I spotted this blossom bursting from the side of a cactus. It was so unusual and when I took my macro lens to take photos of it, a bumblebee was buzzing around.
Here’s another shot of the bee and you can see the cactus in the background. I used AI to identify the type of cactus. It said “Peruvian Apple Cactus.” Whether this is correct or not, I’m not sure. Do any of my blogger friends know for sure? It did say the blossom would last one night. It was blooming in the daytime, but wilted by the next day.
Our pergola created interesting shadows in the background on a stucco wall.
Here are a couple other photos I took while I had the macro lens engaged:
One final fun photo:
I hope you enjoyed my photos today and have a great week!
He’s still looking gnarly with his late summer molting, but his crest is coming back.
Red can be seen most days feeding his adopted Cowbird. If you missed the post about Cowbirds, I wrote about them HERE.
I haven’t seen Mrs. for a few weeks. Although there was a very young female Cardinal who stopped by. Maybe Red is in charge of all the children, legitimate or not?
Red’s current look makes me miss the days of old when Red was the most handsome bird in our desert.
Happy Friday! What are your plans for the weekend?
This precious kitty was inches from our bedroom sliding glass door.
I was wondering what I was up to five years ago. I looked at my blog and this is what I found:
My husband called to me from the bedroom. “The bobcat is here!”
“Where?” I asked scanning my view past the fence in the backyard.
“Right here.”
Wow. The bobcat was lounging inches away from our sliding glass door. She looked hot with mouth open breathing. But instead of panting, she was scenting her next meal. My cat Olive used to do that when scouting for birds in our backyard — before we moved to the wilds of Arizona.
The bobcat nonchalantly grabbed a bird midair and took it behind a potted plant to munch. She climbed a tree and came down with another snack of a baby bird. Another baby bird was hopping on the patio oblivious to the danger. That life ended quickly.
The bobcat moved into the shade and fell asleep on our patio, sated with an afternoon meal.
Climbing into a tree to fetch a baby bird snack.Acting casual before catching a snack.
She looks like she owns the place!
I’m a little nervous to go outside after dark. You don’t know what’s out in those trees or under our patio furniture. It’s literally a jungle out there!
Thanks to my sister-in-law for the amazing videos.
Here’s Olive our wild cat who is hanging out on the bar.
This is a juvenile Harris’s Hawk who stopped by last week. The spotted chest and leggings are why I know it’s a juvie. Adults are solid brown in those places.
On the smaller side of birds are these two House Sparrows.
A Mourning Dove enjoyed the bird bath too and got fluffed up.
A quail couple feasted on the birdseed block.
A Roadrunner took over a bench in the backyard.
Another look at the Harris’s Hawk.
Which birds are your favorites out of this batch of photos?
My favorite Al Pastor tacos at Kim’s Liquor Store during our recent beach vacation. This was my “go to” meal.
One of the things I like during our beach vacation is Mexican food in California. It tastes so much better than what we have in Arizona. After living in California for more than 30 years, it’s what I’m used to. California Mexican food is Baja style while Arizona is Sonoran. They are different.
I wrote about our favorite liquor store Mexican food being torn down on an earlier trip HERE. In that post, I pointed out changes in what once was a quaint sleepy beach town. Nothing stays the same.
Since our favorite Mexican take out spot no longer exists, we had to find a new one. And we did last summer. It’s called Kim’s and it’s off the beaten path next to orchid farms between our summer rental and our favorite beach.
This is the outside of Kim’s. It has a wide variety of items, from frying pans to Mexican spices, cereal, milk, automotive needs, fresh produce and liquor. In the back is a clean little kitchen run by chef Beto and his wife. We became regulars last summer and did take out even more this summer. That’s because it was unusually hot in the 90s and I didn’t feel like cooking. Our son and DIL loved it too. We ate a few take out dinners watching the sunset at the beach.
The first day we ordered at Kim’s during this year’s trip, Beto waved from the kitchen, gave us a big smile and shook our hands welcoming us back.
This was the best Chile Relleno I’ve had in my life with Beto’s homemade pico salsa on top plus rice and beans.
The Chicken Enchiladas with tons of avocado were pretty, pretty good, too!
We told the owner of Kim’s that we’d be leaving town. Then the next day we came back in for our last meal. Beto and his wife waved good bye. They thanked us. Then the owner gave us a bottle of Pinot Grigio and thanked us for all our business. Like my daughter said, “It feels good to be a regular and appreciated.”
What favorite restaurant or coffee shop do you where everyone knows your name?
What types of ethnic foods do you like in your area?
This is a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird in our backyard. I first noticed him hanging out with our male Northern Cardinal, which I found odd. Then I learned that Cowbirds are famous for laying their eggs in the nests of other bird species instead of building their own. This is known as a brood parasite. Cowbirds do not raise their own chicks, but the unsuspecting birds who incubate the Cowbird’s eggs raise them instead.
Brown-headed Cowbird — Molothrus ater
SIZE:
Male
Length: 7.5-8.7 in (19-22 cm)
Weight: 1.5-1.8 oz (42-50 g)
Wingspan: 14.2 in (36 cm)
Female
Length: 6.3-7.9 in (16-20 cm)
Weight: 1.3-1.6 oz (38-45 g)
Wingspan: 12.6-15.0 in (32-38 cm)
LOCATION:
FOOD:
Cowbirds eat seeds from weeds and grasses and some grains. They live near cattle and bison and feed on Insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, that the large mammals stir into into motion.
This is our male Northern Cardinal named “Red” who is feeding the juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird.
Eventually, the juvenile Cowbirds leave their adoptive families and find other Cowbirds. Scientists are studying this phenomenon to figure out how they recognize their own species. Some think it’s through their sounds that they recognize other Cowbirds.
I’m not on Facebook that often. I used to be on it every day while my kids were growing up. But now I don’t think of it that often. I post my wildlife photos on Instagram and they automatically get posted to FB.
Anywho. I was surprised when my daughter texted me and asked why I had posted something about her pug Waffles on FB. I told her I didn’t. She said the post was getting comments including from my sister-in-law, moms from my kids’ grade school that I haven’t talked to since then. It was getting likes, hearts and hugs.
Next I got a phone call from my dad asking what in the heck was going on with Waffles.
“Nothing,” I said. “He turned 10 years old in August.”
My dad explained that he had seen a Facebook post and that Waffles was having emergency surgery.
Somehow this memory from 2021 was showing up in people’s feeds. I looked at my Facebook page and it wasn’t there.
Five years ago, Waffles had eaten a chunk of wood from a planter and it lodged in his small intestine. He had to have emergency surgery but is fine now except for getting older.
When Waffles was a pup.
Are you on Facebook and have you had an old memory pop up that people thought was current and commented on? If so, what was the post about?
How often do you use Facebook compared to years ago?
