Time for a new bird feeder

 Designer Bird Feeder.  The design collapses, which I thought was great!

If any of you have been reading this blog very long, you know we get strong winds in the desert.  Nothing is safe.  I would say, “unless it’s tired down,” but we’ve had staked trees break in half before.  I guess nothing really works against the wind that can gust to near hurricane force here at times.

We’ve had the barbecue grill blow right off the patio and turn over in the lawn.  The grill is not a tiny one either.  Our heavy metal patio chairs have taken flight as well and turned over, or fallen on pots and broken them.  Sometimes the strength of the wind amazes me.

My new summery bird feeder

Anyway, we’re always losing bird feeders because they blow down and get broken on the rocks.  I’d love to put up all my wind chimes (and I have a lot), but they probably wouldn’t be safe around here for long, so instead they’re still in a box in the garage.  That and hubby doesn’t want me putting holes in the stucco on the house.  In the twelve years we’ve been here, I have only put up two and they’re in safer places so they’ve stayed intact (so far).  And I’ve made no holes in the house to hang them up.  I still don’t see what difference holes will have on anything and I guess I never will.

 My new bird feeder hanging from a tree in the front yard

 

So when I was at Home Depot looking for something else, I ran across this designer bird feeder.  I just had to have it.  The bright yellow-gold color sucked me in.  It looked so summery.  I finally got around to putting it up.  It’s in the front yard this time and not the back because the chipmunks living back there on our rock wall will eat anything and tear up the yard in the process.

Now once the birds find it, I’ll be a happy camper.

Devastating heat

It’s sizzling here in the desert and this is only June.  I hate to think about July and August (our hottest months here).  We’ve had triple digits the last two weeks with no end in sight.  I talked to a girlfriend in CA last night and it was 100 there.  Everything is suffering.

Look at my lawn:

One year we had grubs in it and it got brown like this so we had to put some stuff on it from the nursery to kill the grubs and it perked right up after that.  This year --no grubs -- they say a fungus is affecting many lawns.  So we get another product from the nursery, put that on and then watered it in.  That was at least two weeks ago now.  We’ve given it extra water with this heat too and nothing seems to help.  We wonder if anyone here knows what they’re talking about and this isn’t the first time.  As I’ve said before, an odd bunch of people live in this state.  Now, we’re thinking of pulling the grass out and having rock put in (like most of the rest of the yard).

 Lots of these little guys around

 

However, if we do that, I have a feeling we’re in for a mess of a different kind from the chipmunks around here.  Look what they’ve done here.

They live in this rock wall and have burrowed all over to make escape routes from the predators.  I guess there’s always an issue with something.  Such is life and somehow we’ll deal with it.

On another note, many animals have ventured by in search of water.  I have to fill all the pans and bowls daily.

 Desert toad

 

I feel like I’m living in a cave, as I have to keep the blinds drawn to keep some of the heat out, at least until the sun has moved across the sky.  Once the patio has shade, I can open them and get some light in here.  Then the other side of the house is in the dark until sunset, which is about 9:30 here.  I’m not complaining about that though.  I love the long days and would rather have to deal with the heat when I think about that winter cold.

FWIT, today it’s 110 here.

The importance of water in the desert

One of the first things we learned when moving here, almost eleven years ago, is the importance of water to stay hydrated.  Everyone here never leaves the house to go anywhere without a bottle of water.  You never know when you could have a flat tire or some other catastrophe, so it’s best to be smart and prepared.

When temperatures reach the nineties and the triple digits here in the summers, every creature must stay hydrated.  This includes all the critters too and not just people.

I remember going to Palm Springs years ago during the summer.  We were sitting outside under a patio with a mister.  The lunch was wonderful and the mist system sure helped but it was still very hot.  The poor birds gathered on the decorative stucco walls surrounding the place, holding their wings out from their bodies and panting in an effort to stay cool.  I tried to find anything that would hold water so I could set some out for them.  Sadly, there was nothing available.  I felt terrible and never forgot that experience.

