Friday, May 09, 2014

3 Reasons to love the Sonoran Desert in Spring

I love late spring in the Sonoran Desert. There is so much beauty now. Here are three things in particular that I look forward to from year to year, and cherish every second that they are here:

1. Palo Verde trees in bloom. Throughout the city of Tucson and in the surrounding desert, everywhere you look there is a sea of yellow blossoms.

Palo verde cropped

Rillito palo verdes crop

2. White-winged doves on saguaros. The beautiful white-winged dove spends the winter in Mexico, then flies up here in springtime to feed on saguaro blossoms and fruit. The most iconic image of the Sonoran desert is a white-winged dove atop a saguaro. (In this photo the dove is accompanied by a Gila woodpecker and a bee.)

Gila and White winged dove 5-7-2010 8-17-55 AM 855x908

3. Baby Gambel’s quail. These adorable little guys start showing up in April and provide continuing entertainment and beauty well into summer.

Baby Quail 5-16-2008 9-58-26 AM 514x357

 

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:50 AM

    I love your choices and pictures. Sue

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Sue! I chose these three because they are most iconic--I don't think you'd see them other places. But there are so many
      beautiful and interesting things here in the spring.

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  2. I don't have saguaros over here and I still haven't seen a baby quail. The palo verde in my yard has already lost its flowers. But the white wings abound. ;-)

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    Replies
    1. Well, the foothills palo verdes are the ones that are still blooming. The blue palo verdes stopped a couple of weeks ago. And the baby quails don't peak till June, so there's still plenty of time to see them. The white wings do indeed abound.

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  3. The Palo Verde trees are much nicer than the ubiquitous Bradford pear trees that explode here every spring. Especially if they don't, um, stink.

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