What a Little Cutie

You know it is going to be a good day when you open the bedroom curtains and are greeted by this beautiful little face peeping back at you. What could be sweeter than a handsome Black-throated Sparrow wishing you good morning?

I am Not Looking at You So You Can't See Me.

Our Rock Squirrels are notoriously shy. This one was clearly not happy when I spotted it so it worked on the policy of 'if I ignore it, it will go away.' Which of course, I did, eventually, after taking some photos. 

Popping in for Lunch

This Black-headed Grosbeak has become a regular around the feeders but it prefers to wait underneath for food to fall.

Head to Tail

A couple of shots from our recent 'snake in a cage' visitor. 

Ears

Not much comment needed for this little beauty, the ears say it all.

Nelson

We have a resident Sonoran Desert Toad in our back yard. During the heat of the day he hunkers down in the shade, under the agaves.

And then at night, after the monsoon rains have passed through he comes out to hunt. If we are eating supper on the patio he often comes out to see what we are doing. He is very appreciative when we put the outside lights on as all he has to do is sit and wait for the bugs to be drawn in by the light.

However our backyard buddy has obviously been through at least one battle in his past. His left eye is quite a mess.

Judging by his girth, this is not limiting his ability to hunt and the wound is obviously old. Inevitably, he has become known as Nelson but thankfully he isn't missing an arm as well!

The Saga of the Snake in a Cage.

My husband has a packrat obsession. To a certain degree, I get it. They are extremely destructive and when we first bought our house they had invaded the roof space and caused no end of problems. But that was years ago and now they have been evicted and the house has been made rat proof. I just consider them to be part of the food chain on our land, they ensure we have a healthy population of bobcats, snakes and raptors, all of which I enjoy. However I don't think the war ever ended for my husband and whenever there is a new burrow, a new dropping, a new nibble on a cactus pad, he ignores all the other potential candidates and immediately accuses the hapless packrat. So, true to form, when we came home the other day to find a quite large excavation under our front step, my husband immediately stated the packrat was to blame. I expressed my doubts, saying that I thought the burrow was unusually large for a packrat but to no avail. One small concession I have achieved in the ongoing war is that we use 'have a heart' traps. They capture the animal without injuring it, thus allowing you to relocate it. So the traps were set outside the large burrow and we went to bed. The next morning I was woken at 5.50am (!) by my husband demanding that I come outside and 'sort this out.' So I stumbled out of the front door in t-shirt and flip-flops to be greeted by this....

I am trained to work with venomous snakes so my husband was not being entirely irrational in his request. It just wasn't quite how I had envisioned starting my morning. I went back inside and got myself more appropriately attired and grabbed my snake tools. The snake seemed quite relaxed, curled up in her 'nest.' There was no signs of aggression and she didn't rattle at all. I careful slid the door up and off the cage. Hubby suggested that I tip the cage up so that she would slide out but of course, snakes don't work like that.

She was very comfortable and wasn't going anywhere. I put the cage into a nearby flowerbed and left her in peace. I knew this wasn't going to be a quick process so went off and had breakfast.

Four hours later she finally decided that it was time to make a move and trundled slowly on her way.

She didn't seem to hold a grudge over her temporary confinement and allowed me to follow her progress and take numerous photos. (For future posts.)

Several hours later I happened to look out of the window and saw the true culprit emerging from the fresh excavations - a rock squirrel!

For once I am actually organised enough to link this post to Eileen's Saturday Critters. Please visit her great blog.

We Had Babies. Part Two

This one is not quite as cute as the other baby shot. I was rushing around one morning, filling bird feeders when I noticed this spider. I thought it would make a good shot at the entrance to its web. It wasn't until I looked at the pictures later on my computer that I noticed she was not alone!

A Summer Surprise

In my years working as a guide one thing I learnt was that no matter what the animal behaviour books said, there would always be an animal out there that would do the exact opposite from what the experts said they should do. And such was the case with this Gila Monster. They spend very little time above ground and, in theory, there is a very specific temperature and humidity window that they tolerate. We expect to see them (if at all) in April, May and September primarily so imagine my surprise when I looked out of the window to see this guy trundling across the yard in the full heat of summer in the middle of the day when the thermometer was reading 104 degrees!
I have checked my previous photos and I think this is the same individual I saw in April 2014. Their patterns are unique. I did a post about it, it was the first one of the double delight. Sorry to say, he still doesn't seem to have put on much weight though.

Sunset Serenade

This Thrasher decided to join me for sundowners. He perched atop the nearby dead saguaro and sang a beautiful song to celebrate the end of the day. I am so lucky to have such lovely neighbours.

We Had Babies!

The wonderful secrets of the night revealed. Momma Bobcat strolling past the kitchen with two little kits. I do enjoy my wildlife cameras.

What YOU lookin' at?

This poor old Desert Spiny Lizard was not impressed with me. He had taken up residence in a hole underneath our front stoop and every time I came outside he would be relaxing in the entrance to his hole, see me coming and go rushing back underground. I appologised and explained that I needed to go in and out of my front door from time to time. I then settled to sit and drink my tea and he made his way over to a nearby agave and scowled at me!

Learning The Ropes

This fledgling Verdin was right outside my front door one morning so I sat quietly watching it while I drank my tea. It seemed to have learned well from its parents and was foraging away very industriously in the mesquite tree.

This Hunting Business Is Hot Work!

I felt bad for this young Coopers Hawk, he had had two unsuccessful attempts at grabbing a quail in the yard and was obviously feeling the heat. He sat on the ground, wings half open, panting away in the shade of our carport for a good ten minutes before finally getting his breath back and moving on to continue his hunt for lunch.

The Bar Is Open

It seems that some of 'the locals' have discovered the patio watering hole. One of our Gopher Snakes and our black Coachwhip are regular visitors to our little pond now that the heat is on.

Mom! Mom! Mom! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mama! Mama! Mama! Ma! Ma! Ma!

You know the sketch from Family Guy when Stewie is trying to get Louis' attention? Well this young Gila Woodpecker was doing the avian equivalent! He was so vociferous that I actually thought that maybe there was a snake raiding the nest but no, he just wanted to get Mum's attention.

It's The Little Things........

that make me smile. Like this tiny little cactus, significantly smaller than a golf ball putting forth three splendid flowers. Perfection.

Mystery Solved

Last year I did a post about not having noticed cicadas in my yard and many of my Tucson friends were very surprised as they were deafened by them on a daily basis during the summer. Well I think I have finally worked out why I hadn't registered them here. Previously when I have lived in places where cicadas occur I am used to them being an omnipresent ear-splitting presence, providing enough decibels to make your brain bleed. OK so I may be exaggerating slightly but suffice it to say they were VERY loud. So the cicadas in my yard strike up individually, a novel concept in itself, and they call for no longer than fifteen seconds and then stop - yes I timed it! What gives? Do I have the worlds politest cicadas or what?

Gotcha!

I don't see Cowbirds in my yard very often which I am not too upset about as they are notorious brood parasites. This species, the Brown-headed Cowbird is known to parasitise at least 220 different species. That being said they are part of the ecosystem so I was happy to finally be able to get a photograph of this disreputable character.

Keeping Watch

So many creatures in the desert live underground but actually catching them on their front door step is a rare thing. I was smiling broadly as this shy little Round-tailed Ground Squirrel peeped at me.