Blog
How small is a hummingbird nest? Pretty durn small! I found these two Anna’s hummingbird fledglings in a potted palm on the veranda. To give you some idea of the size of the nest, I would say it is no larger than a twenty-five cent piece, but certainly smaller than a half dollar. This one [...]
This picture is the desktop image I use on my computer. I bought this Echinopsis, possibly a hybrid, soon after I moved from New York to Arizona. I’m pretty sure I picked it up at the Desert Museum, but then again it could have been Walmart. Ed Bartlett from the Tucson Cactus&Succulent Society, was kind [...]
The rains have finally arrived. Where I live, in the Sonoran Desert, just a stones throw from the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona, the rainy season is referred to as the monsoon. Not just heavy rains but incredibly dramatic lightning storms, often followed by rainbows and spectacular sunsets. From the middle of July to early September, [...]
I’ve been feeding hummingbirds since I moved from New York about eight years ago. I’ve always been charmed by these seemingly delicate creatures (They are actually quite aggressive!) ,but little did I know that I would be attracting an interesting nighttime visitor to the feeder as well. Back in New York there was only one [...]
As I have said in a previous post, it has been super hot here in the Sonoran Desert. Yesterday, in the foothills of the Tumacacori Mountains, it was a blistering 110F ! I was planning another session with my “batcam” rig at the hummingbird feeders, but technical difficulties presented themselves (I tripped over a [...]
It has been hot, hot, hot here the last two weeks, well over 100F, and the desert animals are thirsty. Pools have long dried up and critters from all over come for a nightly drink at the fountain outside my office window. These are grey foxes and are quite common from southern Canada all the [...]
I went out this morning as usual to retrieve the card from my motion activated camera when I heard a loud thump behind me. Something had smacked into the mountain room window, and hard. With some trepidation I walked over a peered behind the two rattan chairs and there he was-a Western Screech-owl (Otus kennicottii), [...]
I thought I was going batty when buzzed by a squad of furry flying mammals on the way out to empty the garbage. I don’t know about you but growing up I believed that old wives tale about bats getting caught in your hair. Not true according to the experts, but old tales [...]
