

In one of the main wildflower beds we saw this leaf-cutter ant nest, clearly displaying the ant hill, the pieces of leaf, the trail of cut leaves.

A nature journal incorporating back yard birding observations and experiences at Tohono Chul Park, a 49-acre desert oasis in northwest Tucson, Arizona.
I have been ignoring the blog in favor of dealing with nature itself in my docent class. Most of the pictures I’ve been taking have been for purposes of plant identification. I hope to get back to blogging more regularly in the future. For now, here is some mistletoe
from the Park… and two items of interest.
First, the other night I counted 21 quails roosting in the front yard. One of the regular female roosters (odd word combination) is lame; it looks as if she might be missing a foot, but I haven’t gotten a closeup view. In the backyard during the day I see the quails are starting to pair up and the males are starting to get aggressive with each other.
Second, a troll has been leaving messages on my older posts, so I’m sorry to say that for the time being I will have to monitor comments.
Oh, and third: we got nearly two inches of rain this week. All the plants in the neighborhood look revived; almost as if they hadn’t come close to perishing from drought.