Spring Break 2014 with the Fowl People!

Yippee Skippy!  It has been several years since we have been able to do a "Spring Break".  Finally, we are on our way with, not one but THREE Vanagons.  Yep, we be a convoy of Three Vanagons heading to the Vast Wilderness  scratch that, I mean..., in search of Birds.  Yep, for the first time the leader, that would be me, has had to take a back seat to "Birders" or, as I call 'em, the "Fowl People".  Yep, Ed and Suzanne and Pete and Mary have been studying and reading and mapping birding hot-spots for months and even years and by god, that is where we are going.  We have approximately just over three weeks to find..., birds!

But first we find windmills on the east side of Tehachapi.  More than the last time we did Spring Break.

And then, there it is, our good ol' desert dog Sarah's grave site and water dish with a doggie ball still in place.

We circle the Vanagons, actually, just two Vanagons at this point.  We will meet Ed and Suzanne and the third Vanagon in Goffs, CA tomorrow.

Morning of the second day at Sarah's grave site.

By the afternoon of the second day we arrive in Goffs.

We now be three!!

Two evenings of camping, gawking, Petanquing, bicycle riding and hiking and we are ready to roll.

During my bike ride out the Landfair Highway I found this young rattlesnake who was quite aggressive.  I hope he/she lives long enough to mellow out.

I had to pause for a photo op but I didn't ride very far on HWY 66.

Our Spring Break timing is great!  The desert is starting to bloom!

Time to roll.

Being nervous about leaving the great state of Californie we stop and top off our gas tanks before heading into the remote wilderness of Arizona!

We soon cross over the Colorado River, enter Arizona and discover gas is $335.9 per gallon!!

Oh well, this is how we learn things.  Onward.

And onward!

Nearing, but avoiding Tucson, we finally find a place to circle the wagons.  Red Rock Mine!

Actually in and amongst the ruins of the former Hotel!

In the morning the weather is perfect to test my homemade rocket!!  I had built this one for Spring Break 2013 but my Vanagon had trouble and by the time the mechanic figured out what was wrong with it, Spring Break 2013 was over!

So, this rocket had been waiting in my garage for a year.  I wasn't sure if it would go or not; maybe the solid propellant motors got damp.  Maybe all three wouldn't fire at once.  Well, only one way to find out.

I had a mini video camera in the nose to record the flight.  By golly, it exceeded all expectations.

Here's the un-edited video.  I didn't edit it because the mini-video camera captured the whole thing!!

1. Shadows of Ed and I turning on the video camera and taping the nose cone together.
2. Count-down and launch.
3. Apogee and coast.
4. Puff of the secondary explosion and the tumble of the nose cone.
5. Parachute opens.
6. Spinning on the parachute risers.
7. Quick views of the campsite and Vanagons.
8. Landing in the sticker bushes.
9. Ed retrieves the nose cone and is seen in shadow with the parachute trailing behind!!
10. I arrive and we untapped the nose cone and I shut off the video camera!

 YouTube Video.

The aftermath!  It worked!!

Now on to important things like assemblying the sun shade!!

Ah!  That's better.

We stayed two nights, walked and gawked two days.  Above is part of the former Sasco mine.

Not to mention Petanque in the late afternoon.

But enough.  Onward!

Wait! Stop!!  A bird!!!

Eventually we arrived  at the Arizona-Senora Desert State Museum.  It turns out to be a very interesting out-door museum with captive birds!!  And a lot more.  Check out the link.

Off to a Mexican Restaurant and then, beat feet for our spot for the night somewhere out there in the Vast Wilderness.

Sunrise on our "Stealth Camp!"  Nearby I discover a sign that has been ripped out of the ground for some reason.

That gets the wimmin a bit excited but, no matter, we are soon off to one of the birding spots the Fowl People have on their map,  Boggs campground in Medera Canyon State Park.

It turns out that Boggs Campground in Medera Canyon is full but the camp host tells us there is over-flow camping back down on Proctor Road; it is a dry camp but good enough for us!

In the morning Lolli does sausage and eggs while the Fowl People go on up to the lodge.

