Different year, same activity

Alpine this morning. The ducks are swimming toward me expecting to be fed

We went out sleuthing again today along the Mitre Peak Girl Scout Ranch road (FM 1837). I paid more attention this time. Right off I saw what I'm sure was an Aplomado Falcon, but I wasn't driving so there was no screeching halt. By the time my daughter-in-law asked if I wanted to go back, we couldn't relocate the bird. She's a newbie birder but saw the underneath orange-ish color and I saw that plus a dark breast band. It was positively a falcon, and positively not a kestrel. Just not a satisfactory look as it flew in front of us across the road. Based on what we both saw, it couldn't be anything except an Aplomado. I would go so far as to say it was a juvenile.

We checked out the cemetery again. There are three other graves there, Tippet ancestors of Marilyn Caldwell.

The cemetery sported 3 water faucets. Two had hoses connected but not a thing green there other than the artificial flowers. I'm assuming when it was made into a little park/cemetery the plan was to keep it watered. But my oasis is sufficient testimonial that life is what happens while you're making plans. There were a couple of large green oak trees around, both inside and outside the enclosure. They all looked to be in the same state of health, so it's safe to assume no water was applied to any of them. (See photo from yesterday's post.)