Mary had an appointment today to get her hair nails and toes done today so I went for ride to the shop and walked home from there. First I mailed some postcards, picked up a few more
and some stamps and then got something to drink.
I went outside and heard some birds in a tree behind the store.
Now I have to explain the trees around here. They are so thick that you can't see hardly anything that is in them. When I got closer I realized that there were probably twenty birds in that thicket of a tree and some of them were quite large too. I did manage to get a few pictures that I might be able to use to identify what kind of birds they were.
The temperature is around 73 F and it was lovely summer weather.
In preparation for my walk I had applied a generous amount of sunscreen on and had brought my hat to keep my face out of the sun as much as possible.
There was a path that followed the road almost all the way home so I was mostly on that.
It is about one mile to the gatehouse and two miles more from there so I figure that I probably walked about four miles as I kept leaving the path to investigate things.
Right along the path I found a cactus with a bundle of sticks in it.
Well I thought maybe it was more than a bundle of sticks so I stuck my hand carefully through the spines and spikes into
a little opening and pointed my camera down towards the bundle. I am short and the cactus was taller than me so I was reaching trying not to get too scratched up
To my great delight there were three blue eggs inside. That was exciting and well worth the few scratches on my hand.
A little further down the path was a low bush with a fluffy flower that I found out from the 'Wildflowers of the Desert Southwest' book at Mary and Ron's was called a Fairy Duster.
A very appropriate name. There were different flowers everywhere. I could make my own book of all the flowers that I saw and took pictures of. I did get some great photos I
think. I used the photos when I got home to find out what they were in the wildflower book.
I was keeping a list of birds and now I could start a list of wildflowers that I had seen while in Arizona.
We need to find a cactus book so that I can find out the names to all the different kinds of cactus too. It is amazing the variety of cactus. Long sticks sticking out of the ground, barrel, saguaro, prickly pear and many more.
There were also paths that went off the main path and I went onto a couple of those too.
They went up into the hills and I found out what was looking so green.
Lichen. After it rains the lichen spring into action, as it were, and grow like crazy, for a lichen that is.
It comes in all colours as right beside the rock with the bright yellow green lichen was a rock with the blue, black and orange lichens too.
Also there were little plants about the size of mown grass but with tiny flowers on
them.
I heard so many different
bird sounds out there I
thought that there must have been a hundred birds in the bushes around me and I could not see any of them.
I left the little path and went up a hill and got a
good look at the terrain.
That was when I heard this little chirpy chuffy noise coming from a tree.
I went toward it slowly and eventually narrowed it down until I found what was making that little noise.
A hummingbird. Just sitting there waiting for me to take a
picture. I really do need a better zoom on my camera. It was lovely.
I wondered if there was a nest around but I did not see
one.
I was, by that time, halfway down a slope and
didn't want to walk all the way back to the little path so thought I might just continue down into the wash and follow it along to the road.
I found some scat. maybe to an exotic animal like
a coyote or a bobcat?
It was quite small so I voted for bobcat.
Continuing down the slope I soon realized that it was was getting very steep and rocky so I skirted around the slope and found myself in a boulder and rock filled wash, along a subdivision with a fence.
The rocks were put there to prevent erosion during rainy periods. I climbed over the rocks and boulders and worked my way over to the road.
There were Gambels Quail all over the place.
There was also a lemon tree growing in someone's yard with some of them hanging over the wall I really wanted to go and pick one but I resisted the temptation. Can you imagine. A lemon tree.
I followed the road down to the gate house and talked
to the man there for a minute. They feed the quail in the morning so there were usually lots around.
The path kind of disappeared for a little while but I just walked on the road side till I found it again.
It was getting quite warm out now. The road was on a gentle and steady rise towards the mountain.
I continued to stop and take photos and wave at people driving by.
They all smile and wave here. very friendly folks. I saw a hummingbird investigating a stone wall. I am not sure why he would be checking the wall as there were no flowers there, but he was lovely and I got a picture
of him.
It took me two and a-half hours to walk three and a-half miles.
When I got home Mary and Ron were just starting lunch and so I joined them and shared stories of the birds and flowers I had seen. They had taken the short cut home and that is why they did not pass me on the road.
I still have not seen a road runner.
Ron said they were not seen in this area very often. Well I still have a week to go so you never know.
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