Duck on a Wire

Anyone ever seen a duck on a telephone wire?! I didn't think they could hang on with their webbed feet, but see the picture for yourself. During the last couple weeks of November, we saw these kind of ducks on the wires. I've never seen them before. I think they are migrating and they stop to hang out near the aquaduct and these wires run over the aquaduct. They like to be on the wires, even though they do seem to have a hard time balancing. I really would like to know if other ducks do this, or if these ones are just losing their sanity!

Spider Conservation

A few weeks ago, Chris was driving down the road and felt something tickle his leg. Keeping his eyes on the road, he reached down and scratched his leg. A few minutes later, he felt it again. He looked down and saw, crawling up his leg, a tarantula! He pulled over and scooped it into a cup and went on his way. I have no idea how a tarantula could have gotten into the car, but this time of year is the "tarantula migration" where all the male tarantulas are out finding mates. They're all over the roads, but not on the farm (probably too many predators and pesticides here). Chris brought home the tarantula and named it Eragog. We studied the little guy (he was kind of scrawny for a tarantula), looked up info online, and tried to figure out what species it was. Probably a Eurypelma californicum, but also possibly a Aphonopelma chalcodes or desert tarantula. They're absolutely harmless to humans and these species tend to be timid and move slowly (and beautifully as they coordinate their legs, I might add). They are beneficial because they eat crickets, cockroaches and other pests. We took Eragog up on a hill past the farm where the pesticides hopefully will not reach him and let him go to continue on his search of a girl.