Thursday, May 17, 2012

A Little Bird... Thurs., May 17

Cotulla, Texas:

First off, we have a new internet booster so we have 4G internet now instead of 1-2 G's. Yay, Bob, for buying it and setting it up!

We have been gate guarding two weeks. It's hard to believe. The time has gone by fast with day after day of trucks coming and going; no weekends, no holidays, just 24/7 two of us splitting shifts and guarding the gate. But we're doing it and loving the adventure of a new place, different climate, and a totally different job than we've ever done before.

Remember the little Bewick's wren I've been telling you about? The one who got cozy with my arm yesterday? 

She has decided that we are safe and she wants to live with us. Today Bob found her building her nest under our fifth wheel slider, right next to our front door. She is very industrious but we don't want her to nest there (even though it's a great compliment to be chosen by said bird). 

Our fear is, she will lay eggs in her cozy nest, have adorable hatchlings she will need to feed, then we will have to close the slide and move; thereby crunching up her little bird family. Bye bye birdie.

All day today Bob and the wren were working against each other. And let me tell you that little bird is industrious. She had twigs and nesting material coming together into a nice nesting place. Bob kept tearing it down. She built it again. Bob tore it down. On and on. 

We didn't know what to do to dissuade her. Bob put pieces of foil on strings and hung them around where she was building. That stopped her. We're hoping she found a nice nest site in some of the desert scrub.

I forgot to mention that we have two gray cottontails who come out in the evening across the road from us. We can see them out our dining room window.

Another wildlife sighting here that is pretty cool is the scissor-tailed flycatcher. This bird sits on the telephone wires and has a long, scissor-shaped tail. It's very distinctive in flight.

Work was busy all through the night. One well site finished up coil tubing, so last night and all day today they moved big equipment out. The other well site has finished fracking and they will start coil tubing in a few days (not sure exactly when). All that equipment moved out today as well. Since almost everything is gone except for some super-large equipment, we will most likely have a quiet night. I'm going to catch some zzz's.

G'night all.