Where The Food Goes

As you saw in my previous post, our resident Kestrel pair are busy catching food for their young. I wanted to try to get a shot of the food being delivered.

I thought I had missed the adult slipping in to feed their young until I zoomed in on the shot.

And then I saw the undertail inside the cavity, maybe I didn't quite miss the shot afetr all!

Dinner Is Served - Again

I am beginning to wonder if we will have any lizards left at all with the prodigious rate that our resident Kestrel pair are catching them to feed their  young. It seems that every time I turn around one or other of them is on top of a saguaro with their latest catch.

Another One For The List

This sweet little character almost drove me crazy, flitting about in the densest vegetation always avoiding my camera lens. I knew I had spotted a new yard species but trying to get a photo was a whole other question. It certainly won't win any prizes but I can at least say - I gotcha!

Home, Sweet Home

We have had so many nesting birds on our property this spring it has sometimes felt like trespassing just  to set foot outside. While I try very hard not to upset any of the protective parents or disturb any of the vulnerable chicks I do have to be able to get my chores done. A pair of Cactus Wrens chose this Teddy Bear Cholla to construct a nest in, great choice, very well protected but did you have to chose one right next to the shed were I keep my dustbins? Now I feel as though I should wear a hard hat and a suit of armour every time I put the rubbish out! Really? I am not about to steal your babies, I promise!

Long Live The King!

If you follow my blog then you know that I love having snakes in my yard so it is always with very mixed feelings that I observe a visiting King Snake.

Why the contradiction you ask? Well the reason that King Snakes are so called is because they kill and eat other snakes, including venomous ones.

So while I love watching them making their sinuous way around my patio I sort of hope that they are just passing through and don't stay too long.

Although judging by the way this one made its way down a hole beneath one of our saguaros, I suspect that might be a vain hope.

But such is the way of a balanced ecosystem, there will always be the hunter and the hunted.

Palo Verde

This has been a wonderful spring for Palo Verde blossoms, at one point our entire property was a sea of gold.

The endless bounty of yellow blossoms has also kept the bees very busy. In the heat of the day all we could hear was the industrious pollen gatherers buzzing away everywhere.

Pretty Prickly

These two organisms are both pretty prickly, one by design and one in nature but teamed up together they look simply beautiful.