Fly Over

Autumn in West Texas is really fine.  The temperatures during the day are generally mild, with bright sun and clear crisp skies more often than not.  Lubbock is on a migration fly way, and there are lots of birds flying over head.  Particularly on the clear sky days, you can see and hear geese, and almost as often, hear, if not see, sandhill crane. 

When sandhill crane are migrating, they fly very high.  Their call is a very loud trilling sound. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/videos. To see them is sometimes difficult. As they fly, sometimes they circle, and when they do, their aspect changes.  Sometimes as this occurs, they seem to disappear, and then reappear.  It is a magical display to see.

I love the geese and crane flyovers.  They are just breathtaking to see, and lift my heart.

Taos Serendipity

Taos is not one of the areas of New Mexico I had previously visited.  I am not sure why, but part of it was because my impression of Taos was that it was a high tone artists colony, an environment in which I would be very uncomfortable.  That may be true.  It was there today, and there are some very posh art galleries.  There are also lots of typical tourist trap artsy-fartsy places that hope some of the posh rubs off on them by association.

On my trip to Capulin Volcano, I did not even consider going from Raton, where I was staying, to Taos, at first.  But, then I Iearned that the Annual Fiber Festival was being held.  I thought that might be an interesting activity to attend...So, my second day of the trip was the ride through Cimmaron Canyon over to Taos.

The trip was breath-takingly spectacular:  High mountains, wide canyon valleys, hills, lakes, aspens turning gold. Part of the trip through the canyon was on narrow, twisting roads with steep ledges.  Not unlike parts of the Berkshires where I used to ride and drive when in Massachusetts.  I loved it...

As I drove west, I saw pronghorned antelope, a mule deer, black-billed magpies, crows, red tailed hawks, Swainson's hawks, another unidentified hawk, and vultures, and a ground squirrel. Returning home, I saw antelope, a Golden eagle, black-billed magpies, crows and a ground squirrel... Good sightings.

As I drove through Taos, I did not stop at the Fiber Festival...I drove straight on to the Taos Pueblo, which is still inhabited by some, and has various shops... There had just been ceremonies the later part of September.  The wares were good, many reasonably price, but nothing I found I wanted to buy...I wish I had found something. I took the self guided tour, enjoyed the babbling brook and shady perch of a bench for a while, and then returned to Taos.  On the way back to town, I bought gasoline at Indian Reservation prices...

I went to the Fiber Festival.  There were some interesting animals, a few demonstrations, lots of stalls of yarn, and some very good music.  I ate a lamb pattie in a tortilla with fixings.  I watched a knitting demonstration for a few minutes... I knit...If you knit, I think watching a knitting demonstration of typical normal stitches with no narration is more boring than watching grass grow. Frankly, I like to sit in the back yard and listen to the grass grow while I read, knit, computer or what have you. But watch the grass grow? No.

So, I wondered throughout much of the rest of commercial Taos...I have already written my impression of Taos...But, as I said the return trip was just as spectacular, made even more so by the contrast in lighting by some black as night storm clouds to my left, and the setting sun behind clouds, as I looked in the rear view mirror... Truly a good vacation day.

Passion

I used to be passionate about stuff, but find I am no longer passionate.  I used to be passionate about NASCAR, and about birdwatching.  Now I just enjoy them... casually. 

I do not know why I feel so little depth of emotion these days. But I have been like this for some time... I just can not get excited about much.

I love my cats dearly, and my family and friends, but just do not have much depth of interest in other things.  I still watch baseball, NASCAR, go birdwatching and kayaking.  I am reading a lot. I still like to knit, and have a crewel and cross stitch project, as well as a couple of knitting projects pending. 

But no passion.   Hmmmmmmmmm.

Birdwatching

I went birdwatching this morning, with the Llano Estacado Audubon Society (LEAS) http://www.leas.bizland.com/  Birding Birds.  The Birding Birds go out once a month, and are a group who just want to do some comfortable casual birding.  Names of attendees and siting information is kept, but is a very casual, relaxed group.

Out of the Turmoil

As I was leaving the Wal-Mart parking lot today, I had an interesting experience.  In the parking lot drive lane, there was a common grackle eating something on the parking lot. I approached slowly, in my vehicle,  but the bird did not move... I aimed my passage over the bird, and as I progressed, the bird seemed to stay on the spot.

I was concerned about the bird, but it did not appear to react to my driving over it (I did try to "miss" the bird's body.)  In my rear view mirror, the bird was still there. 


If you are not aware, grackles have been introduced from Europe. If you see stylized European illustrations, you may see a gracious bird with multiple colors.  Well, great-tailed, boat-tailed and common grackles are very gracious birds.  Their very black feathers are iridescent.  Their posture is preening and self absorbent...

But they are pest birds now in this part of the world....

Having said that,  I would not try to hurt a grackle in the Wal-Mart parking lot..I would be concerned that the grackle is so acclimated to human vehicular travel that it would not move when a vehicle is bearing down on it.

The bird was still alive when I drove on.

The grackle did not worry about his safety... He just went about doing what he does... He was not concerned about the turmoil about him... What lesson in life is there for me in this.


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