Groove-billed Ani

 

Late summer.  It’s hot.  It’s quiet.  We still have the usual suspects at the feeders.  Grackles, sparrows, doves.  Only the occasional cardinal or thrasher now.  Not as many as in the winter.  There is probably enough natural food for everyone.  The feeders aren’t that big a deal like in the winter.

 

Then we hear that sound.  A groove billed ani.  Its call is a distinctive chortle, unlike any of the other birds around.  First, we hear it.  Then we see it.  It flies its wobbly floppy flight into the tree behind our fence.  Then another.  Then another.  A whole gang of anis shows up; eight in total.  Mostly, they stay obscured in the foliage of the tree.  One lands on the wire.

 

I zoom in.

 

Groove-billed Anis are sometimes described as looking disheveled.

 

Disheveled.  Yes.  But charming.

 

The anis are here in our neighborhood for two or three hot months, then they’re gone to Mexico, Central and South America for the rest of the year.

 

 

 

The Missing Link

 

Remember that?  As kids, the burning question was what the missing link was between apes and man, the half man/half beast.  That was the way to question whether evolution was real or not.  If man descended from monkeys, where is the missing link?  How come there isn’t anything in-between?

 In the relentless archaeological search since, I think that link has been illuminated many times.  Of course, humans didn’t descend from apes or monkeys, but humans and apes do have an ancestor in common.  Since humans split from the ancestors of apes, there isn’t a single linear progression, but a chronical of steps and missteps.  Our knowledge of early man is now expanded to at least twenty species!  Our family tree is a bush.  Branches go all directions.  Many terminate without any direct connection to ourselves, homo sapiens, the single remaining species of early man.

 

This didn’t all happen in linear time either.  I find it fascinating that multiple species coexisted at times; each one likely better suited for specific conditions, and as conditions changed some species won out, some withered, some evolved further.  I wonder what the next 50 years of archaeology will reveal.

 

I also find it fascinating that we need scientific study to reveal what, at a particular point in time, everybody already knew!  We don’t have a linear accumulation of knowledge either.  We gain it in fits and starts.  Some endures.  Some is lost.  Bits are recovered.

 

Take an American robin

 

 

 

Do him all up in neutral colors.

 

And you have a clay-colored thrush!

 

 

 

Another Big Trip

 

 

But this one isn’t ours.  Becky and Brian are on their big trip to England.

 

Becky and Brian's trip map

 

It’s a big trip for Taylor too.  Becky, Brian, and Tony are there, for now, but Taylor is not coming home when everyone else does.  Taylor has done the up-front work for the visa that is necessary to be able to stay and study for at least a year.  Settling into a flat in Goring on Thames to live is not as simple as just popping over for a visit.  It took a lot of doing to make this come together.

 

Goring on Thames is outside Reading, which is west of London.

 

Bus and train service should make for a reasonable round-trip commute to University at Reading several days a week.  Reports are that Goring on Thames is a charming English village.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1i0mj2X93woiShn18mAhulhocBb8jglk&ll=51.48950754902958%2C-1.037116097669517&z=12

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing

 

 

A Rustic Sphinx Moth

 

In Arizona.

 

 

 

We looked it up

 

 

This is called a Red Bird of Paradise bush

 

 

It’s all over Southern Arizona landscaping.

 

 

A water lily at the Butterfly Center

 

 

A freshly planted succulent garden

 

Our little Freddy is growing up

 

 

He is so independent now that when he goes out at night, no telling if he’s even going to be home by dawn!  Sometimes we wake up to an empty puddle.

 

Water, but no Freddy.  Sometime later in the day though, there he is again, curled up in his pond.

 

Here’s a cool little thing

 

 

 

It’s a six-spotted milkweed bug!

 

We have milkweed in our yard, so it’s come to just the right place.

 

 

 

Morning at our house

 

 

The humidity is winning.

 

It’s ten points higher than the temperature!

 

 

I thought

 

 

I thought southern Arizona would be the perfect place for solar energy.  I thought we would see a lot of solar panels on home roofs, but we didn’t see any.  Instead, we saw subdivision after subdivision with tile roofs unblemished by solar panels.

 

 

I guess tile roofs are perfect for the Arizona heat, and maybe it’s hard to nail solar panels onto clay tile roofs.

 

The multi-generational household

 

 

We got that in Chandler, and more.  Grandparents, kids, grandkids all in the same house.  Each quiet morning evolving into the chaos of the day, winding down at night to relative quiet, and all the older people gone to bed.  Morning coffee on the outside patio and breakfasts in shifts.  Shared plans executed during the day.  Lunch and dinner together.  With Christie there, we were a family of nine, but there were rarely that few.  Austin on the couch made it ten.  The first night at Matt’s house was pizza for sixteen.  The next night was the party, again at Matt’s house, for thirty-five or forty.  The next night Judy made dinner for sixteen.  Swiss steak like mom used to make.  Mashed potatoes, brown gravy, and dinner rolls.  Back at our house the next day there were twenty-three for lunch!

 

The rhythm was flawless, each person getting what they needed.  An absolute delight.

 

Judy and I are back home at Sandpipers now.  No more trips on the schedule.  Becky has a quick turnaround.  Several of them are leaving mid next week to move Taylor to England.  Taylor will embark on an advanced degree at the University of Reading.

 

Along the way

 

Broad-billed Hummingbird.

 

Mexican Jay.

 

Arizona Woodpecker.

 

Acorn Woodpecker.

 

Coatimundi.

 

One of their cool features is that they can turn their rear ankles around and walk headfirst down trees!

 

Wild Turkey.

 

And one very pissed-off rattlesnake!

 

We dropped Conner off at college in Tucson yesterday

 

 

So why is he still in all the family pictures!

 

We all went back to Tucson again today and then to Madera Canyon to hike together in the cooler altitude.  Tucson is at 2,400 feet.  Madera Canyon is at 5,400 feet.  From 98 degrees to 82 degrees!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

University of Arizona

   

A drive to Tucson with everybody for move-in day for Conner.  It’s a family tradition.

 He got a nice sized dorm room inside the south end of the football stadium.

 

His roommate won’t be here (There, we’re back in Chandler tonight.) until Friday.  We got to wander campus.  Met some people.  Ate at the food court.  Bought souvenirs at the bookstore.  Saw a lot of stuff.

 

 

 

 

Conner is off on the grand college adventure.

 

Right now

 

 

Right now, you’re probably thinking to yourself:  “I wish he’d just shut up and send out some bird pictures!”.  Well, message received.

 

Rosy-faced Lovebird.

 

 

 

There is a flock of them in the neighborhood, so we hear them outside every morning!

 

Gambles Quail, but they didn’t want anyone close to them.

 

 

A gallinule baby.

 

Not exactly cute.

 

A night heron, if you can make out the shape.

 

And bunnyrabbits!