Anna's Hummingbird

After a lot of rain, and I mean ... a LOT ... that turned the desert, as usual, into yucky sticky clay, we're now in the middle of this nationwide arctic cold spell.
We woke up to 34 degrees this morning, well, not inside of course, and gusty winds. It is COLD!!

I hope this hummingbird I shot a couple of days ago has found some shelter somewhere. I was quite surprised how this picture came out with that soft green and reddish light.

There must have been a leaf and/or blossom in the foreground, or something like that, but I just love it! 

All the moisture in the air caused an unusual foggy morning a couple of days ago.

All spiderwebs were nicely outlined due to the heavy dew:

           

 

This swampy meadow turned out to be completely covered in spiderwebs!

And the bell tower of the resort loomed up rather spooky out of the fog:

The mesa behind us was off and on completely invisible and than re-appeared again:

                                

  

Just like last year, the fall rains have brought out the male tarantulas in their quest to find a mate. During this time these nocturnal animals

disregard their own safety, leave their burrows and wander during daylight hours.

They're very visible crossing the fairways on the golf course.

See him? In the lower right corner ...

Like in other spiders, the female tarantula is likely to eat the male after mating so it's probably good the female will lay about 2000! eggs, although most of the offspring will be eaten by predators.
And if he survives he will only live for about 5-10 years where she can live to be 30!
If I didn't hate spiders so much this would almost make them seem interesting, don't they? (.. nah..)

On another 'interesting' note, the Lajitas resort now offers (twice a week) charter jet service flights, besides the private planes that can fly in already:

So now you can now book a complete all-in 'package', hotel, golf and flight, through the big travel sites like Expedia.

(It's easy to be 'International' when you are practically located on the border of course :-)
                



Word has gone out to all Country clubs, who are one of our most important target groups, and apparently there's a big demand for this service since we're booked solid for the coming weeks.

                         

I tell you, this doesn't come cheap! It just amazes me how many people apparently still can afford something like this ..... times are tough ... for some more than for others ...

Fortunately, sunsets are (still) priceless:

              

Halloween has come and gone already. How is it that at the end of the year days slip by so fast!?

Here's some pics from the Resorts 'happenings'. There was a pumpkin carving contest:

           

Our favorite

                                           
And a costume contest:

We took the easy way out and just dressed up in our 'Texas best'

                                  
                                        Although James added an extra 'twist'

      

And there was some trick-'r-treating:       

I guess you're never too old ....

........... and here's a handsome couple:

OK, like I said, already done and over with. Let's see, what's next ..

Maybe I'll throw in some ducks. Huh, ... ducks in the desert? Yep. 
I guess where it's toasty in winter, and there's water, they'll come! 
Judy, who's in Yuma at the moment, blogged about them already, she has the Colorado River running through, and we have them because of the Rio Grande.
And because of the golf course ponds, as you can see in the pictures below, which are taken right behind the pro-shop.


 

I was there early in the morning, with low light, and they were peacefully floating around.

(By the way, a group of ducks has many collective nouns, including a "brace", "flush", "paddling", "raft", and "team" of ducks).

Slowly the sun revealed their different colors and types:

Like these Ring-necked Ducks who might better be called the “Ring-billed Duck,” for its chestnut neck ring is usually seen only at close range, while the white ring on the bill can be a prominent field mark. (Hunters say ring-necked ducks, also called Ringbills, are very good to eat).

Easy to recognize are the Redheads. Males can make some really unusual noises which can sound like a cat's meow or purr!

And there's these super-cute Pied-billed Grebes, a diving bird but who can also hide by sinking so only it's head is above the water.

                

Well, that's about it for this week. We went to Alpine to do our monthly grocery shopping and I forgot to bring my list but nothing else exciting happened. 

Until next time.

         

Early morning trail ride ..

The week started out pretty quiet, not much going on but for the annual Terlingua Green Scene Festival.
It's a family-friendly festival in Terlingua's Ghost Town, celebrating and promoting sustainable living in the Chihuahuan Desert. 

 

It's proceeds were going to the Terlingua Community Garden to fund four 3,000 gallon rainwater tanks, a must for gardening here in the desert.

Like-minded guests and community members came together to promote sustainability through education, demonstrations, art, and music!                                                                                                               

There even was a parade ...

Than early this week the campground filled up with a large group of Blue Bird Wanderlodge motorhomes for one of their Fall Rallies.

The Wanderlodge is a high end brand of Class A motorhome recreational vehicles that was built by the Blue Bird Body Company (now Blue Bird Corporation) in Fort Valley, Georgia, from about 1963 until 2009.

I've since learned from several very nice and proud members of this particular group that it was sold around the world to celebrities, dignitaries, and even heads of state. Notable owners include the former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, country music superstar Johnny Cash, and King Hussein of Jordan, among others.

