OFF TO THE WHITEWATER DRAW WITH THE TUMBLEWEED PHOTO GROUP

FLOCKS UPON FLOCKS OF SAND HILL CRANES

Instead of our photo group meeting today at 1 p.m. in the Elfrida Library it was determined a week ago to meet later in the afternoon around 4 at Cochise Counties WHITEWATER DRAW.  This is a short 20 minute drive from where we are & only a mile west of the Ranch where we have spent some time the past couple years ranch sitting.

I arrived at the Whitewater draw early & everyone was already there so we headed out along one of the berms to a viewing platform.   Had a stiff breeze blowing but at least it wasn’t a cold stiff breeze.  Some of the group moved to a second viewing area but fellow member Ray & I stayed put.  I just head to much equipment to pack up for a second move.

  

SOME FELLOW MEMBERS SETTING UP A SECOND POSITION

JIM SETS UP HIS NIKON SPOTTING SCOPE

RAY WAS ALL ‘CONCENTRATION’ THIS AFTERNOON

SOME FELLOW SNOW BIRD’S DROPPED BY FROM MONTANA & NEBRASKA

Nothing spectacular happening with the Sand Hill Cranes today so my photos kind of reflect that.  Had the thousands of birds suddenly lifted into the air all at once we might have had something but for the most part the gang was just hanging out & staying put.  The Cranes were about a quarter to half a mile away so even with telephoto lenses a good sharp Sand Hill Crane photo just didn’t happen today:((

It was just nice being out with some folks with similar nature photography interests for change & I enjoyed that.  No doubt I should get off my duff & do more things along those lines.

LANDING GEAR IS DOWN

  

Finished my, ‘When All Roads Led To Tombstone’ book today.  Another in a series of great reads about the history here in Arizona’s Cochise County & surrounding areas.  I feel somewhat enlightened & for sure better educated about life in these parts back in the late 1800’s. 

  

The last few chapters in this book are dedicated to what really happened in Tombstone on October 26th 1881.  It is the eyewitness accounts & trial testimonies of first hand witnesses to the shooting that occurred at Tombstone’s OK Corral.  The gunfight was witnessed by townsfolk & their accounts, word for word, are recorded.  The testimonies of Wyatt & Virgil Earp were also recorded at a Magistrates hearing between Oct. 31rst & October 29th.  On December 1rst Magistrate Wells Spicer handed down his verdict about the shooting deaths of Tom & Frank McLowry & Billy Clanton.   The 4 people charged in that shooting were brothers Morgan, Virgil & Wyatt Earp, along with John ‘Doc’ Holliday.  The final words of the last paragraph in the Judge’s verdict reads….”There being no sufficient cause to believe the within named,” Wyatt S. Earp & John H. Holliday, guilty of the offense mentioned within,” I order them to be released.”  Wells Spicer…Magistrate.

  

For anyone interested in the bullet by bullet account of what really happened that day I suggest they read the final chapters of this book & the eye witness accounts of the people who were there & testified to what they saw.  And, here’s a little known fact…William F. Clairborne testified at this hearing for the prosecution.  He had been in a group talking with the Clantons & McLowrys just moments before the shooting started but had slipped away just before the bullets started flying.  And who was William F. Clairborne??  He was better known by his nickname….’Billy The Kid.’

GROANER’S CORNER:((  And, did you know a cigarette can be accurately defined as a pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool on the other.  Divorce of course is sometimes thought of as the future tense of marriage and a lecture is often the art of transferring information from the notes of the Lecturer to the notes of the students without passing through "the minds of either."  Oh, & should a conference be convened it could be said that it is the confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.

--------------------------------------------------------------
EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
 
Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.  Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going:))

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
 
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.