Mother To Be

Eating for two or three or four or five, this sweet little pregnant Round-tailed Ground Squirrel was parked under the bird feeders and getting quite the feast.

Dinner Time

Looks like Zebra-tailed Lizard is on the menu for the Kestrel today.

The Man

This splendid fellow was doing his push-ups on a rock outside our bedroom window and he was looking so splendid I just had to take his picture. How could we fail to be impressed?

First Of The Year

It is warming up and the night life is changing, this was the first tarantula of the season, a very small one on the wall of the house. Soft and fluffy :)

Hello

Is it my imagination or is that Saguaro looking at me?

Dinner Date

A beautiful pair of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers sharing a meal atop of one of our Saguaros. Could there be a more romantic dinner spot?

There Is A Reason I Am This Bright!

Lots of things eat bugs right? So as a bug, you want to hide, be inconspicuous, well camouflaged. Or you can announce your presence, loud and proud with bright red and yellow! Needless to say it is a warning, at the very least - I don't taste good or in the case of this Iron Cross Blister Beetle - I am toxic! They actually carry cantharidin toxins that can interfere with the vertebrate nervous system so no munching on this one!

Scale and Tail

This little Western Diamondback is working hard on our resident packrat population and so as a result has become my husbands new best friend. With the number of packrats in our yard it won't stay a little snake for long, it's an all you can eat buffet.

Proud Father Part Two

When I originally saw this little family it made me sad. There was a very diligent father, eleven tiny chicks and no mother. Something must have happened to her very soon after the chicks hatched. With so many natural predators it is very hard for a pair of quail to successfully raise a clutch of chicks and I have to be honest I didn't think a single parent would have any chance at all. So imagine my delight when our little one parent family showed up again this morning. There were eight healthy chicks remaining and they are now much bigger and so have a far better chance of surviving. Well done Dad.

Quiet Please

At this time of year our evenings are filled with the delightful calls of Lesser Nighthawks and often we see them swooping across the skies at twilight. But were do they go during the day? They rely on their amazingly cryptic colouration to hide in plain sight either amongst rocks on the ground or blended perfectly with the bark of a branch. So beautiful to see this special bird hiding out during the day.

A Late Night Special

A couple of days ago a large excavation appeared in our yard, it was very impressive with vast piles of dirt moved. Anything that can dig in this ground earns my instant respect as it is like concrete. The list of possible suspects was pretty short, what could possibly be that strong? We had our suspicions so we positioned one of our wildlife cameras to see if we could see the master builder at work. It took a few nights but eventually he appeared, a badger! I can't believe my luck, another new yard species.

Proud Father

Talk about a harried father! This male quail has eleven little chicks to watch over. Sadly there was no evidence of a female around to help him out. Good luck fella, you are going to need it to look after that big brood.

Another New Species

I always get excited when a new species appears in my yard especially one as interesting as this. There are several different sub-species of Kingsnakes, so named for their ability to kill and eat other snakes, including venomous ones. Our yard happens to fall right on the boundary where the sub-species changes from the California Kingsnake to the Desert Kingsnake and this individual shows characteristics of both. This is not unusual were the range of the two sub-species meet. This particular individual was just slithering out of our pool having taken a cooling dip when I managed to catch a photo.

One More - Sunday Desert Blooms

How could I have been so remiss? A series of blooms without including the Saguaro? Silly me. It is not easy when most of the blooms are twenty to thirty feet up in the air but 'when there is a will, there is a way.' So here it is, for real this time, the final image in the Sunday Bloom series.

Every Day is Different

Dawn is such a perfect moment and every day it throws in something different, on this morning, a magical lilac sky.

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Seven

The last one in the series as most of the blooms are gone now. This is the Chenille Prickly Pear, one of the most prodigious producers of blooms.

Softness

So many of the organisms that I post on this blog are spiky, spiny or venomous so it makes a nice change to be able to capture one of the gentler characters occasionally. The Desert Cottontail.  

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Six

Another variation of Cholla, this time with sunshine yellow blossoms lighting up an otherwise inconspicuous plant.

The Big Reveal

As with pretty much everything in the desert, it is very spikey

All the way down to the tips of its toes

It is a rather sleepy Desert Spiny Lizard, lounging in the afternoon sun.

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Five

Another Hedgehog Cacti, this one is more delicate than some of it's more brash neighbours but no less stunning.