Zuni's Birds & Muskhog Springs

I finally figured out the the birdies around here are ground feeders. No more feeders suspended from pretty shepherd's crooks! We are very lucky to be able to feed the birds here in our residence area because some parks have a blanket policy that prohibits feeding any wildlife outdoors anywhere in the park. Here are a couple of photos out the front door as Zuni sees it:

One of the many varieties of (as Ross calls them) "coo birds". In this case a white-winged dove.

Zuni loves them all - big and little!

Tuckered out after a morning of chasing birds from window to window.

Yesterday (Feb. 19) Walt and I were patrolling the north side of the park and stopped in to visit one of the other volunteers, Mark, at Persimmon Gap Visitor Center. He was looking for something to do so we all hiked to Muskhog Springs - which we scientifically measured the flow at 1 gallon every 8 minutes.

We felt lucky that there was water there at all since we've not had rain in over 2 months! It was pretty hot but a nice breeze kicked up from time to time in the canyon and provided some relief.

The bedrock is scoured to "slick rock" throughout most of the canyon.

The steps formed in the slick rock. Here Mark and Walt are examining the buggy creatures in a small tinaja.

Holes like this in the bedrock appear to have been made by erosive action. Note the comet-like flow of water and the rusty orange residue left by some embedded iron.

Walt relaxing at lunch time.

Mark at lunch time, too.

Me scientifically measuring the spring's flow using a 6 oz. yogurt cup. Walt came up with the idea to find a solitary pool in the spring, remove a known amount of water, then mark the time when the spring re-filled the pool and it spilled over again. I thought this was very clever!

We are now into the dry part of the winter but there are still a few flowers.

Of course the title of this photo is "Walk softly but carry a big stick"! In this case a very long sotol flower stalk.