Chatfield

Saw a coyote on the trail yesterday. Off on a grassy ridge. He was there for a moment, then gone. There aren’t a lot of different birds here, but there are more magpies than anywhere else we go. We sit outside and have this view through the native grass, pinon pine, juniper, pondersosa pine forest. It’s an open view; plenty of room for the striking black and white magpies to glide back a forth and gather to knurdle at each other. There is a nest in the middle of the small juniper in front of us. More scribbling calls of house wrens here than most places too. I passed a family group next to the trail in the forest; the young ones with their baby faces and tails so short they were almost nonexistent sticking straight up. I got seriously scolded by mom.

This is our first steady stream of hummingbirds this year. They like to fly next to the coach on their way to and from the feeder. It doesn’t matter if we’re outside or even if the awning is out. They buzz right up the length of the coach under the awning, sometimes making us duck. I can’t get past the image of a hummingbird dart stuck in my neck.

It has been a good week here with Matt and his kids. Lots of dinners together.