Today may have been the last strutting ground survey of the year. Had over fifty cocks on the first lek, but only one on lek number two. And that was four minutes after sunrise. Only two cocks on the third lek. Boys looked pretty depressed. Imagine having to wait until next March to even have a chance of getting laid again.

There is a long, straight stretch of good two-track road on the route to lek number two. While cruising down it, a buck antelope sidled up from the left. Instead of tearing across the road, he pulled in front of us and ran down one of the tracks. We paced him for about 200 meters, the sand from his hooves clattering off the windshield. Before he turned off to the right, I looked at the speedometer as we cruised in his dust: 55 mph (that's 88 kph to you readers in calibrationally advanced nations).

The heeler sisters had thrown their faces to the windshield, their backs and tails tense with the excitement of the chase. When the antelope veered off, the maskless heeler turned to me, as if to say "Go after it! We can get this one!" Since we've been out at least 50 times in the past two months without killing anything, I'm sure they consider me a pretty ineffective hunt leader.

Played hide and seek in the tall sage by the third lek. Dove over some sage to the left to hide and put my belly (gently, fortunately) down on a cactus. Still better than the sage on the right, which would have put me down on a nest of carpenter ants.

The ravens that built their nest on the fallen refrigerator in the cabin have three kids now. Uuuuugly. And smelly, too.

Six days ago they only had two nestlings, along with two eggs that hadn't hatched yet. Don't know what happened to number four.

A few more thoughts on the good and bad points of this regular pickup:

- Having automatic hubs is good. Could have had automatic hubs two trucks before this one, but chose not to because I liked having "control". That's stupid. After eight days of driving the borrowed truck and having to get out to lock hubs in, and then having to take them out again on the highway, I can affirm that automatic hubs are a good thing.

- The borrowed truck had the split rear window. I miss having open air behind me. And the heeler sisters have never known the thrill of running back and forth between cab and box.

- I enjoy having my gear ratios back. With the high gears in this truck, you can actually drive in reverse. Best you could hope for in the borrowed truck was crawling quickly backwards for a little ways, and then trying to coast to where you wanted to be.

- This truck has door pockets. Could never survive having to go long without pockets for the maps, orders, field guides, pliers and ammo. Don't miss them until they're gone...

- Already mentioned having radio buttons set for the stations I like. Did I tell you one button is set for KNX 1070 NewsRadio? Out of Hollywood? Can only receive it from a half hour after sunset until a half hour before sunrise, but I enjoy listening to the California version of things. And your CalTrans reports. Need to actually drive Sbovoda Blvd someday.

Was listening to KNX on a lek survey 21 years ago when I heard the news about the disastrous rescue attempt of the Tehran hostages. Had to get out and walk in the sandy road, crying as I looked up at the stars and cursed Jimmy Carter, probably the noblest President we've had in the past 40 years. Sorry, Jimmy.

Stopped near that same spot this morning on our way home to let the heelers have a break. Played "drag races" and "circle the truck" before settling down to drain two bowls of water. Maskless heeler took to chasing a Brewer's blackbird off the road. He never flew far, and his mate was just five meters off the road watching, but the heeler never continued the chase into the sage. She was just bound and determined that bird was not going to be walking on our road.

But he kept coming back, trying to gather up some of the scattered corn kernels left in the dirt that the rancher had fed to his sheep last winter (a fourth of which are laying dead and mummified out here, scattering little clumps of wool to the winds like leaves). She chased the blackbird off at least six times before I gave up and loaded the girls for the trip home.

Twenty-four strutting seasons done.

Only seven to fifteen more to go.

Celebrated with fresh baked donuts and coffee in bed with the wife.