When they return Suzanne has bought a hummingbird feeder and hangs it up nearby.  Boom!  The little guys are on it!  The Fowl People have also discovered two campsites have become availble so we toss stuff into the Vanagons and move up to real picnic tables, running water and pit toilets.

We take turns doing dinner and washing dishes each evening.  This is Lolli's spread for Tacos!

In the morning Pete and Mary go off for a "Power Walk".

I go for a bike ride and discover bicycling riding at 5,000 feet is a lot different than sea level!!  But I did get a photo of the post-bloom fruit on a barrel cactus!!

Medera Canyon is a great spot and we stay two more nights.  Campsites are $5.00 each!!

We even have an evening fire (Free firewood!) while Ed goes off for his first "Night GeoCache"

Here is the Gealey and McKinley Vanagons in the camp site just below ours.

The Fowl People have talked to other birders in the campground and have decided to move to the next recommended hotspot, Patagonia!!  Patagonia, Arizona..., that is!  I elect to ride my bike from Medera Canyon down the highway to Green Valley, AZ.

I stop and smell the flower along the way and then...., get picked up by Lolli and then...,

Zoom, Zoom.  The convoy covers some ground.

To end up under Mexican Blue Oaks off Harshaw Road just five miles from Patagonia.

Great birding right outside the sliding doors and also within driving distance doing day trips.

While the Fowl People are out walking and gawking I ride up to the Ghost Town of Harshaw

And back down to camp carefully coasting around this guy!

Cool evenings, more and more moon.

More birding and more bike riding.  This time up to Harshaw and down to Patagonia.

Wi-fi.  Lattes.  All one could ask!  All within the.... 

Oh yeah.  We did have an unwanted guest show up during the wee hours.  I like to sleep with the Vanagon Slider door open and I guess the wee critters are able to jump high enough to get in.

Anyway, a bit of peanut butter on the mouse trap I always carry in the Vanagon and, ten minutes after "Lights Out"..., Snap!!

Sorry.

Okay, enough Patagonia.  Time to move on.

but wait..., "Stop"!!  a bird!!

Okay, onward and this time in search of the Elegant Trogan.  Sposed to be on on Fort Huachuca property.  We drove out there and the Fowl People did their best but no joy. 

Enought of that.  Onward to Bisbee, AZ.

Yup.  Bisbee.

One thing I did see that perked my interest; this espresso machine on wheels!!

Actually, the people in the Museum told me it was a "machine for spraying Gunnite on the tunnel walls".

The Fowl People elected to spend a night in civilization at the Copper Queen Hotel.  A bit rich for my taste and by golly, Lolli said she would be happy camping in the Vanagon.  Now all I had to do was find a place to park for the night.  So, we are driving away from Bisbee and heading towards the next birding hot spot when we happen upon the Geronimo Surrender Monument in a roadside rest area.  Good enough!

In the morning, after looking at the map, I elect to ride to the next birding site, Portal, AZ.

All I have to do is ride out of Arizona into New Mexico and then back into Arizona!

And then up to Portal.  Actually only about 18 miles of riding.

Into some amazing country!!

Awesome, in fact!  We find enough campsites at Sunny Flats campground; picnic tables, running water and pit toilets!!  Again, perfect.

Ed and I go geocaching and finally find it.  The hit was to look for something that doesn't belong.

Well, a yellow rock amongst the gray and red rocks didn't look right!

Sure enough!  Bingo!

We wound up staying four nights.  The Fowl People finally found their Trogan.  A pair!

I did a very difficult 18 mile loop on my bicycle.

It was kumbya every night.  Well, not really but it was just perfect in all respects.  45 degrees at night.  80~85 during the day. 

Birds, Bicycling, Geocache and a nice store just down the hill with Wi-Fi!!

Pete and Lolli even played Petanque in the parking lot.

Finally, our last breakfast together.

Spring Break 2014 is winding down.

I make fun of Fowl People but I must say, they definitely know where to camp.  You just go where the birds are!!  And the birds are up in beautiful canyons where there is shade and running water and quiet people who quietly walk around looking through binoculars!!

Perfect!!

So Pete and Mary took off for Utah and Ed and Suzanne took off for Nevada and Lolli and I headed towards home.

