Strangers in the Night

We've always known that we have a plethora of nocturnal neighbors roaming the park. But for the most part have only caught glimpses of some of them on the rare occasion that we catch them in our headlights as we're pulling into the park after dark. Recently, however, Harvey and Luna have been regularly waking us up in the middle of the night with the very pleasant sound of a flurry of barking and jumping up at the bedroom window. Every time it happens I jump up to peek outside and try to see who they're so excited about. Well, by the time they get done with their ruckus whatever was outside the window is long gone, so I never got a good opportunity to see anything. Well, last night Sonja and I beat the dogs to the punch and caught a glimpse of not one but two different nighttime visitors.

This pack/herd/pod of javelinas also included a cute little baby, but once I started flashing pictures of them they kept the little one out of sight. You can quite clearly see the "collar" marking on their shoulders, hence their other name: collared peccaries.

About an hour later I heard more scuffling outside and thought the javelinas had come back. So, I stuck my head out the window (I had removed the screen the day before) and was surprised to see this chubby little fuzzball scruffling around in the dirt not more than five feet under my head. When I first saw it I was hoping it was actually one of the hog-nosed skunks I'd seen along the ditch. But that black stripe down its back identifies it as a more common striped skunk.

We've also caught glimpses of a smallish racoon, but have yet to capture it on film. I'm still hoping to try to rig up the birdcam to do this for me...so I don't have to stick my head out the window with my good camera leaning over a skunk.

All Sorts of New Things

So living in Arizona is pretty darn cool, so far. Although, it is still weird to think that we're living here. It's just so different from what we're used to. For instance, we never had any of these in our yard in Alaska:
This was the view out our bedroom window this morning. That block of birdseed was supposed to be for the covey of Gambel's Quail we've got living behind our fence in the backyard. But it seems to be good for attracting javelinas, too. You can hear Luna's reaction to her first javelina sighting in the background.


We also never had views like this in Alaska.

Sonja and her folks have been doing a good bit of hiking while I've had to work. As you can see, the weather has certainly cooperated. Figures that we'd move to Arizona at the same time they're hit with three winter storms in a row. At least it makes for cool pictures.

Sonja's folks have been having a good time, too. Although, I think they were expecting warmer temps. It's been really nice having them here. It makes unpacking much more enjoyable when you've got more hands to help. I have a feeling that we'll be having lots of visitors coming to see us in the near future...at least more than we had while in Alaska. Another perk of moving back to the Lower 48.

Isn't Arizona Supposed to be Hot?

You wouldn't know it from the temps we've been having lately. Not that I'm complaining. I still prefer "Arizona Cold" over the rain and ice that we had been experiencing in Seward.

Although, from the sound of things, immediately after our departure Seward has been getting pounded with snowstorm after snowstorm. Bummer it wasn't like that last winter. Figures...

Anyway, as many of you already know, we've arrived in our new home in Arizona. We're living in a big house with a fenced in backyard for the dogs and we love it. We've been seeing lots of cool new birds, and both Sonja and I are compiling growing lists of new species. In fact, just today we both saw our first Bridled Titmouse! We also got to see our first javelina a couple days ago. Well, at least the butt of a javelina as it ran into the bushes on the side of the road one evening as we drove home.

I also started work last week at "The Castle" (pictured below). It's pretty darn cool. I've already gotten to go inside of it, too.
Now that we finally have our internet up and running I'll be posting fairly regularly once again. And when I figure out how to display the pictures from our drive down the AlCan, I'll post those, too.