The approach of Irma, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane in history, struck fear as she moved directly towards our south Florida home. During the previous week the weather had been normal for late summer.
The view of our local wetlands before sunrise while the storm was still far away:
Fair skies in mid-morning:
At first we planned to shutter our home and ride out the storm, windowless in the dark, as we are 8 feet above sea level and 18 miles inland. Our anxiety increased as we saw neighbors preparing to drive north or book flights out of state.
Earlier, the storm had been projected to hit on Friday, but we saw long lines at gas stations and grocery store shelves going bare. On Tuesday Mary Lou and I visited nearby Chapel Trail Nature Preserve and as we walked along the fenced boardwalk we spent more time discussing our options than looking for birds. The morning was clear and calm:
We suddenly decided to evacuate to someplace high and dry, so on Wednesday morning we flew to New Mexico. The only connecting flight available took us through Kansas City, and we arrived on Wednesday afternoon and occupied visitors' quarters at mile-high Kirtland Air Force Base.
The sun rose over the Manzanita Mountains east of Albuquerque:
The next morning we observed the famous "Bird Log" at the Capulin Spring picnic area in Cibola National Forest in the Sandia Mountains. For me this was a homecoming of sorts, as in the early 1990s I had worked with a crew of US Forest Service volunteers to rehabilitate and restore water to an old hollow log which had served as a wildlife drinker.
The pipe from the spring had frozen and cracked and the stone wall which enclosed it had to be reassembled and cemented. The log had a large hole which we covered with a rubber sheet. (Les Hawkins was the volunteer who energized the rehabilitation of the log. Here is a 2002 article about him. Les celebrated his 100th birthday in 2014 but I have since lost contact with him.)
Until we moved from New Mexico to Florida in 2004, Mary Lou and I led weekly US Forest Service bird walks in the Sandia Mountains, often visiting this site. It became popular with birders from many countries.
This is the original log as it appeared in 2008:
The old log finally fell apart and last year a new generation of volunteers used chain saws to carve out a new log to replace the original. They did a great job and restored the flow of water.
Since this is the only constant water source in a large expanse of mountainous forest, one should expect to see just about every species of bird and mammal which inhabits this area.
The new Bird Log (click on photo and scroll right and left to see many more enlarged views of the log and its visitors):
I left my DSLR behind and traveled with my new light weight mirrorless camera (Olympus E-M10 Mark II). The photos are mostly of poor quality, but they document the very engaging hours of just sitting and clicking as the show went on before our eyes. Among the avian visitors, nearly none of which I could expect to find in Florida were...
Western Tanager...
...photo-bombed by a Townsend's Warbler:
A (not much) better view of the Townsend's Warbler:
Mountain Chickadee:
Hermit Thrush:
Green-tailed Towhee:
Cassin's Finch (male):
Cassin's Finch (female):
Plumbeous Vireo:
Western race of Orange-crowned Warbler, more colorful than the drab Tiaga subspecies which visits south Florida in winter:
Enjoying a bath in "The Bird Log:"
Audubon subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler. It has a yellow throat in contrast to the white throat of the eastern Myrtle subspecies which migrates into Florida:
Wilson's Warbler:
Spotted Towhee:
A Chipmunk:
A Mule Deer doe crashed the party but fled when she sensed my presence:
The hurricane arrived on Saturday, a bit late, and had major impact on the west (Gulf) coast of Florida rather than delivering the predicted direct hit on our neighborhood. It was so large that major damaging effects were felt over the entire Florida peninsula as it moved northward.
We flew back on Tuesday to a home which had gone without electricity for 48 hours, but power was restored during our flight. The house suffered no structural damage, although tree limbs and palm lfronds cluttered our yard. Thanks, not only to Irma's decision to veer off to the west coast, but also to so many of you who expressed concern and good wishes. As it turned out, the storm forced us into an unexpected and very pleasant vacation!
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Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia
Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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I grew up in New Jersey with towhees that had glowing red eyes. In fact, the earlier bird books called the species "Red-eyed Towhee."
The light was just right to display the eye color of this Eastern Towhee in northeastern Illinois.
Towhees are large-bodied members of the sparrow family. They have the habit of scratching the leaves noisily, using both feet at once. This is an Eastern Towhee male (red-eyed) that I photographed in Kane County, Illinois, in May, 2009. Notice its eyes:
A female, its probably mate, was also seen in Illinois on the same day:
Somehow I overlooked the fact that all Eastern Towhees do not have the same eye color. This male of the same species, was photographed in November, 2011 in our local south Florida wetlands. I was surprised to find that it had white irises:
A female was occupying the same territory that same month:
I learned that Eastern Towhees that breed in south Florida usually have very light eyes. They are also non-migratory, so we see them all year around. Populations to our north, into southern Georgia, show increasingly more red pigment in their iris.
