN more new birds for our We are up to 13 hummingbirds alone. And they sure do move fast, so David is VERY challenged to get photos this good. It takes ALOT of time to sort thru them after we get home too - as he took over 500 yesterday and about 450 today. Ughghhghg.
We chatted with a very nice lady doing voluntary work at a research center at one of the humming bird feeders – work 4 hours a day (more or less setting up, cleaning rooms for guest researchers) for free room and board. Maybe we have found a new way to see the world!!!! She was very - had walked the Camino del Santiago for 4 weeks, walked from Florence to Rome, climbed Mt Washington and Mt Katahdin. I think she was older than we now, but obviously very brave and keen.
is smaller than in Tucson, but it has everything – from coffee pods to washer & dryer on site, TV that caught the golf channel!! Tupperware for our leftovers. Except for the fact that we have to use the little kitchen table as our desk as well, I could see living here for longer than a week. It was fascinating to read the guest book, and to meet some of our fellow birders – some here from NY state, Washington/Oregon, England – just to bird watch. It certainly is out of the way but beautiful with the mountains. The place just up the road is for sale – shall we guess how much?
One drawback – so far the moon has been too bright to see the stars as we had hoped – maybe in a few days!
And it doesnt look like we could find a place to worship on Good Friday or even Easter Sunday - not even by driving for 2 hours from here and say catching it en route. So we will probably watch Advent online
and then check out and start driving to Carlsbad Caverns. And to answer a question posed by one faithful reader - yes we will return a different route because we dropped further south than needed in order to in Austin area. Going home will be thru OK, MO, IL, Indianapolis. Home on Thursday the 21st.
