New Mexico circuit: 3

(You may have gathered that these trip reports are not in chronological order.)

The NPS’s driving directions to Chaco Culture National Historical Park read, in part, “13 miles (21 km) of rough dirt road (CR 7950). The 4.5 miles (7 km) before entering the park are very rough.” (Empasis added) “Very rough” means almost constant washboard conditions, 1 to 2 on my 5-point impassibility scale, mercifully little in the way of ruts, rocks, or potholes. This is not a place to drop in for a casual visit.

just thereBut O, it’s worth the drive. As the gravel road gives way to pavement within the park boundary, you’re confronted with Fajada Butte.

The centerpiece of the park is the (reconstructed) remains of Pueblo Bonito, a ginormous complex of what once comprised 600 rooms and 40 kivas, according to the NPS brochure. It’s so vast that trying to capture it in a photo or two seemed futile. So I snapped a Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) instead.

windows and supportsHungo Pavi is of a much smaller scale. I was taken by the rhythm of small windows and openings for the roof supports.

no cornersCasa Rinconada is a large kiva, roofless but otherwise restored to grandeur.

Turning Maria back to base, I abruptly stopped for a small herd of Wapiti (Cervus canadensis).

The next day, I visited another unit that is managed with CHCU. Aztec Ruins National Monument is much more accessible by vehicle, and more interactive, if you will. A walking path takes you through the fully rebuilt Great Kiva, as well as a series of rooms—it’s not a walk for the claustrophobic.

On the grounds just outside the monument, Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni) were keeping an eye on things.

And then on to Navajo Dam State Park, for a stop that wasn’t too fruitful, before moving on to Santa Fe. But I did find a second species of ground squirrel, Rock Squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus) and a life bird, Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii).

At the park: 150

From this week’s nest box report:

Ice on the ponds, so we made like the icebreaker ships.

Predictably, we already have one Hooded Merganser nest started, with 6 eggs.

We used nearly all of the chips in the shed, and what’s left we’re going to use to top up a couple boxes next week. So we’ll need a new package of chips in several weeks for replenishing boxes that hatch early this season.

Your coordinator took a tumble climbing out of the new pool by the tower, significantly scraping his dignity….

Thank you, and see you on the 9th!

New Mexico circuit: 2

I had plans for long excursions out of Las Cruces, but after the schlep from Santa Fe, followed by a round trip to White Sands NP the next day, I looked in Howe et al.’s New Mexico Bird Finding Guide (4/e, 2021) for some choice spots locally in Doña Ana County. Howe suggested Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park, also known locally as the “Old Refuge.” Like many of the sites I visited on this trip, there were bird feeders out front before the visitor center/park office buildings, mixed in with the usual scrub, with a courtyard and garden behind, enclosed by the low-slung buildings. Many White-crowned Sparrows at the feeders; WCSPs were almost ubiquitous in New Mexico.

Just off the courtyard/garden, there was a simple blind (just panels with viewports cut out) looking on to an open lot. Merlin reported that it heard Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii), a secondary target bird for this trip, in the vicinity of the blind. Hmm. Intriguing, but no quail to be seen.

Two park staff strolled by, and explained that a Great Horned Owl had snagged a skunk, its remains hanging somewhere in the courtyard. “Ah, that explains the sewer smell I’m getting.”

I started following the park trails, and after about half a mile I saw some distant bird activity scratching around under the scrub. Not a good look, but maybe I was looking at quail?

Some time later, I noticed another bird also scratching under some scrub. This turned out to be a Crissal Thrasher (Toxostoma crissale), an unexpected lifer.

I continued around the Upland Trail. I found a mysterious plant, green fleshy leaves, in a loose basal rosette, and with a pale central vein. It just looked out of place and possibly exotic, so I snapped some pics and took a precise GPS reading.

Nearing the end of the Upland Trail loop, I spotted a prime target bird, Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus). This was not a lifer, but the only other time I’d seen a roadrunner was a “B” look, many years ago, and I couldn’t absolutely affirm that I had seen my bird then. This time at MVBSP, it was an “A,” and I got good photos to document it.

