Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

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Female of the Northern Cardinal Species

Female Cardinal

We enjoy seeing several pairs of cardinals that visit our feeders. This is one of the females that perched on the seed bell yesterday. She let both Damsel and I get fairly close to the bell before she flitted away. Both of our cameras were clicking away as we approached. I got this shot using the 300mm telephoto lens on my Canon SL1 from about thirty feet away. Damsel got another shot of her from a much closer distance using her Canon T3 and the standard lens at 55mm focal length.

With our mild winters, we see the cardinals all year around. We even saw one of them on the last day of 2014 which was our only snow day in six years.

This is from Wikipedia:

Although some controversy surrounds bird feeding (see bird feeder for details), an increase in backyard feeding by humans has generally been beneficial to this species. It is listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN Red List. It has an estimated global range of 2,200,000 sq mi and a global population estimated to be about 100 million individuals.

17 Mar 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

There’s a Fungus Among Us

Fungus Cleaned Up

Well, there is still a fungus among us, but it’s just not as visible. This is the before and after photos of the base of the compost bin taken today when Damsel and I set out to eliminate the toadstools flourishing around the bin. Click on either image to enlarge.

We’ve been composting here in Arizona virtually since we moved here. We had a long time tradition of composting when we lived in California, and brought that with us here. We’re not enviro-freaks, but just interested in recycling what we can to our advantage.

When we noticed the toadstools we thought that it would be wise to eliminate them, given the habit of one of the two dogs to randomly pick up something off of the ground and eat it. We worried that this might be a toxic form of the mushroom genus.

I found several references on-line to fungus in the compost and they all indicated that this was a normal occurrence if the compost is not turned regularly. The references all said that toadstools would not hurt the compost.

So, we raked the red gravel rocks away from the bin, scraped the toadstool flesh off of the ground and tossed it into the bin. We used a couple of gardening tools to toss the contents of the bin to turn it over after taking some of the castings to use as soil for Damsel’s spring garden projects.

As I scooped out some of the rich compost soil, I could see that the worms are alive and well and will continue to do their natural thing as we recycle kitchen scraps, napkins, facial tissue, paper towels, flower petals and so forth. We find that the composting results in Arizona are, overall, better than we had in California.

14 Mar 2015 by Arizona Environment Home & Garden

Cactus Rescue

Cactus Rescue

The house being built to the east of us had a back hoe come and dig trenches on the hillside down the road from us for underground utilities. In the process, the numbnuts operating the machinery managed to trash much of the natural vegetation growing beside the road.

Most of the compromised plant life wouldn’t matter since it was scrub creosote and other brush that will be back with a vengeance. However, there was a hedgehog cactus cluster almost completely covered with the earth piled alongside the trench.

Damsel and I went down the road with the wheelbarrow and dug several lobes of the buried cactus out. Some of it was destroyed to the point of not being able to recover, but we rescued about six viable lobes, three of which we put in our rock and cactus garden seen in the image above. We put the other three lobes in pots pending finding another place for them.

Several of the lobes have flower pods growing on them. We’re hoping that the flowers still bloom despite the incident. Damsel will post a lot of flower pix this spring, so we’ll make a special note when a flower is from one of the rescued hedgehogs. Click on the image to enlarge.

13 Mar 2015 by Arizona Environment Home & Garden

Echinocereus (Hedgehog Cactus) Flower

Hedgehog Cactus Flower

Early this year, we had our landscape crew come around to remove some vegetation in anticipation of construction of a new wall and RV drive. While they were here, I asked them to bring a little hedgehog cactus from the outback down to where we could see it in the rocks below the courtyard.

The first flower on the little hedgehog opened today. I took this close-up photo of the delicate flower that will likely be with us only one day. But, there will be more as can be seen in this photo of numerous Echinocereus Flower Buds on the transplanted cactus. Click on the image or the link to view the full-sized photos.

12 Mar 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

And Now For OUR First Cactus Flower

Beavertail Cactus Flower

I sure hope you like flowers, ’cause I love them. Springtime, although not official yet, has come to our town. This is the first (of many) flowers to open on the beavertail cactus next to the RV drive. Click on the image to enlarge.

There are many other cacti spread around the landscaping in the yard and more up in the natural desert part of the lot on the hill and up in the wash, all of which will have flowers in the spring and summer months. As I said, I love flowers and will have many more photos of them as they open for the next few months.

11 Mar 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

After the Rain

Thrasher Beavertail BudHedgehog BudsLots of Buds

I climbed up on the hill out back to replace the bird seed bell and block that would usually be up there; since the rain mostly abated today, I was able to go up and do the replacement. After I finished, the first customer impatiently waited on a cholla cactus about 20 feet away from where I was. I took this photo of the curve billed thrasher using the Canon SL1 and 300mm telephoto lens.

A little later, I went out front where Damsel has a few cacti growing in the landscape rock garden. It would seem that we’re going to have a lot of pink and purple flowers soon. Left to right in the lower panel above: beavertail cactus flower bud, several hedgehog flower buds and scores more beavertail buds on one very prolific plant. I took these photos also with the same camera, but with a shorter focal length for close-ups. Click on any image to enlarge.

03 Mar 2015 by Arizona Environment Home & Garden Photography

Where’s Waldo?

Where’s Waldo?

If you look very carefully, you may see a bird in Damsel’s plum tree.

Seriously, Damsel and I have a running joke of saying “Where’s Waldo?” whenever we see a male cardinal outside; the bright crimson color of these birds makes them easy to spot even in non-sunny conditions like this morning. I was on the courtyard patio with the intention of shooting some close-up photos of plum blossoms with raindrops, when this cardinal briefly lighted in the tree.

I got the photo of the bird OK but I’m still working on competing with Damsel when it comes to crisp close-ups (none of my raindrop/flower pictures were acceptable). Click on the image to enlarge.

01 Mar 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

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