As some people have certainly noticed, you are now seeing the old Bird Watchers Notebook where the new spiffy Naturalist Notebook used to be. Seems that after I spent upwards of a month installing, setting up, updating, and so forth I discovered that MT blogs offer no benefits and many downfalls. They block search engines, so you can't find them, and they are comment SPAM magnets. Sure, I can set them to require my approval for ever comment, but then I spend an extra hour a day deleting SPAM comments. It's just a Pain in the ass. So I am now going to spend a month or so switching back to the old blogs...

The good news is the old blog script is much easier for me to customize and code around and set up as I like - so as soon as I can get around to it, you'll find a whole new look here that really reflects the idea of the Naturalist Notebook.

Meanwhile, my happiest sighting of the week is a big flock of our Cottontop Quail. Not only did they survive our former landlords hunting expedition, they are back up to over 20 birds. I don't have a feeder for them on the new ranch, but I happened to see them yesterday out in the horse pasture. I stopped what I was doing and leaned on the fence to watch them a bit, trying to get a good count of them. The quail were quite nervous, as I now have a couple of ranch dogs who accompany me everywhere outside but I was able to get a pretty decent idea of how many of them there are as they dashed among the tufts of grass and mesquite.

I sure miss having feeders, but I don't have a window here that would be a good watching post either.

The hubby and the roommate have both seen coyotes in the mornings along the shortcut - pups running along the road. The roomie saw a good sized herd of Pronghorn Antelope along there also. I'm envious - yes! Been spending my days indoors chained to the computer lately. I get outside to feed the livestock and that's about it.

I am so ready for spring...