So I was feeling pretty good for the trip, and I headed back toward Maria the Ford Edge.* Back at the blind, I found the second of two Common Side-blotched Lizards (Uta stansburiana). Apparently this species has a fan club. My observations were featured in an iNat post by Pete Zani.

I was still curious about the green plant standing out among the dust and tan and sage green. So I stuck my head into the park office to ask about it. (I didn’t see any other doors with activity behind them.) I was greeted by one of the park staff who had gleefully called out the skunk carcass; he said, “I can help you outside.” (Apparently a faux pas to barge into to the office uninvited.) Out in the courtyard, my staffer explained that my plant was some species of native dock. “They start sprouting in February-March, but they’re a bit stunted because it’s been so dry.” In the end, iNat and my Audubon guide identified it as Canaigre Dock (Rumex hymenosepalus).

I thanked him and walked out front. The Gambel’s Quail were at the feeders! With one bird perched on the roof of a building, keeping an eye on things. The birds on the ground were rather shy—I got one usable photo.

One of seven new birds for me for this trip.

*Maria will be introduced more fully in a forthcoming post.

New Mexico circuit: 1

A new place to explore! The Land of Enchantment, or (to judge from the snazzy new black license plates) The Land of Red and Green (Chilies).

I debarked (detrained?) in Albuquerque, and scheduled some light touristy activity to get used to the altitude. First order of business was picking up my prepaid rental car at the Hertz office next to the Amtrak station. Except—no Hertz office. One of the train station staff told me, oh, yeah, that building burned down and they never replaced it. We keep telling Hertz to remove it from their listings.

So, after a somewhat tense call to Hertz to book a car at the airport, and a quick ride to same provided by Anthony, I was on my way to my Old Town motel.

first stopAfter a day of finding all the yummy food and taking a guided tour of Old Town ABQ, I was ready to get out in the field. Sevilleta NWR is two counties south, along the Rio Grande. The loop trail from the visitors center has some very helpful ID markers for some of the desert plants, but that didn’t stop me from misidentifying Rubber Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa): the stuff is everywhere, short and tall. I found two life birds: Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris) and Chihuahuan Raven (Corvus cryptoleucus). I got a lucky shot with my long lens and caught one of the birds with white throat feathers ruffling in the wind.

Next day was a disappointment: I rode the Sandia Tramway to the peak, only to figure out that the way to the spot with the bird feeders was a snowy 2-mile hike away from the tram terminal. So no rosy-finches this time. I moved on to my next city, Farmington.

Front desk staff at my Albuquerque motel gave me two great restaurant recommendations: Church Street Cafe (tasty “Q” salad) and Sawmill Market, a food hall with too many good choices. And I found Flying Roadrunner Bakery around the corner from my tour guide’s kiosk. The things they do with blueberries there…

Bless your heart

The most recent entry in my collection of clumsy spam. It’s the subject line that got me this time. I suspect a bad translation of organic.

Subject: Natural SEO Services..!!

Body:

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I recent visit your website.

May I send you audit report of your business website!

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Kindertransport: an update: 2

So we’re halfway thru the run. Tomorrow we pack up most of the set and dressing and all of the key props for a one-morning-only performance at a nearby high school. That aspect of the production has been its own adventure.

This is the first show that I’ve “called” where I’m running sound and light cues from QLab. So mostly I’m just pushing a GO button like George Jetson. In the booth, I have only a sound board operator (to turn body mics on and off) and a staff member from the center (on hand in case anything goes south). On the deck, I have two crew members, an ASM (Michal) and a running crew member. I have good visibility for what’s happening on stage, so the only comms I have with Michal are to send actors on stage at the top of each act.

Hearing what’s happening on stage is another matter. There’s a huge rumbly A/C unit running all the time. I’m reduced to hand-cupping my ear that isn’t on headset.

Michal has been my rock. She has handled detailed rehearsal reports as well as plotting the peregrinations of what has turned out to be a lot of props.

