Coyote Crossing

Identify this missing bird

Tracks found in dirt road in Joshua tree forest, southern Nevada, January 4. Can you identify them without clicking through to the Flickr site?

Update: obviously *I* couldn’t. The caption has been corrected.

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Back out from the outback

I’ve been asking people over on Facebook to donate to the Desert Protective Council as a birthday present, and today my DPC colleague mentioned she couldn’t find the link here. Because there wasn’t one! Here it is.

The last couple days have been

Wee Thump Sunset

Slept on the ground last night in sub-freezing temperatures. Woke up surrounded by Joshua trees growing out of patches of snow. Drove with The Raven along Route 66. Ate lunch-dinner at the Bagdad Café.

Best Birthday Ever.

Also, please join me

Wee Thump

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Letters from the desert: Thresholds

Creosote bush, Larrea tridentata, grows in the lower elevations of the Mojave. At least it does so in places where the soil is not too alkaline. In the flattest part of this valley nothing grows, and the fringes of the dry lake are the domain of

Letters from the desert: Crotalus scutulatus

Were one to insist on a strictly rational, actuarial accounting of the risks involved, one would of necessity admit that the little meeting The Raven and I had Saturday with the most dangerous snake in North America was not the riskiest thing

Letters from the desert: The Jeep

My traveling around in the desert is made possible by a 1992 Jeep Cherokee, itself made possible by Diane and Sherwood Harrington, who gave me the thing for free to facilitate my writing. It’s a trusty beast. It has ghosts that have taken control

Wee Thump at DesertBlog

Larry Hogue was kind enough to invite me to post at DesertBlog, and I’ve put a post there describing the small wilderness area a few miles from my place in … (continues)

Letters from the desert: Raven Moon

Full moon a glint in The Raven’s eye and it drenches us in light. Sable sky bears a feathery sheen upon it. A moon-suffused cool smolder masks the stars.

Joshua trees raise arms toward the pale night sky. The Raven’s shoulder fits beneath my own.