July 10, 2010 and 110 Degrees - in the shade

This afternoon in the garden I found this lovely little king snake. You can see her eyes in this pic. S/he is about 3' long and was, at the time, taking refuge from the heat under the shade of Big Mama Rosy. Big Mama is my largest Rosemary bush and she is definitely spreading outward as she ages. She is about 5' tall and a good 10' across.

While photographing Ms. King Snake I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned I was delighted to see this visitor . . .

Mr. Roadrunner is perched on the fence under the shade of a very large Mesquite tree in our "backyard". This yard area is a fenced in portion of our 5 acres of Sonoran Desert. We provide plenty of fresh water, shade, shrubs and two large Mesquite trees for the wildlife. Our dogs use this area as well but do not seem to ever bother the wildlife. Every summer this oasis in the desert is home to snakes, roadrunners, many smaller birds, hummers, collared lizards, bees, and of course, the ubiquitous rabbits. We have a dove family that provides us with no less than three full sets of babies every summer. We are currently watching the first set learn to fly while Mama Dove is redecorating their tiny, flimsy, and most precarious nest for the arrival of set #2.  As it turned out, Mr. Roadrunner has a mate who showed up a few minutes after I took this picture. When I tried to get a pic. of the two of them together (I was inside the house but they saw movement) they became agitated and one of them took off.  If you look closely you can see the Mesquite pods hanging from the tree.