Some takeaways:

  • The batteries in my solar-assisted watch are probably due for a changeout. A few days ago the watch started flashing a low battery signal because I kept looking at it in the dark, silly me.
  • Now that I’ve run with QLab, I think I might be able by myself to handle lights on one board/laptop and sound on another. This is the setup we had for Dance Nation, with Nadia running the sound board.
  • My outdoor headlamp that I use for owling is way too bright for use in the booth.
  • For these last two shows, I’ve stayed in a motel in Maryland for the last days of tech week, so that I don’t have to deal with crummy rush hour traffic. This time I checked that the motel had a business center so that I could reprint pages for my book, but I didn’t bring a 3-hole punch. Fortunately, motel staff scared one up for me.
  • Jeff (sound designer) lent me a 6-key device with a dedicated GO button. Much easier than trying to find the spacebar on a Mac laptop (without scooching the trackpad).

Some links: 106

Some posts about gratitude and the big picture:

  • Day One, by Tim Sommers.
  • Gratitude Monday: well, okay, by Bas Bleu.
  • Not just heat death: Here are five ways the Universe could end, by Paul Sutter.

    [A] phase transition would start in some random spot in the cosmos and race outward at the speed of light, containing within it a brand new kind of universe almost certainly incompatible with the kind of life, chemistry, and even atomic physics that our Universe has managed to concoct.

    Because this phase transition bubble expands at the speed of light, there would be no warning of its arrival. One day, we would simply be going about our business and then blink: The new Universe takes its place. Whatever particles had composed our bodies and whatever forces held them together would vanish, to be replaced with a new quantum configuration.

    Sleep tight.

  • Process, process, process: Dwelling in the Doing: A New Year’s Resolve, by Gary Borjesson.

    So, here’s to dwelling in the doing, learning how to love the very things we spend most of our time doing. Happiness itself is like this. It’s not the surge of joy we feel when we find what we’ve been searching for, cross the finish line, or finish building the boat. It is, rather, a way of living in active engagement with the good, meaningful things that make up our life. Your friends, for example.

And one simple way to make a time machine: Dinosaur Comics #4283, by Ryan North.

Kindertransport: an update: 1

We are already looking ahead to moving into the theater and making all the tech happen. I think that no one will miss working in RLT’s rehearsal space/construction shop/costume and prop loft—it’s nothing but a glorified two-story shed. At least there’s heat.

What is still an uncertainty is how smoothly we’ll move into RLT’s temporary performance space, the Kreeger Auditorium at the Bender Jewish Community Center. The team toured the space back in October: it’s a good size for a show like this.

I hope that younger audiences (i.e., 30 and under) connect with this material. The line that really punches me comes from Evelyn (Act 2, scene 2):

You can’t let people who hate you tell you what you are.

The context is whether a woman born to a Jewish mother, long since quietly converted to Christianity, should consider herself Jewish. But Evelyn’s words apply to so many other situations.

My year in hikes and field trips, 2024

Another middling successful season of monitoring nest boxes at Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Va. I performed invasive management at Elklick Woodlands Natural Area Preserve, Fred Crabtree Park, and Fraser Preserve, Fairfax County, Va.; Clifton Institute, Fauquier County, Va; and an few other places in Fairfax County that I don’t remember.

Christmas Bird Count 2024: Seneca and Central Loudoun

One more time leading Seneca’s sector 14 (fourth time) and Central Loudoun’s “Old Ashburn” sites in sector 11 (third time).

We found 49 species in the Seneca sector on a day that ended with rain and sleet; my feeder watchers detected Orange-crowned (good documentation) and Black-throated Blue Warblers (notes but no photo). Our American Robin count was way down, and we were shut out on Cedar Waxwing. Stream reconstruction at Lake Fairfax Park is ongoing.

We were scuffling with rain in Ashburn as well, but the Graves Lane ponds turned up Redhead (Aythya americana), Bufflehead, Gadwall, and an intriguing pair of ducks that were likely Mallard hybrids, and the pond at Ashburn Library yielded a pair of American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes). One of our private property sites has changed owners, so we didn’t make it to that location.