Walking the river and seeing black hawks

I slept in today.  I missed the sunrise.  Zeke jumped into bed, nearly smothering Kevin and that was at 5:30am when the sun was already up.  Zeke is a loveable dog, but he has no concept of respecting our personal space.  All the other dogs walk around us when we are in bed.  Not Zeke.  He jumps into bed like a loaded fur bomb and prefers landing right on top of you.

My Mother's Day present came today.  Kevin had ordered it last month from a new upstarter,  Gear Bubble.  He got me a personalized coffee mug that was nicely packed in a styrofoam cube.  I was touched.  But then I noticed the misspelling of "and."  But there was more: both Proper names were not capitalized.  And then the glaring grammar mistake with "If some other woman was my Mom..."   (It should read "If some other woman WERE my Mom...") really drove me nuts. I went to the website to write a review but couldn't find where to post one, although there were hundreds of other five-star reviews.  My comment on the company's Facebook page never posted, either.  This mug had the potential of being a great five-star gift if the grammar and spelling had been perfect.

I missed the club hike and opted to stay in, drink coffee in bed and write more reviews for Amazon.  I'm so far behind with posting reviews, I'm surprised Amazon hasn't dropped me from their Vine program.  However, clouds started moving into the area and it got cooler, meaning perfect weather for a hike down the river.  When Susan contacted me asking me if I wanted to go walk with her, I jumped on the chance.  We met at 3pm by the B&B and walked south.  I wanted to show her  the tree shrine and Chevy carcass.  She had never been down the river this far south, and she really liked what she saw.

There is no designated trail here.  We walked through the stream, walked on the eastern ridge and followed a faint social trail (this river is popular with illegals coming up from Mexico).  Fallen trees, snags, dead grass line the route.  In the monsoon season these grasses will grow five feet tall; a perfect cover for those sneaking across the border which is six miles to the south.

Clouds continued to move in.  It got windier and cooler. It even looked like we could get rained on.  Our feet were already wet from the water, what  was a little more rain?  That last half mile, however, was along the dry creek bed.  This area is notoriously dry.

I took her on the route I did on Thursday, but we turned around at the upturned Chevy, making this hike a half-mile shorter than Thursday's.

Susan told me that this walk was more fun than expected.  She had wanted to hike somewhere else, but today's hike was very enjoyable.  Like me, she appreciates discovering new things along a route.  It could be an oddly-shaped tree, a unique flower, a colorful bird.  We spotted a camouflaged carpet shoe strewn in the grass. the same kind we saw up river last week.  It looks like something an illegal border crosser would wear to erase its footprints.

Today's big discovery was watching what we are sure was a pair of nesting black hawks.  At first we thought they were turkey vultures, but the shriek was unlike that of a vulture.  Susan then said grey hawk, which are rather rare she said.  We then settled for black hawk, as the birds had distinctive white bands on their tails. They seemed bothered by our presence.  We couldn't see a nest but that doesn't mean there wasn't one in the area.  Both flew overhead shrieking.  The shriek was not that of the red-tailed hawk.  We watched them for quite a while.  They watched us, too.  I took photos of the birds but my cellphone can't capture that detail.  I took a 4:40 minute video, but am unsure if I can post that here.

Susan then spotted a tanager. (I never did see it.)  I spotted some yellow monkeyflower (they like wet grounds and grow near water sources) and a headless swallowtail butterfly.

The walk was almost two hours for the 3.75 miles.  We came back to our cars with a dark grey band of clouds over the mountains.  Would it actually rain?  Virga clouds to our north were raining, but the water was evaporating before it hit the ground.

We both agreed that today's walk was an eventful one.  I got home and read up on black hawks.  They are native to central and south America, but travel through a narrow band up into Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.  They like to nest in cottonwoods near rivers. They like to eat crabs, but frogs and rodents are also eaten.

It never rained over us, although I could smell it via the damp aroma of sage and creosote.  At 9:30pm I drove to the gas station to get beer and saw lightning toward the northwest (Tucson).  The road was wet, too.  A waxing gibbous  quarter moon shined in a near cloudless sky.

Rain for tomorrow is still forecasted at 60%.  Depending on how heavy the rain is, I'm tempted to hike up Carr peak.  I need to hike the peak before the end of the month.  I hope to see more wildflowers now.

https://tetonraptorcenter.org/our-work/education/all-about-raptors/hawks/common-black-hawk

https://www.raptor.umn.edu/learn-about-raptors/raptors-north-america/common-black-hawk 

The common black hawk’s preferred habitat is coastal lowlands of mixed savannah, dunes, ponds, lagoons, and grasslands. It can also be seen along wooded streams and even in hilly deserts, such as in Arizona, sometimes up to 5,000 or 6,000 feet.