Today we keep pans of water all over the yard for the birds and other creatures that venture by.  We have to put rocks in all the pans so the wind doesn’t carry them off into the desert.

Our birdbath gets loaded with birds.  They sit in there shoulder-to-shoulder with others lined up waiting for some space to open up so they can get in there and cool off.  All the species get along well here and usually never squabble, although at times a pigeon bully will come by. 

The desert toads venture out late at night, get into the water pans, swim, and hang out.  They can’t come out in the desert heat, so are strictly night visitors and catch moths and other bugs that are active at that time of day.

There are also many lizards (no, not the green ones) and some snakes that come by for a drink and then slither away back into the desert.

Right now, we’re busy watching the baby quail and baby chipmunks passing through with their parents and siblings all day long.  I always keep a camera close by in hopes of getting a great shot.

It definitely takes stamina and skill to survive here and some species thrive.

Quail and other desert wildlife

I never really saw so many quail before moving to the desert.  They’re all over roaming the sagebrush-filled chaparrals.  I can watch them from my office window running in groups between tumbleweeds, cactus, and other desert plants.  Their feet scurry through the red dirt and around fallen twigs and other debris from plants that didn’t make it through some previous winter.

How these little “desert chickens” survive is beyond my comprehension.  They’re subject to harsh conditions winter and summer, not to mention predators like the birds of prey and coyotes that thrive in abundance here.

We feed the quail along with all the other critters that venture by.  They know we won’t hurt them, although the quail are more cautious.  The chipmunks have become so acquainted with us that we can walk right up to them.  They’re no longer afraid and don’t rush off to their little holes, which lead to underground burrows all over our yard.

Male and female quail

The quail act just like chickens, scratching at the ground to turn up seed.  The young ones that hatch every May do the same.  It’s comical to watch a quail about two inches tall doing the “chicken dance” just like its parents.

 Male quail standing guard

 

They come through in groups daily and always post a sentinel on the block wall.  This is probably instinct to keep a lookout for predators.  The adults take turns with the chicks and one will keep watch while the others eat and then they switch.  The families are fierce when it comes to their offspring and don’t like any other family getting close.  They will fight each other to protect their little ones.

Quail with chicks

The small chicks are mindful of their parents at all times and are good to follow them everywhere and not venture out on their own until they’re much older.  Even the teenagers stay close to mom and dad.  I guess there’s power in numbers and a loan quail would be easy pickings for a hungry raptor.

At night, I hear the calls out in the desert as they gather their families before sunset.  The mournful and persistent sounds drift through the evening air.  Sometimes the adult quail perch on the wall in back and look towards the desert calling their loved ones.  This moaning wail goes on and on sometimes and we know if someone is lost.  It’s almost a frantic cry of desperation as the sun sinks behind the mountains and darkness creeps in over the bluffs.

Each day the families come to eat and drink and we see the little ones numbers dwindle as the days drift on toward summer.  This is probably why there can be as many as two dozen chicks in one group.  The survival of the species counts on that many eggs because usually less than half of the chicks will make it to adulthood.

Garden Robbers

It’s impossible to grow a garden where I live because I’m too close to the desert where all the little critters live.  By that, I mean the whole desert is my backyard.  I have no neighbors behind me and the wildlife know it.

My neighbor has a nice garden, but she has houses around her and has the area fenced in to keep the rabbits out.  This doesn’t stop the gophers or the chipmunks, but they do have other places to go before they reach her house.

I don’t really have the time for a garden, but I do enjoy fresh veggies and I did try to have one for a while when we first moved here.  It became an adventure in futility.  I finally resorted to container gardening and then had to take drastic measures and wrap the containers in chicken wire.  This didn’t stop the chipmunks that wanted to eat my fresh veggies.

