Killing quality time

I woke up this morning to find both a tiercel and falcon peregrine (Falco peregrinus Tunstal) perched in the eucalyptus snag that sits a few hundred meters north of my house. This particular collection of bare boughs and branches is/was one of the largest trees in the neighborhood and thus, has the sort of commanding, 360° view favored by birds of prey. It's also perfectly positioned to have a spotting scope trained on it from my side patio. Someday, a howling wind or a worried arborist is going to take that dead tree down. The hawk watching will never be the same.

The longer this vacation lasts, the more I'm unwinding. I wake to the first rays of the morning sun and the stirrings of our dogs, not the shrill beeping of an alarm in the pitch black. I eat my knockoff Lucky Charms, drink as much of my fancy-pants coffee as I please, walk the mongrels, and sit for hours watching birds before riding or working out. Oh, and it's not just birds I watch - three coyotes (Canis latrans Say) cruised up the dirt road this morning. One banked into a patch of desert across the street, one went south of the house next to the wash, and the third went up my driveway. I suppose I was surrounded. Oh well.

I'm also enjoying myself more now that the first couple of winter-type storms have come and gone. Yes, the southwest needs rain and snow but no, I don't enjoy being trapped in the house by inclement weather. On the other hand, the gentle rains and subsequent sunshine left the trails in state of perfect tackiness today - soft enough to accept tire tracks, dry enough not pack the knobs, and not a drop of mud to cake the frame. Yeah, it's all good here in southern Arizona.