An Eclectic Mind

Today’s Amazon.com order.

From living in Wickenburg, I’m extremely accustomed to online shopping. In fact, other than groceries and minor household/hardware items and, of course, feed for the horses, I buy just about everything online.

Today, I started work on a book that I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about yet. And in using my MacBook Pro, I realized that I really miss my Mighty Mouse. So I ordered one. It’ll be here by the time I get back from my Brewster gig. I ordered a wired one because I really hate the wireless version of this mouse. (I have one at home and purposely didn’t bring it.)

By the way, I wrote extensively about the Mighty Mouse here.

I also ordered two birdwatching books. Birds of Washington, which I borrowed from the local library, impressed me so much with its photos that I bought the Arizona version, too. I don’t know if this author has done all the states, but if you’re a birdwatcher and prefer photos over drawings, this might be the book for you. See if its available for your state.

What’s nice is that even though I’m away from home, I can still get my mail here. General Delivery is a wonderful thing.

The three condors of the day.

Actually, there were four. But since the subtitle matches the photo and it’s a great play on words, I couldn’t resist. But now I’m getting ahead of myself.

I had a Grand Canyon charter yesterday. It was a pleasant surprise. Wickenburg is pretty much dead this time of year, so getting a call from someone who wants to fly up to the big ditch for a day isn’t actually expect. Of course, this person doesn’t live in Wickenburg. He’s visiting someone here. This would be a day trip during the visit.

I had three passengers — two adults and an 8-year-old girl — and they were extremely pleasant people. (I can say that honestly about the vast majority of my charter passengers.) They wanted a helicopter tour over the canyon, but since I can’t do that, I fixed them up with Grand Canyon Helicopters, which flies new EC 130 helicopters. After that, the plan was to go into the park and spend a few hours on lunch, walking along the rim, etc. I wasn’t in a hurry to get back to Wickenburg. At the Grand Canyon’s south rim, it would be 85°F. In Wickenburg, it would be over 100°. My helicopter does not have air conditioning.

We left Wickenburg at 8 AM sharp and had an extremely cool and pleasant flight up to Grand Canyon Airport. We walked over to GC Helicopter’s terminal and my passengers checked in. I waited with them until they boarded their flight, then left to place a fuel order and do some scavenging for brochures I needed for the info packets on my Southwest Circle Helicopter Adventure package. My passengers had selected the long tour of the east side — which really is the best tour of the canyon and well worth the money (if you can afford it) — so I had plenty of time. Still, I was back at the terminal reading a paperback when their flight came in.

We took the Xantera shuttle into the park. It took almost as long to get through the entrance gates as it had taken to fly up there. (Okay, so I’m exaggerating. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to fly up there and forty-five minutes to get through though the gates.) I took them through Bright Angel Lodge to the Rim. I pointed out where they could find restaurants, bathrooms, shops, and rim trails. Then I left them on their own until 4:30.

I grabbed some lunch in the Arizona Room. It’s a crime that they put so much food on your plate there. No wonder Americans are obese. I ate about a quarter of what I was served and drank two full glasses of iced tea in an attempt to ward off dehydration without drinking local tap water. Outside, things were much more interesting than the food on my plate. The condors were flying.

The Grand Canyon has been home to a group of California Condors for some time now. Once on the verge of extinction, the condors were reintroduced to the canyon and are reproducing. They spend their summers at the South Rim and their winters at the Vermillon Cliffs area, about 80 or so miles to the northeast, not far from Page.

The birds are amazing, primarily because of their size: they can have a wingspan up to 9-1/2 feet.

To see a bird like this in soaring flight is something not to be missed. And I was sitting in a restaurant in front of too much food while the show was going on outside.

I left the restaurant.

Outside, the condors had stopped flying. I walked west along the rim, hoping to catch a glimpse of them in the canyon. What I found was even better: two of them were perched on the wall at the edge of the canyon at the Lookout Studio.

The lookout studio is a stone building at the edge of canyon. It’s a gift shop that sells a lot of rocks and t-shirts. You can walk through the building onto a back patio. From there, you can follow steps down to a series of lower patios. The birds were perched on the lowest patio’s surrounding wall with a crowd of people remarkably close to them.

I took a photo from the rim, then moved in closer. Another photo. Closer. Another photo. Through the building to the edge of the first patio. There were three of them now. Another photo. Down the first flight of stairs. There were four of them now, although one of them was hiding behind a tree. Another photo. Closer. Another photo. I was 15 feet away now, on the outskirts of a crowd. I watched as a young girl who didn’t look much bigger than the birds, got within 5 feet of them to take a photo with her disposable camera. One of the birds was watching her closely, with beady little eyes. I think he was imagining how she would taste.

Now matter how beautiful condors look in flight, they’re downright ugly when on the ground. They look like vultures — very big, very ugly vultures. It was interesting to watch them watch the literally dozens of people around them. They were obviously as entertained by us as we were of them. The only difference is, they didn’t have cameras.

From the moment I first saw them, I wondered where the ranger was. With wildlife this close, there had to be a ranger nearby. Well, the ranger arrived late to the show. As he came down the steps, he said, “Sorry folks, but I’m going to have to chase these boys away. Can’t have them getting used to people.”

Somebody made a comment that I didn’t hear. The ranger replied, “You want them closer? Just lie down here and play dead.” That, of course, was a reference to a condor’s favorite food: dead animals.