We stopped for lunch in one town and I spotted these signs on the entry door.  I guess you can't have your gun in an exposed holster; you need to keep it out of sight in your purse or pocket.  Cornhole Tourney?  I'm not even going to speculate how that game got that name!

Along the way we stopped to look at some ruins.  Too late in the day to walk up there but telephoto worked pretty good.

We had picked out Tonto State Park as a destination for the night and when we got there, it was closed.  So, we rattled on a bit farther until we spotted a old road heading off into the trees.  Sure enough.  There's our spot for the night!!  In the morning we got up and drove on just a bit further to Pine, Arizona where we had Eggs Bennie and coffee!  Perfect!

Prescott to Wikieup on old HWY 94 was a real treat.  It reminded me of the highways we use to vacation on when I was a kid.

And then the long slog up Nevada on Hwy 95!

And the smog capital of Nevada, Las Vegas!

But soon it was time to start looking for our spot for the night.  The turn-off towards Tocupa and a few extra miles to get away from highway noise worked just fine!

Next morning we rolled on into Tonopah

and on and on and on.  We finally turned off and headed towards Benton and Mono Lake.

Presto!  We found our spot for the night near the Boundary Mountain!

The moon finally achieved fullness!

Another day of driving got us to HWY 50, up and over and to a stealth camp up Wrights Lake Road just west of Strawberry!

We went for a walk and spotted these.

??

We are very happy with the new LED lights I put in the kitchen of the Vanagon.

Down into Sacramento and on towards home.  I can see we have a lot of mail to catch up on!!

All in all, an excellent Spring Break 2014.

Ronnie's 73rd Birthday Ride.

Observing the SOB mandate, "Ride your Age" instead of, "Act your Age", I decided to see if I could bicycle 73 miles on my birth date April 10th.  The Fort Bragg SOB's "Seniors on Bikes" rose to the concept and fielded riders to accompany me and cheer me on every step of the way!

My plan entailed six laps around our daily, twelve mile SOB "Basic Haul Road Ride.

Twelve miles times six laps, plus some change, should equal 73 miles.

Our average daily ride takes about an hour and fifteen minutes.  It I leave the starting point every two hours I will have a forty-five minute break between rides to rest and recoup.  Perfect!

8:00 AM.  It begins. Note:  It says "Trip"  not RIP!!

Here are photos from each lap and some stuff seen along the way.

Early morning shadow.

Valerie, Sid, Jim and the birthday boy.

Jack, Valerie, Ed-S, Bob, Gary and birthday boy.

Post 10:00 AM ride debrief at the Zappa Coffee Shop.

Valerie, Bruce, Ed-O, Elaine and yours truly.

Valerie and, yep.  Me.

Some horseyback riders out for a stroll.

Afternoon tenuous coastal fog.

Bill, Gary, Crystal, and..., me.

6:00 departure over the Pudding Creek Trestle.

6:00 PM ride turn around. Jacob, Jim, Bob, Sid and Ronnie.

A toast to the birthday boy!

Ending mileage.  73 miles and change!

7:15 PM

Bob bought me a Hot Fudge Sunday and I received many birthday cards and well wishes from the SOBs.

Without their support it would not have been as easy or as much fun.

Thanks guys and gals.

I ended up with a sore butt but slept really good!

Only 27 years until my century ride!!

Ms. Scruffy

Ms. Scruffy

Funny bird.  She was part of our life for almost two years.  She went missing last Friday and we are surprised at the hole she left.

I became interested in Ravens ten or fifteen years ago.  I read several books by Bernd Heinrich, “The Mind of the Raven” and “Ravens in Winter” and got to observed a pair and their antics when I was camping east of Death Valley.  They are fun and smart birds.

I built a tall feeding platform in our back yard for Ravens and was putting out table scraps for them. They were fun to watch as they tried to beat the Seagulls to the food.

Then, about two years ago, a damaged Raven showed up.

She was interested in the feeding platform but was not quick enough, actually not able, to fly up from the fence to the platform.  So, I made her her own special feeding platform down on the fence nearer the garage.  A platform easier for her to get to and more difficult for “able” birds.  It was apparent her only mode for getting around was walking the phone lines, power lines and coax cables strung from the power poles along the alley to the various homes in our block of town.

