coots – The Hermits' Rest

I’m into alliteration in my blog post titles. But yup, I finally saw a roadrunner in Arizona. Beep beep! It literally ran across the road in front of us, as roadrunners do. I’m sure fond of these cuckoos.

Okay, so you can barely see it. But, yay.

Today was hard, so the roadrunner and its pals were a great reward. After work we had to do our penance for a nice visit by attending yet another condo sales presentation. They just take so long, and we simply don’t want anything. We escaped, though! And off we went to the Sedona Wetlands Preserve.

This place was so cool. They take waste water and turn it into habitat for native birds. That’s so encouraging, because we need more wetlands everywhere.

We heard lots and lots of birds, mostly Great-tailed Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds. I was extra charmed to see a family of American Coots swimming around and honking away.

We enjoyed seeing the facility, where lots of ducks also congregated, plus a bonus bunny. We had a good time!

By the way, I ALSO saw that roadrunner’s nemesis, the coyote, earlier today on my walk. A beautiful one, too. We looked at each other for a while and went on our separate ways. It pleases me to see them thriving. They are important pieces of the ecosystem! Crows may disagree, though. Later in the walk I heard a crow ruckus and realized at least three crows were yelling at a young coyote and sending it out of their territory. Drama!

It’s bigger than it looks (the one the crows chased)

I got a great couple of pictures of a Scrub Jay intent on catching a bug, and a sort of recognizable Gila Woodpecker. They make a great noise!

After all the sales pitching, beep beeping, and yip yipping, we were hungry. I finally got to watch Lee enjoy a meal. It was at an out-of-the-way restaurant, bar, and local grocery called Brewha in Cornville. The food was so fresh, and everything was made there, even the pickles. I also had an Old Fashioned made properly with simple but high-quality ingredients. Heaven.

Our visit to the Sedona area is winding down, but there’s still more fun to come. Stay tuned.

Looks like June is heating up back home.

Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

No doubt I’ve accidentally done something I’m not supposed to do more than once and still don’t know it. But one I do know about is that for a while I had a collection of bird feathers I’d found on the ground on the ranch. There were striped hawk feathers, huge black vulture feathers, etc.

Here’s some feathery grass. It’s a bluestem.

In my Master Naturalist training I learned that it’s against the law to collect and display native wild bird feathers unless you’re a Native American doing it for spiritual reasons. I think the Migratory Bird Act is the law. It’s so people won’t hurt birds to make hats or other decorative objects.

Fly free, migratory birds! These are geese, probably Canada geese, photobombed by a tern.

I set my wild feathers free and now happily display domestic chicken feathers. It seems like if the feather fell out for bird-related reasons, like fighting or molting, it wouldn’t harm anything. Oh well. I will look at feathers on birds. That’s fine.

Birds I looked at today included a lot of coots.

Yes, we have flown the coop once again (more bird talk) and Seneca the motorhome brought us to Ray Roberts State Park, Isle de Bois unit. This lake provides Dallas and Denton their water.

It’s still looking pretty wintry up here, but we are right on the lake.

Note all the logs. I guess there was a bad storm up here recently, because there is a big mess in the campground. It’s sort of sad. I hope the trails look better! The lake gives great views, though.

We arrived just at sunset. I had to get work done first.

I have seen more birds than I’ve heard, so far. There are very busy white-throated sparrows, loud crows, cardinals, and great blue herons that make noise. But the coots, ducks, geese, and terns didn’t have much to say. The terns were diving from the air, and the coots and ring-necked ducks were diving from the water. it’s lots of fun to watch. I’ll enjoy working from the picnic table tomorrow!

These are the ducks. I know, hard to tell. They have longer black bills. Coots have short white ones. My binoculars helped.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to some quiet hiking. They have paved trails! There’s also an equestrian area to check out. Saturday it will be colder, but I brought my trusty winter hiking clothing AND hiking boots that aren’t broken! I’m set.