Chipmunks in the flower pots

Now they are cute little guys and I certainly would never do them any harm, but they’re determined and love anything green.  It’s a challenge to grow flowers and potted plants here.  With these critters thriving, I’m surprised anything alive survives.  They nibble off the green shots as soon as they appear.

Chipmunk tomato thief 

 

When the adults get too big to go after my tomatoes, they send in the little kids to bring them out where the adults are waiting just beyond the wire.  They must be more intelligent than I give them credit for, but I guess you’d have to have some kind of smarts to survive here.

Spring Fever

Raven

My little boy, Raven, is fascinated with all the activity outside.  Birds are busy hopping all over the patio, chirping happily, as spring is in full swing.  They’re gathering and building nests for the new arrivals coming soon.

The chipmunks are doing the same thing.  The females are waddling around as they scurry for food, packing their little cheeks with all they can hold.  They gather bits of dry grass and anything else they can haul to their burrows for the new nests.  I’ve uncovered my flowers so took away the old mattress covers they pick the cotton out of every year.

Baby lizards emerge from the rocks and dart across the path, or climb up the house.  The cats get excited when they reach the windows.

Raven

 

Gardener edging lawn

Raven stays glued to the window with big yellow eyes taking it all in.  Today we had the lawn edged by a gardener passing by as our edger is out of commission.  Raven was the only cat awake and didn’t miss a thing as he ran from window to window.

 Purple Robe Locusts

 

Our first blooms of the season are out and so beautiful.  They’re early as the locust trees don’t usually bloom until April.

Honeysuckle Vine

Honeysuckle Flower Bud

This honeysuckle vine goes from a bunch of sticks to lush, green leaves in a matter of two weeks time.  It’s loaded with buds already.  I’m wondering how that happened when it was a sight of brown tangled twigs not long ago.  The first year we lived here, we actually thought the plant was dead.

Lady Banks Rose

Lady Banks Rose

Here’s a lady banks rose we planted three years ago in the front of the house.  We have two of them out there.  We were wondering if they’d survive after the winter of 2013-2014, when it got down to zero, but they did.

What amazes me most about the desert is the plants that come back year after year from a state of death to full leaf and blossoms so fast.  Of course, all the critters that survive here also amaze me.

Happy Spring everyone!  I’m as happy as the birds.  I survived another winter! 

We have Babies

Look to the right to see the quail babies.  They're small.

Mom is waiting for the "children" to come through the pickets on the gate.

It’s that time of year for the next generation of wildlife.  We had our first sighting of baby quail last week.  They are so cute and more obedient than human kids are.  The quail make very good parents.  It’s fun to watch the interactions between them and the new “kids.”

Baby chipmunk

Baby chipmunk

I can spend hours watching nature.  The quail and chipmunks seem to have their own language.  The offspring will spend the better part of this year with their parents to guide them.  The only thing left out here is the rabbits, which seem to be out on their own at a young age.

Raven behind my house

 Ravens behind my house

Today I heard all this loud screeching and cawing.  I grabbed the camera and went outside to see what was up.  The ravens make a racket when one of their own is hurt or killed.  This time they were dive-bombing a golden eagle.  They kept this up for the better part of an hour.  I tried to get some good pics but birds are quick.  My husband also decided to call right at this time.  I never did succeed in getting a good shot of the golden eagle, but I bet it was only about twelve feet or so away.  However, this didn’t last long and it took flight.  I know one thing, the ravens look big, but this thing made them seem so small by comparison.  I never did find out what caused all this.  I imagine the eagle was probably hunting one of them and feasted on it for lunch.

Spring in the Desert

Birds on the wall - greening of the desert

Things are sprouting here now, which makes me so happy I survived another winter.  Of course, it was extremely cold this year and not all the plants will make it.  There are sad looking ones all over town.  Raven’s enjoying all that spring has to offer too as he watches the lizards emerge and birds and chipmunks scampering about outside.  Happy chirping and animal sounds come in through the windows.

