Raptor Appreciation Week

I was hoping to cover more ground last Friday and last Sunday but it was not to be. Very frustrating to keep experiencing walkus-interruptus when I'm trying to get some momentum going, but my car has apparently reached that magical age in which one thing after another goes wrong. Plan B - getting my Best Beloved to give up an afternoon of football for the privilege of transporting me and my purple partner to my chosen piece of distant highway and trailing me down the road - was a no go. Now I'm driving a loaner which is completely unsuitable for my novice pilot car driver to drive - huge and balky and unwieldy - so I'll have to figure something out.

In the meantime, in the super-de-dooper gas-guzzling unwieldy-mobile, we went east past the Very Large Array and on past the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for a presentation by a falconer and wildlife rehabilitator on hunting strategies of hawks, falcons and eagles, and it was excellent. Three hours out in the wide open under a blue sky, soaking up late autumn sunshine and getting closer than most people will ever get to a Harris hawk and a peregrine falcon - fantastic.