                    

Features of the Wanderlodge that were unique when introduced in the sixties included a built-in safe, redundant heating and hot water systems that used electricity, engine heat or diesel, and fuel tanks offering range in excess of 1,000 kilometers (620 mi).

And than last Wednesday was the kick-off of the annual CASI International Chili Cook-Off.
The Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization raising money for charity (over $1,000,000 last year alone) for charity, promoting American red chili.

Each year CASI sanctions over 500 chili cook-offs internationally as qualifying events for the Terlingua International Chili Championship, TICC. This ultimate chili cook-off is held the first Saturday of November as part of a week long festival taking place at the society’s grounds, Rancho CASI de los Chisos, near Terlingua, Texas.

                      

It's a Texas tradition of epic proportion - complete with an annual proclamation from the Governor declaring "Chili Appreciation Society International Day" in Texas! 

There are hundreds of RVs and tents set up in little villages across the desert for days before the contests start.

Everyone seems to be having a good time, there is plenty of beer to go around but we've heard it can get pretty rowdy in the afternoon.

Lots of crazy hats and a few outrageous costumes. In the area known as Krazy Flats you will even start to see a fair bit of skin as the day goes on!

 

If you don't need to be on the roads around this week you're advised to stay off them since drinking and driving seems to be somewhat of a problem every year.

Let's just say, without wanting to sound too snobby, and it sure is to be very colorful and so on, but this is not really our crowd unfortunately, and since there's also no actual chili tasting going on for the public (how weird is that?) we've decided to skip the event.

                                     

We do get to have some of the fun though since the grounds over there only provide primitive sites and (porta-potty) toilets, so some of the nearby hotels and campgrounds, including us, allow visitors to shower for a $5 fee.

We're even running a shuttle van to and from the grounds.          

Needless to say, you're much better off using your own bathroom for the time being since there are big waiting lines for the campground's and they're starting to look a little 'used'.

 

OK, that's about it for now. In about an hour I'm off to the hotel to watch the Trick-'n-Treating and Costume Contest the Resort is putting on. Pictures in the next post!

Just for fun, here's a another shot from our local Roadrunner:

                                                                                 

And a late butterfly:

    

 

Wow, Halloween is just around the corner, can you believe it? 

Nature here is trying it's best to get into the mood (and worked with the little she got) by coloring these Leather Stem / Rubber Bushes (Jatropha dioca), a pretty orange!

..... and for a splash of  yellow!

 

Back-lit grasses are always pretty!

Not much else is going on here. Since we're not doing any traveling this Fall I've started to at least 'travel on paper' by looking for contenders for our next Spring destination.
We're thinking South Dakota, especially the Black Hills. It's a very touristy area with lots of campgrounds and golf courses so lots of possibilities! 

We'd like to stay out of the busiest areas like Keystone or Rapid City, so I'm thinking of Custer or Hill City instead,  maybe Spearfish or Lead. Anybody has some advice?
Of course a lot depends on where the jobs are. We'll see.

In the meantime here's a few nice close-ups of the 'bug' life around here!

           A gorgeous Flame Skimmer or Firecracker Skimmer (Libellula saturata).

Cloudless Sulfur butterfly

 

 


And a Chilocorus stigma,commonly known as the twice-stabbed lady bug/beetle. How's that for a name? Twice stabbed .....
 

There has been a colony of bats living under the eves of the restaurant and bar roof-overhang for the longest time now. Of course they're harmless themselves but their droppings do make a mess on the tables and patio so finally management decided they had to go.
(too many complaints of 'something in my soup' I guess)

I borrowed this picture from Wikipedia

They're Mexican or Brazilian free-tailed bats, very common in Texas and even the official 'state bat'. When the bug (mosquito) population plummets in the winter they usually migrate to caves in Mexico.
The tail of these bats stretches further than the hind leg membrane, hence they are named "free-tailed" bats. They're the "jets" of the bat world being very fast flyers.




After consulting with the Rangers at the Barton Warnock Visitor Center next door it has been decided to try to entice them to move into these very nice and modern bat-apartments.

                            

They put up 3 of them, I hope it'll work!

Next up also isn't a bug but a bug-eater:

Peekaboo!

Can you see me now?
(Black-throated Sparrow)

And here's a 'bug' that has me stomped. No clue what spider makes this interesting cone shaped 'hide-away' in it's web. 
And although I HATE spiders with a vengeance and you can reduce me to an incoherent blubbering mass if you ever stick one in my face,  I thought this one's at least fascinating.

See the 'nest' in the middle of the pic?

I googled around some and finally the people at Bug-guide.net came up thinking it's the nest of a Coneweb Spider aka Desert-shrub Spider in the family Diguetidae. 

They decorate their inverted-thimble nests with the husks of their prey, like pirates!

 

That's the spider in the bottom pic. It's really not that large, I enlarged the picture. 
Still too big for my comfort-zone though, I used all 42x zoom my camera is capable off!