Just before I climbed on the Raider to make my last run down to Phoenix to finish the dental patchwork... (at least that of it that was critical and I could find the dinero for... what we made in two weeks at PIR pretty much got chewed up by the dentist :( ... Life in the west Huh?)
We took another walk down the creek...
No luck... Those zoomies are better at their craft... than I am at mine! ;)
How-some-ever... Heidi found a bit of a mystery skull...
We'd just climbed back out of the bottom and she spotted what I'd walked past, gawkin' off somewhere else...
The problem with that is, their home range in Arizona is pretty thin. It's miles away to the north and at least 2000 feet or more higher.
I thought it could be a ferret or an otter even, though I think it's a lil' small to be an otter at only 3" long.
They got wiped out years and years ago or mostly so.
The Arizona fish and game folks caught some of a similar variety in Louisiana and brought 'em out in the early eighties...
Put those immigrants right here in the Verde River area... But... I still can't positively identify this lil' skull...
There's not the proper number of incisors to be weasel, or ferret or Otter...
What I count is not right for even a skunk...
Most all of those that I can find have six... this one has... or had... four.
I suppose this is just some deviant that was missing a tooth... kinda like a puss gut ol' cowboy I can think of! :)
So... we just keep pokin' around in the wild country. Searching the shady trails and Free Country. It takes some time to cover much country when you're stalkin' along hopin' to spot some of the resident critters... but ya know what?
Some folks think to be healthy you gotta squeeze out a sweat... come home with muscles achin' from pushing twenty miles...
It's sometimes harder to go slow than it is to just hoof it along. Keeping slow and quiet actually takes a lot of energy... Moving that foot, slowly, over a log... leaving it suspended for a bit... and putting it down soft... instead of thumping it down like a drunken barfly staggerin' across the parking lot takes muscle! :)
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| *Along a shady Arizona Trail* |
But... it pays off... and you see so much more... if you go quiet and slow. Take a couple steps... stop and look... take a couple steps...
Here in Arizona and all across the west, down along these creeks and rivers... the Riparian Areas... is where you'll find most of the local residents collect. It's where the water is, and That makes it the best place to have the best luck at spotting them...
While I was getting holes in my head filled... Heidi went back out and captured this guy who'd been evading my lens for a few days...
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| *Belted Kingfisher in Arizona* |
He'd flitted and swooped past, too quick to collect... until NOW! Ha! Got Ya!
The Wild flowers are coming on here and there... what looks to be wild Iris is coming up thick... We keep hoping they'll pop before our Need to Roll grows too strong... We'd been planning on pulling north again today...
Maybe hold off till tomorrow... or the next day... the Holiday traffic seems pretty heavy up on the highway...
Up on the Mogollon Rim, Chaco Canyon... Monument Valley... so many choices... and no one to tell me where I HAVE to be... Suh-WHEET!
Later folks... I got some Livin' to do.
Footloose and Face in the Wind
Brian
1 comment:
Happy Easter to you and Heidi! You are out enjoying this spring flower burst and the photos are lovely. Hope where ever you land next, you have just as beautiful a 'backyard' as ever.
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