Digger -the Desert Tortoise

It's warm and spring is here in Yuma. Digger is the resident desert tortoise at the visitor center. He blends in with his surroundings so well that many visitors don't see him. In this picture -- he's the rock to the left of the post. His pen has a burrow in the middle that he goes down into at night and during hibernation. He hibernated from mid-December until mid-February. He loves to sun himself and we feed him kale and broccoli. Desert tortoises in the wild eat anything the desert has to offer such as cactus and any little bit of greenery they find. They get almost all of their moisture from the food they eat. Desert tortoises have claws instead of webbing on their feet so they can dig a hole to escape the heat.

We took a drive to Casa Grande south of Phoenix to visit some friends. The brittlebush, thats the bush in the picture, was blooming all the way along the highway. It made the drive through the desert beautiful.

Fabulous Birds

People come into the visitor center at the refuge and describe birds they have seen and ask us if we can identify them. We have ten different bird books and other reference guides we can use to figure out what they have seen. You can tell the serious birders -- they come in with their binoculars, cameras and knapsack filled with bird books. They also come in with bird songs on their Ipods so they can identify birds just by sound. Some will play the bird song loud as they walk to try and entice the bird out of hiding.

I got a picture of the Long Billed Curlew out on a small par 3 golf course. Not sure what is in the ground under this grass that attracts them. The other bird is a Pied Bill Grebe. It has a stubby beak with a black bar across the middle of the beak. There are many kinds of Grebes down here now and some are even nesting. We've seen a few baby ducks!

Ferguson Lake

The temperature hit 80 degrees so we had to enjoy the weather and take our boat out on the river. We launched at the boat launch here at the refuge which dumps you into a back water of Martinez Lake. We boated through the lake and then up the river a short ways to the entrance to Ferguson Lake. This is a lake that is a back water along the California side of the river. The water is high now in the river but even so the deepest spot we found was about 30 feet deep. Boating in these backwater lakes is a challenge when the water is murky. Water is being released from the dam to the north of us at Parker which stirs up the muck so you can't see the tree stumps and other obstacles. We barely missed one large tree trunk and the boat lightly bumped into a submerged object but luckily it didn't catch the motor. We usually go pretty slow in this kind of water especially in a new lake.

As we were boating into Ferguson we spied this racoon, in broad daylight, up in this tree that had no leaves. Hmmm - was he trying to get up high so he could see where he was? I also got a good picture of Castle Dome peak from the lake. We boated up into the lake far enough that at one point we were on the California side of the refuge and could see our RV and the refuge buildings off in the distance.

Excitement on the River

We went for a boat ride with some friends. We rode in their big Ranger boat -- very nice. They are staying at an RV park right on the river next to the Imperial Dam. We saw lots of interesting birds and ducks. We explored every little channel and small lake along the river above the dam both on the Arizona side as well as the California side. One small lake had warm springs in it and you could see the bubbles coming up . The water around the springs was 71 degrees while the rest of the river has water in the 50's. We saw bass, crappie, catfish, sunfish, carp and stripers swimming around waiting to be caught.

We were on our way back and got within a 1/4 mile of the RV park -- right next to the dam and the motor died. No problem, use the trolling motor, wrong, the steering cable broke. So now we are dead in the water and the boat has no anchor and no paddle. There was a push pull pole that was about 8ft long so us ladies used it to "paddle". The guys worked on the trolling motor until it could be used by hanging on to the top of the head to steer while running the footpedal. It was awkward but it worked. My friend Betty and I were just glad to be moving away from the dam. The water is right up to the top and where we were there was no more wall to stop you from going over -- thats the picture I took -- along with the one of the dam itself. We were never in real danger because we were within shouting distance of the RV park and could have screamed for help. We weren't being pushed toward the edge and as we trolled to the dock the big motor finally started.

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!