Life in the Sonoran Desert

Living out here in the desert far from any town or city provides us the wonderful opportunity to view a lot of wildlife, especially in summer.

A family of Kit fox moved in sometime in early spring, Mom, Dad, 2 youngsters. This is one of them.  I felt fortunate that after a few days of seeing me every day they let me get close enough to take this not-so-very-good picture.

Just look at those ears - the better to hear you with, my dear. :-D.

It was already 100 degrees in the shade by 8:30 this morning. I had gone out and refreshed all the outside water containers for the critters - both wild and domestic. I then came in the house to watch from my kitchen window as the drama unfolded. A family of Roadrunners arrived - Mom, Dad, and two youngsters.  Then came a large family of Gambel quail followed by the Cactus wrens and many smaller birds all seeking the fresh water and shade of our backyard oasis.

Young roadrunner - not quite as big as Mom and Dad.

This is our Beagle mix, Molly (above).  Molly is only about 6 feet from the Roadrunner (couldn't get them in the same pic. - yet).  They both knew the other one was there but neither of them knew quite what to do about this situation.

The roadrunner youngster hunched down - afraid - and not sure what to do next.

S/he finally remembered she had learned how to fly and up to the top of the fence she went.

You have to look closely at this pic. taken through my kitchen window. Right in the center of the picture is, what appears to be, an opening (tiny cave) in Big Mama Rosy. At the upper left of the opening you can just make out a black line. This is the tail of one of the adult Roadrunners. Just to the right of the tail you can just barely make out the bird's head (tiny black line with light line above). To the right of the tree trunk on the flagstone you can make out the corner of one of my watering "troughs". This roadrunner was after both shade and water both at the same time.

I counted no less than 18 adult quail and numerous youngsters - all moving almost too fast to get a good picture. I did get some slightly blurry images though which I will post tomorrow.

Never a dull moment :-D

Lindy