Actually Lolli was the first to notice her being restricted to walking because she saw the Raven walking the line from Gregs house to the “light” pole.

As she became accustomed to her special feeding platform we gradually became more aware of what her actual territory was.  She apparently roosted in the pine trees in Bainbridge park, walked the wire to neighbor Greg's house and then on to the “Light” pole, a power pole mid alley that had a street light.  She liked to stand on that street light for hours and observe her “territory”; one square block of Fort Bragg.  A block bound on the east by Harrison Street, the west by McPherson, the south by Redwood Avenue and the north by Laurel Street.  That’s it!  In time we would say, “She is heading for Redwood”, or “She is heading for the Cat Lady’s house” (on Laurel), “The Fig Tree Lady’s house”, (Maria) mid alley.  

Several times I tried to follow her to see just what she did all day long but got bored and gave it up.  It seemed all she did was stand around, watch over her territory and groom herself.  Actually, that was about all she could do!

She was a mess.  It was obvious her primary feathers were damaged.  They were just quills with a bit of feather towards the tip.  She had about half of her secondary feathers.  She could run and flap and maybe fly up about three feet but that was about it.  The times we happened to see her on the ground she had a whole routine of where to go to be able to hop up onto a fence, then up on a porch eve, up on a roof and then on up onto the safety of the wires.

At first, when we realized we were actually going to continue feeding her, I bought a bag of Puppy Kibble.  She ate it but soon I talked to Ronnie James (local wildlife bird expert) about Ms. Scruffy; (yes we named her Ms. Scruffy!).  Ronnie said it would be a lot better to feed her food high in protein and cheap scrambled eggs would be the way to go.  Ronnie also said if we could keep her alive through her next molt she might grow new primary and secondary feathers.

Over time we decided she was female because she would do that “nok. nok” call.  Lowering her head, spreading out her throat feathers, opening her beak  and make that sound except, no sound came out!  Strange bird!

So…., life with bird.

Early on I tried to set up a video camera close to her feeding platform to capture her eating.  Somehow, every time I tried to video her, she would not come!  Well, she would come part way but then sense something “not right” and “run away”.  I built a better video camouflage device that was radio controlled so I could turn it on from the comfort of the “mom” chair in our living room which was a perfect spot to watch the bird.  No dice.

There were times we had guests over and we would tell them all about Ms. Scruffy and try to show how we feed her but she would not “come to the table”.

It seemed the more we wanted Ms. Scruffy to “perform” the less likely it would happen.

Last June I noticed Ms. Scruffy would sit on the fence by our garage after eating.  She would kind of hunker down and just sit there staring off into space for an hour or two.  Not doing her “eternal vigilance” head moves like she usually did.  I decided she must be brooding.  It seemed reasonable to me that an adult female Raven would have a natural imperative to nest and raise young every spring even if she couldn’t build a nest or was even “pregnant?”.  I decided to build her a nest!

I borrowed a nice, nest shaped, woven basket from Lolli, made a wooden bracket support to support it on the fence near her feeding platform and lined it with dry grass.  Perfect!

The next morning we saw her on the wire by Gregs garage and knew she was coming for her morning breakfast of scrambled eggs.  I put the eggs out on the feeding platform and then settled into the “mom” chair to watch and see how she liked her new nest!.

Ms. Scruffy hopped from the wire onto our garage roof, walked along the peak to the east end and then down to the gutter just a leap away from the fence.  She got to the gutter and was about to hop down onto the fence when she spotted the “nest”.

RUN-AWAY!!

She ran back up to the peak of the garage but then stopped, thought about it “how hungry am I?” (I’m anthropomorphizing, of course)  turned around and walked back down to the gutter.  Opps! Still there!! Run-away!!!

Back and forth, up, down. Up, down!  Seventeen times she “snuck up” on her scrambled eggs and then “ran away” before she finally hopped down onto the fence, hurriedly ran and hopped over my “nest”, got to the eggs for a frantic gobble followed by a quick get-away!  Whew!

