These are two of my favorite things; a short-tailed black swallowtail butterfly was browsing on a red bird of paradise (Pride of Barbados) flower today. I quietly approached and got a few shots of the two before the butterfly departed. It was another beautiful day here as Second Spring commenced. Most other places had fall start today, but here, that’s a few weeks away as more flowers are opening and butterflies abound. Click on the image to enlarge.
We saw this colorful dragonfly perched on an auto antenna as we were parking. It stayed there long enough for me to get this close up photo of it before flying away. We saw a red dragonfly near the hospital courtyard koi pond in July and another one out in California in October of 2007. Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel has two hummingbird feeders that hang below the eve of the patio roof right next to the RV drive. We used to get a few hummingbirds now and then, but lately, they literally swarm both feeders. We have seen up to a dozen at a time visiting the area (it’s hard to get an exact count because they move so fast).
A lot of the little birds seem to be territorial and we often see several of the tiny birds chipping away at each other as they attempt to light on the feeder. Damsel notes that the chipping noises they make reminds her of sounds made by the Star Wars robot R2D2. The sound of their wings as they fly by, also reminds her of the Jedi light sabers from the same movie series.
I’m just glad that there are no critters that make sounds similar to the C3PO droid. That would necessitate a shotgun blast or two.
I took the video late this afternoon from inside the patio screen. You can see some of the birds competing, but then a bunch of them feed at once. There are five perches and five feed holes on each feeder.
Cabela is officially five years old today. She is a royal blue miniature Pinscher. She was born on August 4, 2008 and weighs fifteen pounds. We adopted her from the Wickenburg Humane Society where she lived for a couple of weeks after being rescued while running around at the rodeo grounds.
Cabela loves to eat, play and sleep. She has been with our household for three years now, and seems to be happy and healthy. Sometimes she gets a little feisty, but that is her way of playing. She loves to chase her squeaky toys when the we throw them for her. She likes to play keep away with her toys. She will run around the coffee table and jump up on the sofa and love seat to keep the toys away from us if we chase her.
We lost our big girl, Bear, several weeks ago, but we still enjoy having Cabela and Beethoven as our household pets. They are both very smart, very demanding and always entertaining companions.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel captured this image of a red dragonfly in the courtyard of the medical offices this morning. We’re not sure, but it looks like a ruby meadowhawk dragonfly that we spotted in California in October of 2007. Click on the image to enlarge.
Before we finished building our Arizona Home, we applied for adoption of our little Cabela (yes – she is named for the outdoor equipment retailers). Several months later, after the house was completed, we applied for adoption of Beethoven, who already had a name and we decided not to change it (he answers to “Bay Bay”).
Cabela (left above) has her ears cropped and tail bobbed – her previous owners had that done before they lost her. Bay Bay’s ears and tail are natural.
Contrary to the popular belief that Min Pins are miniature Doberman Pinschers, the two breeds are not related. Min Pins are a cross between Dachshunds and Italian Greyhounds. From Wikipedia:
The misconception that the miniature pinscher is a “miniature Doberman” occurred because the Doberman Pinscher (a breed developed by Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann around 1890) was introduced to the US before the miniature pinscher. In 1919 the miniature pinscher was introduced to the AKC show ring. At the time, not knowing that it was referred to officially in Germany as the zwergpinscher (little biter), the AKC referred to the breed as simply “pinscher” and listed it in the miscellaneous category. When the Miniature Pinscher Club of America (MPCA) was created in 1929 (the year of the breed’s official introduction into the AKC), they petitioned for miniature pinschers to be placed in the Toy group. The AKC’s description, that the dog “must appear as a Doberman in miniature”, led to the misconception common today that this breed is a “miniature Doberman pinscher”. The original name for this breed in the US was “pinscher” until 1972 when the name was officially changed to miniature pinscher.
Otherwise known as geococcyx californianus, meaning Californian Earth Cuckoo, this handsome roadrunner was drinking from my birdbath near the little wash out back. The bird has been seen hanging around for a few days, sometimes nefariously trying to catch a goldfinch at my thistle feeders out back. We wish it would leave the birds alone and keep on catching and killing the neighborhood reptilian population.
In any case, it is interesting to watch nature in the desert. Click on the image to enlarge.