Coming home

As some of my long time readers know, my friend and fellow volunteer, Peggy, quilted this wall hanging for me last winter.  It is her rendition of a picture hanging in the laundry room of the Loners on Wheels (LoWs) park in Deming, New Mexico.  I had posted a picture of it last November while I was staying at the LoWs park, and she presented this to me while we were both volunteering at Balcones Canyonlands NWR in February.  It has a prominent place in my motorhome.  Anyway, I show it again tonight to emphasize how I feel about arriving to volunteer at one of the nation’s more than 500 National Wildlife Refuges…it’s like coming home. (and this refuge certainly feels like it’s a thousand miles from nowhere!  :))
By noon, today, I had the basic set up chores done.  I’m sure glad I made a trial run to the refuge in my car yesterday.  The shortest route (20 miles) turned out to be not so good for a rig pulling a toad, so I took the longer (50 mile) route this morning.  I’m happy to say I got the rig backed in on the first try, and, as you can see, the awning cooperated today!
There are six volunteer pads here, and across the way from my site are the two volunteer buildings.  The one on the right has two showers, and the one on the left has a common area, laundry, and full kitchen.  I’m thinking they know how to take care of their volunteers here.  :)

As the temperatures rose to the 90’s this afternoon, I did ten days worth of laundry and continued the finer points of setting up for an extended stay.  I also did battle with the mosquitoes and horse flies…this is a huge marsh area, you know.
There are only about six trees in the area, and I’m finding that they are prime daytime roosting sites for some nocturnal birds.  Mrs. J  was correct in her guess that these are Common Nighthawks.  They usually ply the skies for insects during the night, and sleep during the day.  I never thought I’d ever get a picture of them roosting.  I’ve only seen them before coursing through the skies at dusk.
I’m guessing that the adult is on the left, and the young of the year on the right.  I always thought they were a solid dark color with a white wing bar on each wing.  Their plumage is really quite striped and mottled.  All my banging around getting set up today didn’t bother them one bit!
There are also multitudes of these white butterflies skipping around from flower to flower around the RV sites.  I’m feeling pretty good about my stay here after only nine hours.  I think I’ll head out and take a better look at this refuge tomorrow.
                                                                      THE END! 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Bozeman and butterflies

I had a long list as I headed out to Bozeman, MT, yesterday.  Besides groceries, I needed to purchase an air compressor, and I also ended up buying a printer at Wal-Mart.  It was a 230 mile round trip, without a whole lot of excitement along the way.
The raft companies where doing a good business along the Gallatin River.
I did see a nice adult bald eagle during my brief 20 mile pass through the edge of Yellowstone on US 191.

Once I  got home, a pretty strong storm blew through the valley.
It left an eerie light over the campground, and a nice rainbow lighting the mountain ridge.

Mid morning today, I took Emma for a long walk on some of the dirt roads surrounding the campground.  I brought my camera along hoping to get some more wildflower pictures.
I did get a couple, but the astounding thing was the thousands of butterflies that surrounded us.  It was like being in one of those butterfly enclosures in a zoo.
I wondered if it was because of last night’s heavy rain that there were so many on the ground.
This variety really seemed to like the Astor-like blooms. 

Maybe you can guess that I have another question about Blogger.  I changed the header picture today and I can’t figure out how to get the picture to fit the space.  If I shrink it to fit, this is what happens.  If I don’t shrink it, it is way too big and only a portion of the picture shows.  I’ve gotten such great help with my other questions, I thought I’d throw this one out for suggestions.
I’ll leave you tonight with last night’s sunset after the storm.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

This and that

I headed out this morning to try to find the illusive black capped vireo.  I went to the Russel tract and met Chuck, the biologist, on his way out.  I believe I heard one vireo, but couldn't get a chance to see it.  Chuck couldn't either.  :(  These vireos inhabit very dense shin oak areas, and are hard to see.

More and more wild flowers are beginning to bloom in the hill country.  Maybe on Friday or Sunday I'll be able to take a drive to enjoy the blue bonnets and Indian paint brushes.  You know there are things to enjoy around here besides birds.  :)

If you're in to insects, here's a beetle that scurried across my site yesterday.  Don't know what kind it is.

This butterfly was making a bee line for my hummingbird feeder.

And yes, PetDoc, it is a spicebush swallowtail!

My son, Daniel, called tonight to let me know that he received the electrical plug for my old laptop that I sent to him last week.  I'm glad that he can use it for school, since I didn't know what I was going to do with it.  He did comment that he couldn't believe how slow it was.  I didn't know I was back in the dark ages of laptops until I purchased my new one.  What a difference I've found!  Now it doesn't take me hours to make a blog post.  :)

I think I told you late last week that I emailed a note of complaint to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife service about not receiving any kind of response from the places I had applied to for this summer.  Well, yesterday  morning I received a call from one of the wildlife areas while I was on top of one of the hills looking for the golden cheeked warbler.  I spoke with the volunteer coordinator and he certainly didn't  paint a very pretty picture of his facility.  So, I passed on that assignment....two hours from groceries and shopping, horrible bugs all summer, and they're not sure what to do with volunteers other than put them in the office.  Not my cup of tea by a long shot!  I guess my email had some effect, but I haven't heard from the other place yet.  I sent in my application to Malheur NWR last Friday, so maybe I'll hear from them within the next two weeks.

I had to turn on the AC today, as temps were into the eighties and my rig sits in full sun all day.  I'm not complaining though, I love the warmer temperatures.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

The Sunday Blast from the Past

The pictures and text are all mixed up this week, and there appears to be nothing I can do about it. So, this is one of the endangered Ocelots that was captured by the biologist. The study of these rare cats has been going on for years, and the special habitat that they require can be found on the refuge.
The habitat is presently at capacity with no more territories available for young cats.

One of the things I did on the refuge was work the hunter check station. It seems odd to have a hunting season for deer, feral hog, and Nilgai when the temps are in the eighties.

This roadrunner hung around the volunteer village RV sites. More than once he plucked up birds to eat. First, he'd grab them around the neck and then beat them back and forth on the ground until they were dead. Kind of a grizzly scene to watch!

There were butterflies everywhere in the gardens surrounding the visitor's center.

Sunset at Osprey Overlook...

Armadillos abound on the refuge.

The next three shots are duplicates. I have no idea why that happened.

By the end of October, 2007, I arrived at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge for my first tour of duty there. This refuge is located on the southern Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico, about twenty miles east of Harlingen.

(This was supposed to be at the beginning of the post)

One of the blue metal mark butterflies.

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It is a birder's paradise.

This, of course, was supposed to be the first picture.

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That's a kind of jumbled view of things at Laguna. Sorry about that.

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Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy