In the Bus

Desert Boy is obsessed with buses. Every time he sees one, he points and starts saying "Bus, bus, bus." Except he doesn't stop at saying bus three times. He says it over and over and over.

He loves to go down to the shop area and play on the old buses. There's something even better, though, and that's getting on a real bus, a working bus.

Fortunately for Desert Boy, Aunt Tana drives the bus. She let him get on the other day and practice driving in her driveway. He found out how all the lights operate. He steered this way and that. And then he grabbed the door handle and pulled it closed. He closed it so far it locked. 

No one panicked. Desert Boy was doing what he liked best. And the back door was open, so Cousin Clay was able to jump inside and come to the rescue. That's what cousins are for.

Animals Eating Dead Elk

A few weeks ago, I did a post about an elk that was killed by a mountain lion. A camera was set up to document what came and fed on the elk. Finally the photos came back, and today we're going to look at what feasts on a huge dead bull elk. Before you look at the photos, take a guess. What do you think eats a dead elk?

A mountain lion showed up. This wasn't much of a surprise, because it was a mountain lion that killed the elk. An elk will provide food for almost a week for a single lion. For some reason the photos came out double-exposed, so that's why there are some extra shadows in there. One of the nice things about the wildlife cameras is they will provide a date and time stamp so you know when the creature walked in front of the camera. I enhanced these photos since they were taken at twilight.

Here's the lion again. You can just imagine the power in those legs, and the stealth of the cat as it took down the much bigger animal. 

I went on this trail the other day, and when I got in the area of the elk, I just kept on a'movin', hoping the lion didn't look at me as easy meat. Most likely the lion has moved far off, but you never know.

There's something about not being the top of the food chain that makes me feel a little more alive. Really.

It was cold, as you can see by all the snow, so the elk meat was frozen. I bet it's not as tasty frozen as when it's warm just after the kill. I'm just guessing here, I have to admit I haven't done any taste tests. Nor am I planning to. (You weren't thinking I would, right?)

You have to look closely at this photo to see what's feasting on the elk now. It's night, and a nocturnal animal is in the body cavity. It's black and white with a bushy tail.

Here's a better shot of the spotted skunk, successful in grabbing a piece of the meat. Spotted skunks are rarely seen in this neck of the woods, so it was exciting to get a picture of it.

Now it's daylight. (I cropped the picture if you wondered what happened to the date and time stamp.) What's the blue thing next to the elk carcass? Does it have feathers?

Sure enough, it's a bird, a Steller's Jay to be exact. Okay, I definitely wasn't expecting a Steller's Jay to be posing on the elk carcass.

The camera took more photos after this set taken in late December, so it will be a matter of time to see if any other animals made use of this "free" source of food. And that's all for today. I need to go make some food. Yum.

Coyote Springs--A Pipe Dream?

Out in an uninhabited valley about an hour north of Las Vegas, an incongruous sign and palm trees rise from the valley floor. This is the site of Coyote Springs, touted as a 42,000-acre master-planned community by developer Harvey Whittemore. The plan is for 159,000 houses to be built here, along with schools, fire departments, and shopping centers. Where would these people work? Las Vegas is oft-mentioned, but it's about an hour away, mostly on a two-lane highway with lots of slow-moving recreational vehicles. No houses have yet been built, with Pardee Homes announcing that the building has been delayed  due to a slowdown in the economy.

The first of 16 golf courses is completed. The Coyote Springs website begins "Coyote Springs is defined by a continuous valley of green." I couldn't quite find what they meant, since this is dry desert with lots of space between the cacti, creosote, and yucca, but perhaps that green is going to be the golf courses--if enough water can be found. There are no streams flowing through the area, no springs, no lakes, no ponds. Water has to be pumped out of the ground and piped here. In a desert area with little precipitation, it certainly raises the question: Is this kind of development sustainable? Or is it destined to become the next ghost town?

There were a few golfers on the fairways on the winter afternoon. For this opportunity, it costs up to $175 plus caddie gratuity. If you want to save some money, come golf in the summer, when playing under the sun in 110 degree temperatures will run you just $105 plus gratuity.

Another entrance further down the road has the big Coyote Springs sign, but the landscaping has yet to be completed. I find it rather interesting that every plant has its own irrigation drip, even the cacti.

There's an onsite nursery at Coyote Springs. The trees look outlandish in this place that gets just a few inches of precipitation a year.

This is the entry to the golf club. There were a few vehicles in the parking lot the day I went by.

In the foreground is some of the desert landscaping. It's nice to see them make some attempt to preserve some semblance of the desert, especially since most of this area planned to be developed is (was) desert tortoise habitat. 

I have to wonder who would want to live out here. People who like the remote desert aren't going to want to live with tens of thousands of other people. People who like living near other people are going to want to have more amenities nearby. And the site used to be owned by a Department of Defense contractor and was considered fairly worthless because it's downwind from Area 51 and Nellis Air Force Range, which has bombing practice. 

Recently the developers petitioned the county commissioners for a change in zoning so they could include a hotel-casino on the property. Again, from the Coyote Springs website: "In the town of Coyote Springs, schools are a primary focus." I've always thought schools and casinos to be an odd juxtaposition. 

Despite some xeriscaping, the developer just had to add palm trees. The nearest native palm tree is found hundreds of miles away.

Even worse than the palm trees are the fake rocks and pond--yes pond! planned at the grand entrance.

To the far left of the Coyote Springs is a man-made waterfall. The water will then pool below the sign. I guess this is to make it obvious that as the advertising proclaims, "an amazing desert oasis is taking shape."

It will be interesting to see if home buyers are as elusive as water in this dry, isolated place.

Road Art

One road near my house has a bunch of road art on it, art on fence posts and wires. The man who started the tradition called it "Post Impression Art." He had a number of wonderful artworks out that over time blew away in the wind or were removed by the BLM. Nevertheless, other people add to the artwork from time to time. Here's a small sampling today. I love the one above, a well-done play on the "Great Basin."

Sometimes the artwork isn't a visual pun, but rather just something eye catching that helps relieve the monotony of the fences.

Here's a recycling post. 

One of the long-time favorites of the area is the horse driving the old Model-T. He's a reliable driver, there every day. Except when someone steals him. That's happened twice--what is with people who think it's fun to steal a horse skeleton and leave the car without a driver?

Here's the horse driving again. He obviously enjoys where he is. You can even see him grinning. Maybe all horses are just waiting for the day until they get a machine people built to carry them, rather than them carrying people.

Great Backyard Bird Count Results

This past weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count. I did two counts; the first was when I took Desert Boy for a sled ride down the road. We didn't actually see the Canada geese pictured above during the count, but we saw them a little later in the day--hundreds down in the feed yard. 

On our walk we saw a bald eagle, ravens, American robins, northern flickers, and European starlings within a half-hour time span. One of the advantages of birding in the winter is there aren't so many birds around, so it's easier.

Later during the weekend I went up on the mountain and did some cross-country skiing. The snow was relatively deep, so there weren't too many birds around. But I found several red-breasted nuthatches hanging out in a white fir, eating the little seeds. There was also a mountain chickadee, a Townsend's solitaire singing its repetitive whistle, and a raven. Not too much, but they are still hardier than I am, being able to hang out so long in the cold and snow! 

It won't be too long until the migratory birds start coming through. One of the neatest things about birding is that you don't have to go anywhere to see bright and colorful birds come and visit from a whole bunch of different states and even countries.