Mexico City: Making a Nest

My room. Mexico City. November 2018.

It´s good to build a nest when you´ll be in one place for a month.

This is especially important when sharing two showers, four toilets, one refrigerator, and one kitchen with up to 15 men and five or so women.

One day I walked up to Walmart and bought:

1. A bathroom floor mat to step on when I get out of the shower;
2. Plastic sliders with which I can wear socks and walk on wet surfaces, like in the bathroom; 
3. Apple-cinnamon spray for my room; and
4. A coffee mug with a lid.

I also splurged on a jar of decaf Nescafe for myself plus a large container of ground black pepper to share with my housemates.

The aroma of the decaf crystals, mmm, nice.


Some other rooms of my past

• Dubai
• Istanbul
• Playa del Carmen
• Gorgora (Ethiopia)

By the way, most of my housemates this week? They are sleeping on mats on the floor in a meeting room upstairs. They are members of the 1st refugee caravan, lucky enough to be in a shelter with a roof over their heads, a kitchen, some quiet ... safety.

I have a bed. I have my own room. I am the really lucky person, due to a large extent, to a random throw of the dice in our universe.

I do not take this for granted. No, that´s not really true. Most days of my life, I certainly do take much of what I have for granted. I´ll have food for the day, shelter, clothing, the means to clean my clothes, and physical safety.

Big Bend National Park: The Noisy, Nosy Bird

Cactus wren nest, Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

The cactus wren is my kind of bird:

No bird exemplifies Southwestern deserts better than the noisy Cactus Wren. At all hours of the day they utter a raw scratchy noise that sounds like they are trying to start a car. Cactus Wrens are always up to something, whether hopping around on the ground, fanning their tails, scolding their neighbors, or singing from the tops of cacti.

I didn't know about the cactus wren until I walked by one of its nests in the Chisos Basin Campground.

The above description is about the cactus wren's charming side. It also has less Disney-esque characteristics, also described here.

I was damned impressed by its nest:

Cactus wren nest, Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

Cactus wren nest, Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

Cactus wren nest, Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

Cactus wren nest, Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

Below is a video of cactus wren calls, including a lagniappe of slow-action fly catching by a cactus wren (videographer Don DesJardin):

Although cactus wrens turn my head, I am still loyal to mockingbirds for their long, complicated melodies such as my English-speaking neighbor in Opelousas here and my Georgian-speaking neighbor in Rustavi here.

Colorado: Longmont: An Osprey Nest

Osprey nest by Twin Peaks Golf Course, Ninth Street, Longmont, CO. May 2016.

When we humans are good, we are very very good.

It gladdens my heart when I see examples of people creating a safe space for us to co-exist with other wildlife.**

This osprey nest in Longmont is an example.  It's on Ninth Street by the Twin Peaks Golf Course.

Another osprey nest in Longmont - at the Boulder County Fairgrounds - is the center of rapt(or) attention via webcam. Indeed, in 2015, the "ratings" soared when two female ospreys battled it out over a man.

Osprey nest by Twin Peaks Golf Course, Ninth Street, Longmont, CO. May 2016.

**Disclosure: I am not a proponent of the current fashion in feral cat management, but that's a conversation for some other day and maybe some other forum.