We always love to see the colorful birds that come to our bird feeders. Here are a couple of house finches and one of our local bright red cardinals enjoying the bird seed. Click on the image to enlarge.
Critters
Arizona Cardinal
One of the greatest joys of having our new house in a semi-rural area is viewing the wildlife here. This beautiful Cardinal makes a great foreground to the desert foliage. Click on the image to enlarge.
Scorpion Glow
I apologize for posting this out-of-focus picture of a dead scorpion on the RV drive, but the lighting conditions weren’t too good to avoid a slight camera motion that blurred the image. At any rate, I just wanted to show how these little beasties show up if you put ultraviolet light (a.k.a. black light) on them.
Image – dead scorpion in ultraviolet light. Click on the image to enlarge.
A while back, we bought little hand held flash lights with UV LEDs just for the purpose of detecting scorpions. Our little Miniature Pinscher, Cabela, found this nasty little bug on the patio (thank goodness it was already dead) and I found a couple of them (also dead) in the garage the other night using the UV flashlight.
Ladder Backed Woodpecker
We’re not absolutely positive that this is a ladder backed woodpecker, but an on line image search seemed to favor that species as a match for this little guy. It was pecking at a mesquite tree on the road in front of our house this morning. We enjoy watching the wildlife in our little corner of the Sonoran High Desert. Click on the image to enlarge.
Horned Lizard
I spotted this little guy making his way across the RV drive today while we were working in the yard. It was less than two inches long, so it must be a juvenile Regal Horned Lizard. They can grow to be up to about 5 inches in length. Click on the image to enlarge.
Where’s Waldo?
Of all the birds that come around to the feeders, the male cardinal has the poorest camouflage in our Sonoran desert environment. When he does show up, we ask each other, jokingly, “Where’s Waldo?” The goldfinches feeding on Nyjer seed bags in the foreground aren’t much more subtle with their bright yellow breast feathers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Carrion Luggage
I walked down the driveway yesterday to see if there was any mail on the post box. While i peered in to see id there was anything there, a large shadow passed over me. I looked up just in time to see a couple of large Turkey Buzzards swooping down onto the road a hundred feet or so to the east. I took out my little camera from my pocket and walked toward the birds and saw that they were *very* interested in the carcass of a cottontail rabbit on the road.
These guys are really ugly, aren’t they? The rabbit carcass is on the road just to the right of the bird in the shadow. Click on the image to enlarge.