I thought it would be nice for the summer and our upcoming July 4th celebration, to put some patriotic decorations out. I got some bouquets of plastic flowers the other day with a red, white and blue theme and placed them around the base of our new mailbox. Very Pretty, don’t you think? Click on the image to enlarge.
Graphics have a way of putting quantities in perspective. This Ramirez pie chart is perfect.
I bought a little gadget to hang the birdseed bells in the mesquite tree out back where we can see the birds visiting the bell from the patio. Today, a cactus wren (the Arizona State Bird) came to feed and I was surprised to see it hanging like a bat, inverted and pecking from the bottom. None of the other birds seem to do this. Click on the image to enlarge.
What a beautiful Arizona day! With temperatures looming around 90° this afternoon, the cactus flowers are anxious to open and share their beauty with the world. This pair of pink flowers opened today along with several others flowers opening on the hedgehog cactus in front of the new house.
This beautiful Great Horned Owl perched herself on the corner of the garage last evening while I was on the patio. I called to Cap’n to bring my camera so I could get this photo before she took off.
I conclude that this is a female from the description of the owl’s call in a WikiPedia article:
Their call is a low-pitched but loud ho-ho-hoo hoo hoo; sometimes it is only four syllables instead of five. The female’s call is higher and rises in pitch at the end of the call.
This highly adaptable bird ranges all over the Americas, so it’s no surprise to see them here in the high Arizona desert. Some of the species they prey upon are snakes and lizards, so I’m very glad that they are here. Desert reptiles creep me out. 😮
After I clicked off the first shot with my camera, she turned to look at me while I clicked off several more images before she decided to fly away, this being the best one of them. Click on the image to enlarge.
Ramirez notices that we’re getting the usual half-truth from the Japanese disaster.
One of our neighbors offered to let us take a cutting from one of her succulents growing behind her house. The plant itself looks like it might be a variety of cholla (opuntia). It grows like a small tree with branches that dangle the little pods seen in the image.
We looked on the internet to see if we could figure out exactly what genus and species it is so we can evaluate its growth and flowering habits. I’m betting that our fellow desert dweller, Crotalus can help us figure this out. Click on the image to enlarge.