A day in my life

Clicking the pics not only makes them bigger, it even makes them larger.

Whitewater Draw Arizona.

Another early morning wake up at 5:30 and a quick cup of coffee while getting dressed. And since it's in the high 30s this early, and there's a fair amount of standing around involved, I have to dress accordingly. It's about half a mile to where I need to be and half a mile back; unfortunately, by 8:30 or so, I'm way overdressed when I'm walking back, and I have to start shedding coats as I hoof it back to the bronco.

That early morning routine lets me watch the Cranes as some of them leave to go feed at the crack of Dawn and I get to see thousands of Sandhill Cranes strung out in the air for miles as they head for McDonald's.

The rest of the day is pretty much T-shirt weather, and even when it's cloudy like it is today, it still got into the mid-70s.

I usually make some breakfast when I get back home and another cup of coffee that I can sit, relax, and enjoy while eating breakfast. And then I have some time to kill working on pictures and writing my blog.

After lunch, I'll usually walk back to the lake again and watch the cranes milling about, living a normal Crane life. The Crane life sounds pretty good to me and mainly consists of eating, sleeping, and flying, which sounds like how an Air Force pilot lives.

But getting to watch them up close, I do have some questions. For instance, since they mate for life, how do they find their mate amongst 20,000 other Sandhill Cranes that all look exactly alike? Who amongst 20,000 Sandhill Cranes decides it's time for everybody to wake up and go to breakfast? And most importantly, which Crane decides that it's time to pack up and leave on their annual migration... Somebody has to fly off first; who is that? And who appointed them God.

Around 5:30 in the afternoon, I mosey back to the lake to enjoy the excitement of all the cranes from all over the area that comes flying back to this spot for the night. After the Cranes get settled in a little bit I get back to the bronco just about dark, fix some dinner, and usually watch a movie on the computer. I'm normally pretty tired after all that, and as usual, I sleep like a baby until it's time to wake up and do it again tomorrow morning.

Theboondork

As a harmless picture snapper I mostly avoid what you see represented by the photographer in this picture. I've never wanted to go walking around burdened like a pack mule, and have never done so to that degree. I don't know what in the world he's got in that backpack but it must be important to his pictures if he wants to carry it around like this.

Whitewater draw sunset. Those people are walking on top of the levees that are around most of these lakes. These are man-made lakes that were used for ranch irrigation, but now are maintained by the state wildlife department for the benefit of waterfowl.

Preening Sandhill Crane. I used to preen, but now I don't have anything to preen

Two of my boondocking neighbors that appear to have identical pop-up truck campers

Sandhill Crane having a long cool drink of mountain spring water.... That 20,000 of his friends have been living in for several months.

Highly mobile boondocking at its finest.

And yet another overburdened photographer. At least this guy brought a hand truck to carry all of his gear around. And from the look of that back brace he's wearing maybe he used to carry all that gear in a backpack.