Hello Kitty

I try to take a walk down by the fields in the refuge every night. I saw a bobcat one of the first times I walked -- from a safe distance-- but I had no camera. Finally, this time I had a camera with when I spied kitty. We think there are two of them around. They love to hunt for birds around the brush down by the water. The one I saw the first time was sitting at the end of the dock -- fishing. A lady that lives close by told us she has watched the bobcat fish off of her dock and after 45 minutes patience paid off and with a swipe of paw in the water the bobcat came up with a fish.

I got a picture of this belted kingfisher sitting on a wire. He is actually overlooking a pond watching for dinner to swim by him. There are osprey, great blue herons, great white egrets and cattle egrets as well as night herons that all fish the ponds. What is kind of funny is the fact that the ponds are used to rear endangered fish. I don't know how many of these precious fish end up as fish dinners for all these critters!

Jim - Working on the Refuge

When we started working at the refuge we were given quite a wardrobe of work clothes. We got polo shirts, tee shirts, cardigans, wind breakers and hats all with the refuge logo on them and very good quality. We also were sent to the local shoe store for some good quality work boots -- for both of us. Nothing is too good for government workers.

We also have access to several refuge vehicles. The volunteers have access to a Ford Ranger, Suburban, Explorer, Expedition and an HHR (a car). There is also a Ford 350 truck that is sometimes available. The day to day work is done with the Ford Ranger (the guys) use this to go clean restrooms, haul garbage, etc. The gals use the HHR mostly to go to the post office and pick up the mail. The other vehicles are used for special projects when you need to haul more than two people. It sure beats a little golf cart that we had at the campgrounds we've worked at before this.

Some of the other work the guys do is a little more strenuous such as trimming trees. This picture of a honey mesquite tree shows how large the spines can be on these trees. This makes it difficult to trim them without getting stabbed.

Don't forget you can always click on these pictures and make them bigger.

Yuma Proving Grounds

Every morning during the week that we go to town we get to watch the Army practice skydiving. Martinez Lake road is a public county road that goes through the military proving ground. The amount of land the military owns north of Yuma is amazing and they are very busy on it testing equipment and ordinance (bombs). There are several bases located here for both the Army and the Air Force. The Marines have a base on the southside of Yuma and their playground is the Barry Goldwater range south of Yuma and Wellton. Yuma is pretty much surrounded by military operations. It's good for the economy because they hire lots of civilians.

The parachute jumpers come down very close to the road. You can see their drop zone in the one picture and see how close to the road it is. One day there was some gusty winds when we were coming through and they were missing their mark. Honestly we thought the one guy was going to land right on the roof of our truck. If I had opened the sunroof I could have almost reached up and grabbed his foot. We were going slow anyway, the speed limit through there is 25, but we slowed down even more seeing that happening. The guy overseeing the jump on the ground came running out on to the road and stopped all the traffic behind us as the rest of them came down. They all followed the first guy even though they were off their mark. I guess they are just learning how to follow in formation. You can see a white cross in the drop zone, obviously there to remember someone who didn't make it. You would think one of them would land right on that cross --and with them coming down with their legs apart you know where that hit. -- OUCH!

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Three wildlife refuges are under one management entity here in Arizona. We are working on Imperial but we also work with the folks at the Kofa and Cibola refuges. We had a meeting up at Cibola. Cibola is up off of interstate 10 on the California- Arizona, Colorado River border south of Blythe, Ca. They have two workamper couples there that volunteer. They have nice rv pads for them with big shade canopies for their rigs. They deserve nice places to stay because they are really out in the middle of nowhere. Its almost 100 miles to a Walmart.

Cibola is managed more for waterfowl than we are at Imperial. They have bigger farm fields planted with corn and grain to attract them. When we were there we saw nice flocks of Sandhill cranes. We also saw lots of Canadian geese and pintail ducks but my favorite was the burrowing owls. They have built burrows out of sewer type pipe covered with sand and rock and a barrier dug deep into the earth to keep other critters out for the Burrowing owls. They sit outside their "burrows" and get some sun. They hunt for mice, etc. Very small and Cute!

Views from the Refuge

We've done some hiking around the refuge. If you hike up on top of some of the hills (just following wild burro trails) you can get some spectacular views. The one view is the river winding through the refuge with some little backwaters. If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see the sandbars in the river. The water is very low in the river -- they are using as much as they can get for irrigation. The fields down here are now full of every kind of lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, etc.

The other picture is from the refuge's boat launch area. There are docks, fishing piers, boat launch and a picnic area. The water is a backwater of Martinez Lake. This lake is just another backwater off of the Colorado River. There have been a lot of fishermen trying their luck and doing pretty well catching large mouth bass and stripers. The water is so low that right now you can't get very far unless you now the river really well. We have only been out on the water once and learned quickly that traveling around all the sandbars is a challenge.

The weather is beautiful for the new year.

We are enjoying temps close to 80 degrees and brilliant sunshine.