There were three of these Harris’s Antelope Squirrels running around our backyard yesterday. They were chasing each other around. It didn’t look like it was friendly either. More of a “this is my territory so get lost” kind of look.
I skipped a day of putting out birdseed, so the birds (and squirrels) went wild when I put out a birdseed block yesterday.
Here are a few photos from the backyard yesterday:
A House Sparrow at the birdbath.
A female Gambel’s Quail on a bench.
A male Gambel’s Quail walking to the birdseed block.
A bunch of quail attacking the birdseed block.
A Mourning Dove jumped into the birdbath and made a splash.
I’ve lost track of how many weeks of rain we’ve had in the desert. If I were to guess, I’d say we’re on week four. It doesn’t rain every single day. But three to four days per week. This post has a few photos and videos of clouds and rain from my iphone.
I took photos last week of how green the desert is because of the rain HERE.
A rainy day earlier this week.
This week, not only did we get two inches of rain, Flagstaff had tornadoes and Prescott had two-inch balls of hail!
Once we were driving up to Flagstaff to celebrate our anniversary and we got caught in a hail storm. It was terrifying because we couldn’t see anything and golf-ball sized hail pounded on our car. I’ll be honest, I was terrified and completely lost it. My husband drove slowly behind a semi truck, following his lights. We were on a highway that off the right shoulder was a cliff. We stuck to the left lane against the mountain. When we got to Flagstaff we got out of the car to discover it was dented from chrome front bumper to rear bumper and every bit of surface in between
I saw these clouds on a morning walk. I got back safely inside the house before a large crack of thunder and a downpour!
At least the crocs are enjoying the rain! I have to say, I am too. It’s exciting weather with thunder lightning and downpours.
Another thing I like about rain in the desert is the aroma afterward of creosote. The word for the smell after a rain is called petrichor.
Red has been missing in action for a few weeks, but finally showed up again this week. I also spotted Mrs. but she flew away before I could get a photo. My only disappointment in seeing Red was that my Bird Buddy bird feeder didn’t capture his picture or video. I think Red is standing outside the camera’s range. He’s sneaky that way!
I’m not sure if it’s all the rain that has kept the birds, including Red, at bay. I have heard Red chirping several times, but I wasn’t able to spot him. Also, his adopted fledgling, a Brown Headed Cowbird, is no longer hanging out with Red or Mrs.
I say “what a difference a day makes” because Red’s feathers are grown in. He’s back to his beautiful self.
This photo is from early September when Red was molting. Poor thing. Maybe he was embarrassed to being seen and photographed until his feathers grew back!
But in typical fashion of Red, when I fill the bird feeder, he’s once again the first bird in. He likes to stop by early in the morning and in the evenings. Mrs. is never too far away.
There were a few bird photos I took this weekend that made me smile. I never know what I’m going to get until I connect my memory card to my laptop and open up Adobe Bridge. That’s the program I use to view my photos. If I like the image, it gets exported to my laptop. It dawned on me that I should backup my photos on a thumb drive! I have a bad track record with backups. Once I lost an entire novel’s manuscript because I didn’t back up my laptop and files started disappearing. I contacted Apple and they couldn’t recover my files and they suspected it was a hardware issue.
The photo above is a Gilded Flicker and it made the cut.
This House Sparrow at the birdbath was a saver, too.
Here he is getting a sip of water after a rainy day.
I had another visit by a Lesser Goldfinch. I wrote about them for Bird of the Week after my first encounter with this tiny little bird. Here are a few more photos:
This photo gives perspective of the size of Lesser Goldfinch next to a House Sparrow. Prior to seeing Lesser Goldfinches, the sparrow was one of the smaller species we had in our yard.
The Lesser Goldfinch is getting ready to make her move!
There she goes!
I hope you enjoyed my photos today. I welcome your feedback.
With a break from rainy days, I took my camera across the street to the nature’s preserve to get some photos. I marveled at how green it is in the desert.
The Octotillo look very happy.
Then I slowly walked around our yard to observe the beauty. This bee was busy with a fairy duster plant in our front yard.
The Pyracantha white blossoms have disappeared and been replaced with fruit.
A cactus in bloom.
The Honeysuckle is blooming, too.
The Fire Stick plant is huge and topped with new growth.
Even the Aloe seems healthier with all our rainy days.
I recently wrote about a weird thing that happened with Facebook. Somebody commented on a five-year old photo of Waffles needing emergency surgery. Then the post got more comments and my 94-year-old dad even called to find out if Waffles was okay. I couldn’t figure out why that old post was making the rounds, because it didn’t come up as a memory to me and I didn’t share it with anyone.
Well, wouldn’t you know it! Waffles had emergency surgery yesterday! My daughter wondered if there was a connection to the FB post and Waffles back in ER. Was there something with the vibes or was he jinxed because of that post?
He got sick shortly after that and wouldn’t eat and if he drank water it came right back up. My daughter had a sleepless week but through subcutaneous fluids and several trips to the ER, Waffles’ tummy finally settled down. During this process the vet took an X-ray to make sure there wasn’t a blockage.
Waffles, my daughter’s pug, made it on “We Rate Dogs” a popular pupper site. Eventually it had more than 75,000 views. This photo was taken at the University of Utah pool. Waffles became the swim team’s mascot and sports marketing posed Waffles for social media posts.
The X-ray revealed his bladder was filled with stones that could be life threatening. I was worried about a 10-year-old pug going through anesthesia and surgery. They don’t have the best noses for breathing and are at risk with anesthesia. But as the parent of a 30-year-old, I didn’t have any say so or monetary involvement.
Waffles is home today with my daughter in the Bay Area post surgery and it all went well.
Here are two more Utah Swim Team photos of Waffles:
A Fun Waffles Tale:
When our daughter graduated college, her first job was in Scottsdale, Arizona and she lived in Tempe. I was visiting her and Waffles (from Palm Springs where we lived then) and we took a walk across the Tempe Town Lake pedestrian bridge. We were halfway across when a woman we had never met stopped us and asked, “Is that Waffles?” We were stunned! It turned out the woman was married to a Utah swim coach who took a job with ASU’s swim team and is now the head coach. She definitely was familiar with Waffles!
Do you have a favorite of these Waffles photos? If so, which one?
Do you think it’s a weird coincidence with the old FB post showing up and Waffles having surgery again?
We’ve had several rainy days with thunder and lightning including today. I spotted a few hearty doves on the fence in the rain as well as one hanging out on a Beavertail Cactus.
This dove took advantage of the wet feathers to do some grooming.
The dark clouds were interrupted by a few bright blue spots and sunshine yesterday.
The pool bar floods when we get more than an inch of rain, but it dries up pretty quickly. We also get a river running from the wash down the side of our house. But it’s outside the fence in the NAOS. What’s a NAOS you ask?
Natural Area Open Space (NAOS) is a permanent, recorded land easement in Scottsdale, Arizona, that keeps a portion of private property or community land in a natural, undisturbed Sonoran Desert state
Another view of the pool bar with a bit of rain building up.
Another view of the fluffy Mourning Dove in the rain.
I don’t mind the rain at all. In fact, I love it. We do need the rain and the desert is so green this year. When I get a break in the weather, I’ll walk down to the nature’s preserve across the street to get more photos of green desert landscapes.
A quail mom braved the rain standing on a bench to watch over her kids at the bird seed block.
I love the Carpenters’ music, may Karen RIP.
What your weather like this week? Are you a Carpenter’s fan?
