Cut and Run

Our transition to Sedona was supposed to happen on Monday, but with a forecast of snow there, we have decided to move it up a day because, as it so happens, the house there is vacant and waiting for us and the owner is amenable.  Tomorrow will be packing, errands and a short hike.

So today was a last visit to the cranes where I tried to focus on the wider spectacle - and a visit to downtown Lowell - a part of town on the lip of the open pit mine which houses the props for the Broken Spoke Saloon of Daytona and Sturgis fame.

But first Harley and I went for a walk up above OK street. but I can't post the photo because the phone and the computer are not talking....


Then to the Cranes:

 The opening act - a mess of ducks spooked by a hawk.

Then the cranes came in.... There was nothing then as if a switch had been flipped the sky was filled with large birds.

 Today the wind was such so they landed facing us.

 

As we left - It's not easy being green.

 He did not go gently into that dark gullet.

Lowell - a bit different.

 and across the street ....

 

Winding down in Bisbee

Today we went to the Coronado National monument and also to Ramsey canyon in the mountains near Sierra Vista.

We were hoping for tourist friendly Jays but alas they are off on Thursdays apparently.  Saw a couple of road runners who were too fast for photographing.

There is a road in Coronado which goes way up and tests Shelley's mettle as it is bumpy dirt has no guard rails and much deeper drops than Box Canyon.

Today's photos are mostly landscapes with the occasional telephoto close up of a rock formation, and a sage phoebe who was cooperative.

Back to the Cranes.

We don't get tired of the show - and it's quite predictable it's quiet until 10:30 or so and then they start coming and over the next hour and a half they are all back.

There are, of course, ducks, and other critters including coyote who are looking for a meal or two.  first: find the coyotes - click to make the pictures bigger

Such are the amusements before the cranes start coming in.

 Colors change as they turn in the sunlight.

It may be mating season soon one of the owls has taken up residence in the shed.

Javilina leaving us in its dust.

 

In the footsteps of woolly mammoths -

 But first, a burst of adrenaline in the morning, as this guy, who turned out to be non venomous, joined me in the shower this morning.  Had I known it was less than lethal I might have caught it to present to one of my pet deprived friends at home, but this was before my first cup of coffee, and the shower is not Google equipped - so this interesting critter fell victim to my vertebrate prejudice and my ignorance.  (note this is extremely rare, the first we've seen in several visits)

With Harley at the groomer, Shelley and I went to an unmarked attraction where there had been a major excavation of a hunt by Clovis People.  This was back when Arizona was wet and green, and giant mammals stomped the earth.  13,000 years ago.

 Was looking to see a tusk  - got rocks.

I was really hoping for cloned woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and re-enactors chipping beautiful spear points, but as often happens my wishful expectations were not met.  We were the only people there. in what was a dried wash in a patch of rather unremarkable shrubby desert.  Still it was nice and very worth the visit.
   
link.
http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/cultural/murray.html 

Another visit to a birding spot and it was time to pick up new fluffy, but still the sweet Harley.



 Back in Bisbee

 This is a gateway to a B and B 

 The path home.

Back home we took a different section of a trail above the town after a visit to a dragon sculpture.