The following morning Lolli sat in the mom chair and observed Ms. Scruffy walk up and down the garage roof TWENTY-NINE TIMES!! before she just flat gave up and ran away without breakfast!!  I went out and removed “my” nest experiment and in a few days life settled back down to normal!

Another time, after noticing how she liked to take a mouth (beak) full of scrambled eggs with her after she had cleaned the platform, she would hop up on our garage and then up and over to the gutter on Ray’s apartment and then drop the eggs in the gutter and then eat them.  I figure she was using water to help wash them down.  So, I made her her own gutter.  I took a short section of gutter, blocked off both ends, put it by her feeding platform with half an inch of water in is so she could have her own water source close by.  Bad idea.  She did not like it and it seemed her reflection in the water spooked her even more.  She sort of put up with it for a while but I finally removed the gutter watering station too.

She did not like anything “Strange”.

We went on Winter Break for the first time in six years.  Being gone for two weeks, we were worried about Ms. Scruffy.  We talked to various neighbors before we left and discovered the “Fig Tree Lady” was feeding her cat “cat food” and allowing Ms. Scruffy to partake.  We also asked Cecile if she would come over and put food on the feeding platform for Ms. Scruffy and gave her some money for eggs.  Away we went hoping for the best.

Two weeks later we arrived home and while I was unloading the Vanagon I notice Ms. Scruffy up on the power pole by Laurel Street watching me!!  Yippee!  She’s alive!!

Later in the week we happened to see Maria and she said she had put out some cat food, while we were gone, on a paper plate right where I usually park the Vanagon in the alley.  Ms. Scruffy walked up to the plate, dumped the cat food off and put the paper plate back out in the alley!!  Maria didn’t know if Ms. Scruffy was asking for more food or was insulted by the paper plate!

The house just beyond Gregs started a big renewal and addition project and that really threw Ms. Scruffy into a tizzy.  Her favorite power line from her roost in the park to the light pole in the alley was right over the construction site!!  She developed a new route from Gregs roof to our garden shed roof, then onto our roof and over to our garage roof and then down onto the fence and over to the food platform.  But she didn’t like it and every time a nail gun went off or a skill saw started up she would jump or flinch.  Very nervous and trying times.

She would not show up for several days at a time and we didn’t know if she got caught by a dog or what.  And then, there she would be again.  I talked to Ronnie James and she told me wildlife are opportunistic eaters.  They gorge when they can and then will not eat for days when the weather is bad.  They do not eat “Three Squares a Day”!  That bit of information eased our mind.

Now we are into March of our second year with Ms. Scruffy and she has finally gone missing, really gone missing..

It was a strange thing.  Thursday she showed up three times.  In the morning Lolli fed her.  When I returned home from my bike ride at noon she was waiting on the garage roof by the gutter.  I fed her.  And again at 4:30PM  she stopped by and hollered a couple of times to get my attention and I put out some more scrambled eggs.

The next morning around 6:30 we woke to quite a Raven commotion.  Lolli got up and looked out the bedroom window and said there were hundreds of Ravens flying around but no Scruffy.  All day long Ravens would fly over Scruffy’s “one block” territory and call out.  It was not a “normal” morning or day and both Lolli and I noticed “something different” in the Raven world.  Maybe it was just juvenile Ravens ganging up for springtime mating rituals.  Maybe Scruffy was really gone and already Ravens were arguing about who gets to take her territory.  Maybe Ravens actually know when one of their own gets attacked, trapped, killed.

Who knows.  

In fact, in hindsight,  there was a heck of a lot we didn’t know about a Raven that was confined to only one city block!!  Two years and we knew so little.

It is amazing how much we miss her and how often we look out the window when we hear a “caw, caw, caw”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Note: Videos on YouTube.  

Ms. Scruffy doing the female "nok nok, nok behavior".

Walking the power lines, here and here

Eating.off the tall platform in the early days.

Eating off the "private" platform.

January 4th, 2014

34 degrees.  7:10 in the morning.

Looking south down Franklin Street.

A few minutes later looking north on Mainstreet.

Amazing weather continues but, are we going to get any rain?