Arizona Wild Bird Photos
IN NO WHERE DESERT ARIZONA
August 11/2002 Sun up till after dark about 8:30 P.M.
At 5:30 AM it 68 degrees.
At 8:00 AM it was 99 degrees.
By noon it was 112 degrees.
At 2:30 it was 116 degrees after that I stop looking at thermometer.
Sitting under the canopy of my blind with a wet towel over my head it was just tolerable.
My blind has a 60% sun shade netting over it. It only took 30 minutes for the wet towel to completely dry out.
In the 15 or so hours I was there Sunday I drank at least 2 quarts of Gatorade every hour and one quart of water.
The humidity was so low it did not register on my humidity gauge.
In the past few weeks I have only gone to the site to put out seed and bring water & more water & more water.
The 20 plus gallons I keep on the just is not enough to even last a week.
There for I have installed a 100 + gallon water supply system.
What a JOLT that was putting into operation. I am not even going to tell you how I did that.
I figured I had better stay out there at least one day during this OVEN HOT season.
This would give a chance to see who all was still coming to my feeders and coming to drink.
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I now have 2 hummingbird feeders up, ( yes the pole is at an angle ).
The feeder on the left is open on the top where normally a hummingbird
would stick its bill to get the sugar water. This is so the Orioles can get a drink of sugar water more easily.
Of coarse the Gila's and Flickers like it too.
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No birds came to drink from my dripping water set-up during the time of day I was there.
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Arrow is pointing to the new water container that is fed by the 100+ gallon tanks.
I will leave the other water cans there for a while until they find the new water source.
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As soon as I get my film back I will put on more photos.
You then can see just how GAUNT the poor birds rally are.
The heat, & lack of natural food is really taking its toll on the desert life.
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| The Black-tailed Jacks were still coming in the early AM and in the Late P.M. just before dark to partake of the seed and water. |
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I did not see any Orioles all day. It's the Gila Woodpeckers and Flickers that are now eating the oranges I put out. The Gila's are raising a nest of young in a Saguaro near by. They come and get a few meal worms and then fly to their cavity nest in the saguaro to feed the young birds.
This report 08/11/02
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E-mail Earl @ onthedesert@aol.com
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