Lizard on wall

 

 Tootie and Raven napping

He’s friends with Tootie now and they take naps together.  Koki still watches from nearby.  I hope she accepts him eventually.

Rain storm with rainbow

 We had a rainstorm here the last two days.  It’s unusual to have much rain in the desert and it doesn’t last long, but the skies can darken rapidly from not a cloud in sight in the morning to dark dreary skies by late afternoon.  The winds have been chilly so I had to shut the windows, much to the disgust of the cats who like sniffing the air.

Painting of neighbor's house

The neighbor had her house painted last week and it really looks nice.  She lives across the street from me.  This was the highlight for the day, watching as the workers masked everything off and took the rain gutters down so they could spray on the new color.  The cats watched from my window upstairs while I worked on the room since I’m still cleaning it out in there.  I wonder if I’ll ever finish.  Raven did get tired and took a nap in a bag on the floor.

Raven getting comfortable in a bag on the floor

 Someday soon a house will be here

There are two vacant lots on the left side of our house and now one owner is going to build a house.  They’ve been bringing in loads of dirt over the last two weeks.  We’ll still have the vacant lot next to us and then the new house.  The neighbors aren’t pleased because it will block some of their views.  I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen any action over there before now because those two lots were sold way before we moved here.

Chipmunk in bird feeder

Bird of Prey on our back gate

I caught a chipmunk that made his way up the shepherd’s hook and into the bird feeder.  I wish I had a shot of him shimmying up the pole.  A bird of prey also came to visit.

We drug out the tunnel we got for the cats years ago – actually a kid’s toy from Target.  They all love it.  It’s seen its better days, but all the cats still enjoy it as they race through it and the best of all – it makes noise.  Raven’s enjoying his kitten hood so much he didn’t even come to bed for two nights.

 Raven in cat tunnel

He eats like a little pig and is getting bigger.  I always have to wash his face afterward because he has cat food on his nose.  He’s good about getting his face washed, but I wish he’d stop rooting.

Today I read in the paper that a nice couple adopted Quiver.  She’s the cat that was shot by an arrow a couple of months ago.  The lady I got Raven from was nursing her back to health after they did some surgeries on her to repair all the damage.  I hope the kid gets some kind of sentence when he goes before the judge on April 2.  There’s been quite an outrage over it here.  I don’t know why anyone would do such a thing.

That’s it for now from here.  We’ve had workers here and have everything finished up except for my part of getting rid of things and then shampooing the carpet.  My husband’s chomping at the bit to get the for sale sign up.

My next posts here will probably be for the A to Z challenge the month of April.  I have most of them written, which is good because it’s going to be busy around here.  I’ll be visiting as many blogs as time allows.  Don’t forget if you want to participate, go to Lee’s blog here and sign up.  You have four days left to do so.

Sometimes you have to be resourceful

This is very true in many things, but today I’m going to talk about how it’s saving my plants. I had to put on my thinking cap and come up with something that would keep the chipmunks out of the ones they seem to be craving right now. They usually eat the flowers right off of my potted plants as soon as they appear. I think the bright colors attract them. That hasn’t been the usual problem yet, after I moved the lobelia to the courtyard. They don’t go there as much as they hang out on the back patio, probably because it’s in the shade by noon.

This is what the Sego Palms should look like

Sunni's Photo's

My poor Sego palm trees have had it after the terrible winter we had. They lost all of their fronds this year despite me covering them up, as I do every winter. I have been coaxing them along since chopping all the dead fronds off and finally they are rewarding me with a few shoots to show me they’re still alive. Of course, I had not given up on them yet.

