The Coffee House

[jeffashman]

Have any of you been to Arizona?

Yep.

 

[jeffashman]

Up until the past couple years, we were pretty much mosquitoe free at our lake retreat. Our next door neighbor had a large Purple Martin Condo right on the property line. It was fun to watch them swooping and diving across the yard of an evening. Not sure why they left but the house is vacant now.

They've greatly declined in numbers here. Lewisville has the purple martin as part of their official "coat of arms" because there used to be so many of them. I'm thinking that the West Nile virus panic and the fact that a large part of their food source has been killed off by fogging are partially to blame for the decline in numbers here. Don't get me wrong, WNV is not something one wants to contract, but eradicating the mosquitoes to control it is also going to affect bird and insect populations that rely on mosquitoes as a food source.

 

[smoke665]

@jeffashman hadn't thought of that, but not sure it applies here, because they don't spray and there's an abundance of the buggers now. Here I suspect that the overly wet springs may have something to do with it.

 

[SquarePeg]

Built a new bird house today out of stuff I had laying around. Gave it a living roof!

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I think it came out pretty well! My favorite one yet and all my other bird houses are occupied so I got no vacancy which means I needed to expand my bird house enterprise!

I love having them around though, I swear the more birds I have hanging around the less annoying insects I have!

I’ll have to grab a pic of my bird condos. I have 4 or 5 bird houses hanging in our backyard tree. I love watching them.

Up until the past couple years, we were pretty much mosquitoe free at our lake retreat. Our next door neighbor had a large Purple Martin Condo right on the property line. It was fun to watch them swooping and diving across the yard of an evening. Not sure why they left but the house is vacant now.

Definitely fewer mosquitoes since I started feeding and housing the birds!

 

[SquarePeg]

Got the estimate back from Fujifilm to fix my 70-300. About what I expected based on the couple of posts I found on Reddit about this same fix. Hoping it’s returned to me soon, the butterflies and dragonflies have finally started to show up and I miss my favorite garden lens.

Last night went out Milky Way shooting for the first time in a while. This is a phone snap of the location with the MW above the big barn. Haven’t had time to process the images yet. Will have to do a blend of the blue hour photo I took with a night sky shot.

 

[nerwin]

Yep.

How is it? Only thing that is holding me back is scorpions. I heard they are in your beds and shoes. Freaking me out, makes me not want to go!

 

[snowbear]

Have any of you been to Arizona?

Several years ago, I went with dad to a highland festival in Tucson. I was November and I think upper 80s with a single digit humidity.

One of the nieces is out there; we’d like to go out and see her, sometime. Go on a couple low challenge off road trails, too.

 

[nerwin]

Several years ago, I went with dad to a highland festival in Tucson. I was November and I think upper 80s with a single digit humidity.

One of the nieces is out there; we’d like to go out and see her, sometime. Go on a couple low challenge off road trails, too.

Unfortunately if I choose to go it will be end of August when it's the most hottest around 115f and I am so concerned about scorpions, particularly in the bedroom. I keep reading stories of people being stung while sleeping. Just because of that I'm thinking it's not worth going or ever visiting the West lol.

 

[smoke665]

@nerwin scorpions rank right up there with Copperheads on my hate scale, and we have them both. That said, knock on wood, I've never been bitten by either, but I've seen them frequently. We built in the middle of 35 acres of woods which is surrounded by more woods. You just have to be careful and watch out when you're in their area. Can't recall ever having one of the little buggers in our house.

 

[nerwin]

@nerwin scorpions rank right up there with Copperheads on my hate scale, and we have them both. That said, knock on wood, I've never been bitten by either, but I've seen them frequently. We built in the middle of 35 acres of woods which is surrounded by more woods. You just have to be careful and watch out when you're in their area. Can't recall ever having one of the little buggers in our house.

I been reading reviews at all the resorts in Scottsdale and sooo many have complaints about finding them in their beds, showers, etc. I don't know if I can deal with it. I wouldn't sleep.

 

[snowbear]

No confirmed venomous snakes in Maine since 1860. Another reason to like this place.

 

[SquarePeg]

No confirmed venomous snakes in Maine since 1860. Another reason to like this place.

One of many!

 

[snowbear]

We’ve changed the trip to MD until Saturday so we can go to the lobster festival going on in Rockport on Friday.