Two cool things!

Date: October 22, 2007
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1615, 81
End - 1715, 70
The numbers:
19 Pictures taken
1 Lizard seen that I never saw before
1 Bat seen in the daytime
1 "Happy Mother's Day" balloon extracted from the desert

Ramblings: Two posts in one day. It sure is a lot of work trying to keep up with Alex.

I saw a long nosed leopard lizard today. I've never seen one of those before. It's pretty. It was in the loose gravel on the side of the road and stayed there while I took several pictures.

There have been several occasions when I've been driving out of Bulldog Canyon at dusk and have seen bats flitting about. I've always wondered where they spent the day. Are there large abandoned mines? Are there caves that no one has discovered? I think I might have solved the mystery today.

After a weekend in LA, I had to get back to the desert, away from all the people. It was an unusually beautiful day, too, so I had to get out of the house. I forgot to take my backpack, though, which has my GPS receiver and flashlight in it. Also, I didn't get much sleep last night. All of this is important because it explains why I might have solved the mystery. I need to go back and make sure. I did have water and pliers, though.

I was just wandering around and was about to head back to the truck when I spotted an intriguing pile of rocks. There are a lot of those out there. Some are more intriguing than others. I don't know why. I always think I'm going to find something in them, and sometimes I do find some beer cans. Anyway, I was climbing to the top of this one when I saw what I thought was a small bird fly out from the base. I looked and watched a bat fly back to the rocks and land on a side that I couldn't see at the time. I looked all over the pile of rocks but I couldn't find the bat. That isn't surprising though; the piles of rocks are full of nooks and crannies and chinks and all sorts of places that small animals could hide. So maybe that's where the bats spend their days. Only one way to find out. I'll have to watch the pile at dusk and see what flies out. I couldn't do it tonight because I didn't want to hike back to the truck without a flashlight. I usually don't use one at night, but I figured it would be a bad idea to be out there without one. Also, I was tired and didn't want to be up real late. It was getting cool, too, and I can't stay warm when I'm so tired. No problem. I'm always looking for excuses to go back out there.

BC_2007_10_22