Chipmunks - These critters are the problem

Sunni's Photo's

Now the problem is the dozens of chipmunks in our backyard. They are ravenous and decided they like the tender new shoots, so I had to come up with a plan to give the plants a fighting chance. Mind you, there is plenty to eat out in the desert this time of year, but they prefer the oasis of my backyard instead. I keep numerous pans of water out there, as well as throw birdseed and peanuts out. The only way to keep them off my plants is to cover them with makeshift gadgets that I put together.
I had a cover that I made for the top of a dove nest when we lived in CA and a pair decided to nest in one of our hanging pots. The crows would hang about wanting to get at the eggs, so I took hardware cloth from Home Depot and cut it into three triangles to make a cone that I could place on the nest to keep them at bay. I cut three doors big enough so the parents could come and go and that worked out beautifully. It was worth scraping my arms up wiring the thing together. The crows never bothered it after that, although they could have easily gotten into it via the doors too. I guess they didn’t want to go to that much trouble and wanted easier pickings. Two eggs hatched. It was a joy to watch this marvelous sight of the little ones growing up and eventually leaving the nest.

Big Mama Palm with Chipmunk Proof Cover

Sunni's Photo's

When we moved here, I decided to keep this apparatus not knowing if it would come in handy. Now I’m glad I did because I am using it to place over “Big Mama” palm to keep her new sprouts safe. The problem here is that I needed another one because I have one more palm that hasn’t sprouted yet, although I suspect it’s getting ready to because the chipmunks have been working it over. Naturally, we don’t have near the amount of stuff accumulated as we did in CA when I could go out to the scrap pile, if I needed something for a project. This was my dilemma yesterday after I got tired of chasing the little critters off those plants.

This palm has the new cover on it from nursery flats.

Sunni's Photo's

I finally decided the only thing I had, short of going to the hardware store, was some plant flats from the nursery. I decided to cut the bottoms out of these and use them for my project, so I went to pick the best ones that would work from the pile of stuff that we have on the side of the house. This turned into a two-hour venture because that plastic was heaver than I thought and I had to use a pair of scissors to cut it with because I didn’t have anything else. Once I cut the pieces, I took some twine and laced them together in a cone shape. Then I installed it on the plant. Voila! It fit nicely so I was excited and anxious to see what the little critters would do today when they discovered that the plant was no longer free pickings. By this time, it was getting rather late and most of them vanished into their burrows earlier.

Notice the growth in the center on Big Mama palm

Sunni's Photo's

After I watered the plants, I came inside to eat something because I hadn’t eaten all day. No wonder I was starving. It was almost nine PM. This week is my week of “batching it” with my husband in OR, so I keep my own schedule, which is really no schedule. I love it because I hate the rigidity of watching the clock all the time, but that is for another post.

I know they aren’t very glamorous, but what do you think of my creations?

Babies in the Yard

 Baby chipmunk - Sunni's Photo's - Isn't it adorable?

 These babies of the animal variety show up this time of year. They are so cute to watch as different groups come all day long to eat and drink from the pans we have placed about the yard.

More baby chipmunks - They are everywhere - Sunni's Photo's

The adults are very protective and go to great trouble to make sure other animals aren’t getting too close. The parents will sit on a high perch, like our wall or a rock, and keep a look out for predators. The male and female take turns. The little quail are very obedient as they follow mom and pop, doing what they do. They are so funny doing the “chicken dance,” as they scratch in the dirt for seeds. It doesn’t take them long to catch on. Adult quail can get quite aggressive with other birds. I saw a papa getting into it with a pigeon today. Neither one wanted to back down.

Baby Quail - Sunni's Photo's

We have little animals in varying stages of age right now. I imagine we get more in our yard since we back up to the desert and their natural habitat.

More Baby Quail - Sunni's Photo's - You have to look closely on this one.

There was no choice but to block off part of the areas where the rabbits can get in because they eat the plants up, not always satisfied with munching on the lawn. However, the little ones still get in and once in awhile a big one as well, which leads me to wonder if they have flexible bones.

I have taken tons of pictures because I take more each year. They all seem to look alike, but I can’t help myself when the young ones are too cute to pass up a shot with my camera.