Who Are You Calling Fat?

One of the major selling points for me when we viewed this property years ago was the resident population of Gambell's Quail. They featured on the very first post of this blog and they continue to be a constant source of delight. The quail block on our back patio ensures that these charismatic characters continue to be a large presence in our lives and I wouldn't change it for the world.

I am linking this post to Eileen's Saturday Critters.

Serenity

A while back I promised the House Finches that I would try to include them in this blog a little more. They are such a ubiquitous part of our everyday scenery that they tend to get overlooked. They are far too pretty to be glossed over, don't you think?

Mistletoe.

My goodness, this is proving to be an exceptional year for mistletoe. Our land seems to be covered with it and every sprig of it is smothered with fruit right now. With this bounty of course comes the great dilemma, I know many animals love the fruit and it is quite likely that I wouldn't have seen the Cedar Waxwings or the Western Bluebirds in my yard if it wasn't for the mistletoe but what about the poor old trees that it is growing on? How many bunches of mistletoe can they handle before they start to die? I think I will wait until the fruit is pretty much done and then do a little thinning out. Hopefully that way both the trees and the mistletoe loving species will be OK. Oh the responsibility!

Rain! And Lots of It.

A couple of weekends ago we had almost two full days and nights of rain, a rare thing indeed in the desert. We expect the occasional rain shower at this time of year but it usually over in a matter of minutes so this was quite the talking point as you can imagine.

There is a fine line between good rains that set us up well for the coming hot season and too much rains that cause the various desert plants to start to rot! We will see if we managed to stay under that line in the coming months.
One thing is for sure there were some rather soggy looking characters around during this downpour.

Familiar Friends

I have done lots of 'new yard species' posts of late but that doesn't mean that I have forsaken the old favourites. How could I possibly ignore these guys? The Harris's Antelope Ground Squirrels are way too appealing to be ignored.  

Foxy!

I knew we had been having regular visits from a Gray Fox for the past couple of months, our wildlife cameras were picking up images of him trotting about at night. Now he has decided that it is OK to stroll around in the broad daylight too I see!

Here is the same image zoomed in a little. What a handsome chap, and yes, yet another new yard species!

Singing the Blues

The image is a little grainy as it was taken at full zoom but I was delighted to discover four Western Bluebirds in my yard this past weekend. Another new species for my yard list.

Keeping Lookout

The Gila Woodpeckers are a constant (and loud) presence around our land. I am extremely fond of their goofy antics and raucous calls, added to that the fact that they are really photogenic and what is there not to like? This one was a little suspicious of the strange lady with the camera but decided to give me the benefit of the doubt.