March 14, 2013

The near-tame male and two female Mallard were back on the pond, and while I watched them a fine-plumaged Green-winged Teal landed on the bank of the stockpond and took a very long time to feel at ease enough to enter the water. He was unlike any other individual of this species I’d ever seen: the shimmering cheek patches were the blue of azurite, rather than the usual malachite green.

At last!–a Turkey Vulture, first I’d seen of the year (though David O. reported some aloft a week before) … it was standing next to the pool in Pasture #1 where a leak has made a near permanent water area attractive to wildlife. The vulture was sunning with wings outstretched and it looked huge. It took off, circled up until it joined another, and then another came into the kettle, … and then another … who needs robins to warble Spring into being? We have zopilotes! In this country there is a pleasure in hearing the news get around in this our own local version of winning the ice-break-up date: “Hey, I saw the first vulture!” “Oh no you didn’t–I saw the first one yesterday!” I love how they look down from a dead snag with that put-out, cranky stare of theirs under an arched eyebrow, and think to themselves, “Oh bother!” and with that, projectile crap a stream of the most loathesome smelling stuff–keep your dogs and horses away, amigos. True Desert Noir, a life twisted, perversely humorous some could say …