Then he clapped his hands gently a few times while walking forward. The birds jumped off the cliff and into flight.

That’s when the real show began. The four birds flew together in a group, soaring through the sky, climbing and circling. The only camera I had with me was the little Canyon PowerShot I keep in my purse, but it was enough. I got a few photos of the birds in flight. This was far more interesting than watching birds and tourists stare at each other on the patio.

Throughout the rest of the day, I kept my eye out for the condors. I caught sight of them a few times when I returned from a short hike and settled down in the grass near Bright Angel Lodge. I was lying back on the grass, looking through the leaves of the tree over my head, when they flew by.

I was thrilled to overhear a young boy tell his mother that the difference between a vulture and a condor was that the condors had white on the bottom of their wings. I’m sure that’s oversimplified, but who cares? The kid was looking at wildlife, thinking about it, showing real interest and stating his observations. I overheard a lot of little things like that, things that showed that kids were getting something positive out of their trip to the canyon and view of nature.

My passengers found me a while later. It was just after 3 PM, but they were pooped and ready to go. We relaxed a while in the shade, then called for the shuttle, climbed aboard, and went back to the airport. A while later, we were on our way back to Wickenburg. I caught sight of the Grand Canyon Railroad’s steam engine and train on its way back to Williams and did a flyby for my passengers. Then, to make the return flight a little more interesting, I flew over Prescott and down the Hassayampa River. We were back in Wickenburg by 5 PM.

It had been a nice day out for all of us. But then again, how many days that include flying are not nice days?

helicopter, Grand Canyon, condor, California Condor

I buy Alex a new cage and he won’t move in.

I had a feeling there would be a problem, but Janet made my worries seem ridiculous. So I bought the cage.

The idea was to buy Alex, my 18-month-old African Grey parrot, a new cage. This would be one I could leave outside so he could spend nice days outdoors without me having to wheel his cage in and out. Moving the cage is a royal pain in the butt, and I only do it when it’s time to hose it out. A second cage would make life easier and get Alex some fresh air while I was at work.

Janet and I took Mike’s pickup down to Phoenix to Bird Expo West (or some similar name), a one-day bird show where we were sure to find great bird deals. Janet’s significant other, Steve, has a scarlet macaw named Calypso. He’s a monstrously huge bird with a beak large enough to break bones and a scream loud enough to wake the dead. While Alex may chew on toilet paper rolls and small pieces of wood, Calypso can tear through two-by-fours. Janet was looking for something to keep him occupied so he’d stop chewing the blinds.

The show was very big and very good. There was a little of everything: toys, food, cages, and birds for sale. The place was filled with bird noise, as if we were walking through an aviary. At one point, Janet missed a cell phone call because she never heard the phone ring over the din.

We bought toys. I didn’t buy many — I think I spent about $15 total. They were all brightly colored wood and wicker toys. Small toys that Alex could chew up within a few days each. They were cheap and would last Alex about two months. Janet bought bigger toys that she carried around in heavy bags. She also bought a few smaller toys for her Budgie, who’d lost his partner over the summer.

There were all kinds of cages, from the smallest carry box for a finch to huge, walk-in aviaries. And the prices on cages were incredible. Cages that would cost $500 in PetSmart were $200 or less. At my top budget price of $200, there was plenty to choose from. Including the corner cage with the rounded front.

Take a moment to imagine this. Alex lives in a rectangular cage in the corner of my dining room/kitchen. The cage is about 26″ deep and about 34″ wide. Add to that about 4″ on each side for the “seed catchers” that do a so-so job of keeping dropped food and toys from falling on the floor. As a result, a big corner of my kitchen is taken up by Alex’s living space.

I’d seen corner cages before, but had never seen one quite as spacious as the one at the show. (Mind you, there were other less spacious ones there, too.) This one would give Alex all the room he needed to live quite comfortably. Best of all, its two flat sides, which would be tucked into the corner, measured only 26″ wide. With the rounded front, the cage would take up much less space than Alex’s current cage. It was even green, almost the same color as the cage he already had, which matched my kitchen.

It all makes sense, right? Buy the corner cage, move Alex into it, and use his current cage for outdoors.

But there was a little voice inside my head that told me it wasn’t such a good idea. You see, Alex likes his cage. He likes to hang out in it. He likes to climb all over it — even upside down from its roof. Sometimes, in the morning, I can’t get him to come out. He spends the day in there, and he sleeps in there. It’s his room, his personal space.

I told this to Janet and she looked at me like I was nuts. He’ll get used to it, she told me. He got used to the one he’s in, didn’t he?

She was right — or at least she sounded right to me. So I bought the cage.

You know what comes next. I brought the cage home and wheeled it into the kitchen to show Alex. He was on top of his cage, just hanging around, and when he saw the new cage, he took a dive to the floor. He was shaking like a leaf when I showed him the new cage. He jumped off my hand several times. Over the next two days, every time I brought him close to the cage, he’d climb on my shoulder so he could be as far away from it as possible. Any time I’d try to get him to step onto the cage, he’d dive onto the floor. Obviously, not only did he dislike the cage, he was terrified of it.

Well the cage is installed in the opposite corner of the dining area, where Alex can look at it all day. I’ve installed some perches and toys in it. I lined the top with paper — not an easy task, given the quarter circle shape. And I keep trying to get Alex to take an interest in it.

The sad part is, I bought the cage to save room in my kitchen, and so far, I’ve just lost more space.