28 October 2013 - What a sunset can do

Funny how you can find the unexpected just about everywhere. 
From this. . .

to this . . .

25 October 2013 - Utah Lake and the elusive grebe

The bird list has been full of talk about a sighting of a rare Red-necked Grebe down on the dike road around the Provo Airport. I decided to drive down after work today and try to find it. Bad idea. I-15 was stop and go traffic for all but the last five minutes. My  40 minute drive turned into a 90 minute drive. Note to self. Do not drive south on I-15 after 3pm. It was a mess. 

The dike road was really pretty. Water channel on one side, and Utah Lake on the other. Very few birds to be seen. I watched a small kestrel harass a Northern Harrier. 

 There were a lot of butterflies busy in the rabbit brush. 

The valley was thick in smog today. So naturally I had to get out and add my own hydrocarbons to the air. 

The mountains were pretty hazed out by the smog.

 The road you see above is wide enough for one car and is rutted and full of pot holes. It is really hard to be in a place where your head wants to be swiveling on your neck to see everything, but you don't dare take your eyes off the road. 

I finally found the red-necked grebe! I was pretty excited about it, then I got closer and took a better look. Didn't know what it was.  I'd forgotten to take Sibley with me. Had to wait until I got home to look it up. 

Turns out it is a grebe, a new to me grebe, just not the elusive red-necked grebe. This is a pied-billed grebe, but the low sun was giving every thing a reddish glow, including the bird. For all of me, it could have been a red-necked. 

The sun was beginning to set, bathing the eastern mountains in the last light. I liked the pink reflections in the channel.
 

This sighting gives me four of the six grebes I'm likely to see in Utah--including the rare red-necked.  So it wasn't all bad--saw a new bird, some great new scenery and the drive home was much faster.

22 October 2013- Rodent redux

I have been fighting rodents again. Well, one actually. One wily rock squirrel. By the end of July I had trapped and relocated 1 rat, 2 raccoons, 13 rock squirrels and 3 red squirrels. At that point I decided I could live with whoever was left.  Now, two and a half months later I changed my mind about the state of detente.

At least one rock squirrel has been busy digging tunnels under the playhouse, under the cement pad behind the garage, adding more tunnels in the new rock wall by the shop. I was living with this until he decided to climb the pole to the bird feeder. 

The red squirrels used to wrap around the outside of the feeder like a fur stole. This squirrel figured out how to get inside the feeder. 

I decided enough was enough, baited a trap and set it up close to the feeder. Yay! This morning the trap was sprung. What? Not the squirrel? Caught a rat. Took him for a ride up the canyon. 

I moved the feeder--hanging it from a branch in a tree thinking he could no longer reach it.  

First, it climbed up the pole and was stunned to find the food source missing. 

I don't know what was funnier, the astonishment when the food was gone or the glare he gave me before sliding backwards down the pole. heh heh. 

It took him less than five minutes (doubt the pronoun? Check out the picture) to find the new location and get in. 

Although he did have a false start with the hummingbird feeder. 

After taking this next picture I walked over to see if I could hold the lid down on the feeder and have a captive squirrel. Not one of my best ideas. 

I took the feeder down, baited the trap again and caught him. Triumph!  Another trip up the canyon and the rest of my day? Squirrel-less.

9 October 2013 - Fall birds

Fall is definitely here. Not only are the trees swapping out their summer greens for brighter yellow and orange hues, but the birds frequenting my yard are changing. I haven't seen a hummingbird in a week, but the feeders are still out in case of migrating stragglers. 


The last two days have seen large flocks of cedar waxwings stopping in to eat Russian olive berries on their way down south.

 This group had many still in juvenile coloration. They have perky little crests, but his is not showing in this picture. 

I haven't seen any flickers since April and they are busy in the yard now as well. The undersides of their wings are the same orange as under the tail. They are gorgeous as they fly overhead. 

This last week, we had some colder mornings that brought the first towhees in. They like to flit about in the underbrush. 

The magpies are showing up again. These must be my regulars as they swoop in to check out the spot I put cat food out for them last winter. And yes, I am putting cat food out again. The boys don't like to eat the middles of the dry cat food. The magpies think it's great. Nothing like a no waste solution.

Today I saw the first junco. Just one, but it was checking out the feeders. 

Maybe it will be back with friends. We are supposed to have a chilly weekend, rain with possible snow showers. Could see more changes!








 

6 October 2013 - Deer Shish-ka-bobs

Today I decided it was time for a little fall decor out front. I bought a handful of gourds, drilled holes in their bottoms, impaled them on plant sticks and made a colorful row down the sidewalk. 

 I was admiring the fun and funkyness of the staked gourds when it occurred to me that I may have created snacks on a stick, or deer gourdsicles. 

Considering that deer suck the leaves off of the deadly sharp pyrancatha shrubs and enjoy rose bushes, my guess is that these gourds are goners. 

Or as my brother asked, "Have you lost your gourd?" 



Note below: A month later, the deer have not bothered the gourds at all.  My perverse thought is, what's wrong with the gourds? 

5 October 2013 - Snow and critters

As the weather prognosticators got more strident about freezing temperatures and possibilities of snow, I went about moving my potted plants into protected spots, and cutting flowers for inside. 

I brought in a handful of geraniums and some coleus cuttings to brighten up the kitchen. 

It was fun watching the hummingbirds check out the flowers from outside the window. 

 






Then several days later I noticed a lot of black speckles on the window sill. My first thought was how could it be seeds? 

Then I realized it looked a lot like caterpillar pellets.  Sure enough, even the culprit was there, even with more pellets. Great. 

I also brought in several house plants that had been summering outside. It was rather chilly when I brought them in. As they warmed up, so did  a passel of critters that I didn't realize were hitchhiking in. I had hover bees, honey bees, big buzzer flies, lacewings, lady bugs and who knows what else. The boys caught (and ate) the flies, I caught the bees, lacewings and lady bugs and let them go outside. 

The day of the storm, I was running errands and saw the leading edge coming east across the valley. On my way home I drove up to the Neff's Canyon trail head where you can get a good view of the valley. It was pretty spectactular. 

By the time I got home a mix of rain and snow was coming down. Ultimately we had two inches of snow, lots of hail--larger than peas but smaller than marbles, accompanied by thunder. The snow didn't last, but since all the trees are still green and fully leafed out, there were lots of limbs to pick up.  

1 October 2013 - Sky flares?

How do you celebrate the first day of new month? By seeing something totally new!  Walked outside this afternoon and saw this in the sky.  I was blown away. Spectacular! 

 The sun was passing behind a con trail. That is a prosaic description of something quite magical. 

Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. . . here is a sky centipede.  If your mind is anything like mine, bet you are wondering which direction it is going. 

 It was a great day for skyscapes.