This male appeared early in our neighborhood in March this year. Its eyes are a somewhat intermediate straw-yellow color:
This female with yellow eyes appeared in mid-July, probably a locally breeding bird.
In south Florida, during the winter, it is common to see a variety of eye colors (Male, February 29):
This female, seen in south Florida on January 23, has red eyes.
This juvenile Eastern Towhee, photographed in Florida this July 31, was in the company of two adults and also a juvenile Northern Cardinal that seemed to be following the towhee's parents. At first glance, its identity could be puzzling, but it is bigger and more heavily streaked than any other sparrow-billed bird.
For comparison, this is the closely related Spotted Towhee of the western USA. All of this species have red eyes. I saw this one in Santa Rosa, California on June 24, 2010:
Another Spotted Towhee, seen in Palo Duro Canyon, Taxas:
We visited our son and his family in the Texas Panhandle this past week. It was great seeing how much our five grandchildren have grown in our absence. On the first morning after our arrival our familes jumped into two cars and headed for nearby Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the "Grand Canyon of Texas."
Carved out of the colorful mudstone, sandstone and limestone formations by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, Palo Duro Canyon is 97 miles long and up to 20 miles wide and nearly 1,000 feet deep in places. It is the second largest canyon in the US, after the 277 mile long and 6,000 foot deep Grand Canyon.
Palo Duro Canyon is noted for its many hoodoos, which are pillars of sedimentary rock topped by capstones of hard rock such as limestone. Erosion by wind and water removes the softer rock underneath, leaving the capstone to protect the pillar, usually tilting over until it eventually collapses. I mistook this hoodoo formation along Lighthouse Trail for "The Lighthouse" hoodoo (pictured in the above link), which is similar but much larger and can only be approached by way of back trails. Next to it is Castle Peak.
My favorite stop in Palo Duro is this blind (or hide, which is a much more appropriate descriptor) next to one of the shops. It provides excellent views of the shrubby habitat, and has interpretive information and photos on its walls.
A water feature and seed and suet feeders are positioned conveniently in view.
I could not tarry for very long as the children were anxious to go hiking, making me recall my impatience with photographers during my many years as a non-photographer. While we did not see many species, there were fabulous photo opportunites at close range in the soft morning light.
White-crowned Sparrows were the most abundant birds.
They splashed in the little pool at the fountain.
A female Northern Cardinal arrived...
...and waited patiently (?) for her bath.
A male cardinal took his turn.
An American Robin...
...was joined by a male House Finch.
A Spotted Towhee displaced them.
Sometimes called a "Ground Robin," the towhee is actually a large sparrow. It scratches noisily with both feet as it forages on the ground.
I was pleasantly surprised when a Brown Thrasher showed up at the seed feeder. These relatives of mockingbirds and catbirds are primarily insect-eaters, as evidenced by their long sharp bills.
The thrasher has piercing yellow eyes.
I almost missed seeing two male House Sparrows roosting quietly in a nearby shrub.
Time was running short, and I hoped that a Black-crested Titmouse would show up. The range of this species is restricted to central Texas and northeastern Mexico, and it is found at feeders in residential areas and pockets of oak woodlands. Finally, two did appear.
Later, our three granddaughters explored a restored "cowboy hut."
At about 7:30 in the morning on November 4, just as we were departing from our motel in Canyon, Texas for our drive to Albuquerque, this roll cloud suddenly appeared on the northern horizon. This is the view to the east as it approached.
The sky was otherwise perfectly blue, and the cloud stretched as far as the eye could see to both the east and west horizon.
It moved towards us remarkably fast, and passed directly over us, heading southward. This is the view to the west.
As we drove westward along I-40 about 30 minutes later we could still see it all the way across the sky, eventually joining the southern horizon and disappearing. We noted no unusual wind or temperature change, though there was already a brisk breeze from the north (as evidenced by the flags). There were no storms anywhere in sight, but our son, who is a meteorologist with the local National Weather Service, later said that a cold front had passed over at that time.
"A roll cloud is a low, horizontal, tube-shaped, and relatively rare type of arcus cloud. They differ from shelf clouds by being completely detached from other cloud features. Roll clouds usually appear to be "rolling" about a horizontal axis. They are a solitary wave called a soliton, which is a wave that has a single crest and moves without changing speed or shape. One of the most famous frequent occurrences is the Morning Glory cloud in Queensland, Australia, [caused by] mesoscale circulation associated with sea breezes that develop over the Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria. However, similar features can be created by downdrafts from thunderstorms and are not exclusively associated with coastal regions." Ref: Wikipedia
Thanks for visiting! After working from our iPhones with limited connectivity, we will now start tackling our correspondence backlog. We prepared our last couple of blog posts in advance and put them on "automatic pilot," and missed visiting our many social sites. Hope to catch up in the coming week!