by 
May 4, 2013 Caprock Canyon
It appears the hummers have abandoned us. We replaced the old feeder they were used to with a new one and for some reason they wouldn’t sip from it. After examining it, they would fly off. That is the black chin(s) would. I saw a transient visit it but the black chin ran it off, a dog-in-the-manger attitude if there ever was one. We bought the new one last year in Red River and the store proprietor told us the one we selected was the favorite of the hummers around there. We finally went back to the old one but have had no customers since. It’s been several days so it doesn’t seem that our regular(s) are just in a snit but have moved on completely. With the dry spell the flowers are sparse so you’d think a steady source of sustenance would be attractive.
There is a robin around that apparently has suffered an injury and can’t fly. It can still move fast, though, and quickly seeks sanctuary in the piñon by the driveway, which it can hop up into, when it feels threatened. I have a dripper running from the rain barrel to the flower bed in front of the piñon so it has access to water, and of course it can forage around our yard just fine.
Some of the grapevines are slower about putting out new growth than others and those are progressing slowly. The others have really kicked it into high gear in the last couple of weeks. Apparently the heat suits them. Their vigor seems greater than normal for this time of year but it may be that time has dulled my memory of previous years. As long as they don’t get hailed out or worse, there will be plenty of grapes this fall. Since I have a carboy from the ’16 vintage working in the cave, I won’t try to make any wine but Joyce should be able to make popsicles aplenty.
Genna planted different varieties of iris here and there around the place which flower at different times giving us a steady parade of color. The snapdragons, chocolate flowers, blanket flowers, penstemon, rose and dianthus are all blooming nicely, as well, mostly because they get watered. And the weeds. There is a prevalent weed that’s like a dandelion on steroids common around the place. It grows along I-40 and is untroubled by dry weather. Like, most weeds it will still manage to produce seeds regardless of conditions and this particular one produces seeds like dandelions only the ball is several time larger than a dandelion. The wind dutifully distributes the seeds all over the area and SA gets its share. Yesterday Joyce and Rebecca launched a frontal attack trying to keep the ones on SA from adding to what will blow in from the highway. Weed abatement is just a part of life on our little patch of ground, which seems larger when one is trying to control weeds.
The ducks aren’t around these days. That’s their typical pattern: they show up in early spring but become scarce as the weather gets warmer, probably because they are nesting somewhere.
There is a mourning dove nesting in the black pine outside the sky-room window. Its brood should be hatching out soon. Growing up, all I can remember were mourning doves. Now they are less common than ring-necked and white wing doves, which are larger. In spite of the larger size, I saw the male (I presume) mourning dove send one of the other varieties packing when it got too close to the nesting tree.
This week out at the Bluff I spent most of my time and energy working around the water feature. I’m trying to reduce the cattails to something manageable and there are other non-aquatic weeds that need to be dealt with. When I came back to the pond itself after dumping a wheelbarrow load of weeds in the dumpster I saw a couple of coachwhips sharing a tender moment. When they saw me they hightailed it over the foot bridge next to the pond and then under it, which is where at least one them stays, I think. They slither with their head and first six or eight inches of their body off the ground. It was interesting to see them skimming over the bridge in parallel formation. Later, after again being away from the bridge area and returning, I saw one with its head poking up between the boards of the bridge as a sort of serpentine periscope.
I saw another good-sized snake at the head of the water feature. I didn’t recognize it but its brownish color with faint mottling and light to yellowish belly makes me think it was a variety of water snake.
There was a juvenile tarantula about the size of a 50-cent piece on the front porch, deceased. Not sure what its story was. Tarantulas that size aren’t often seen, probably because they get consumed if they are out in the open.