Okay; one more post on quails. Back when I was obsessively watching the families and trying to tell one from another, I noticed that one young quail in a very large family (I think there were 12 chicks) had been hatched with only one wing. At first he seemed to do just fine. He had that excited, curious, high-energy aspect that all baby birds seem to possess, and did well following his parents and siblings, though he was already noticeably smaller than the sibs.
     After a few days, though, I could tell that he was falling behind. He couldn't run as fast as the others--he'd be straggling behind as they all scurried across the back yard. He never seemed to lose his good spirits, though. One day he climbed on top of the quail block to feed with his father. Then the whole family left. He could not figure out how to get down. He tried running back and forth across the top of the block, looking over the edge as he decided whether or not to jump. His family was getting farther and farther away. Finally, he jumped into the air and tried to fly on his one pitiful little wing. He hit the ground in a heap, scrambled up, and took off after his family.
     I never saw him again.

    The main reason I've not been writing for a while is that I've had so much I wanted to discuss. I've decided to just do one thing at a time and see how that works. So... first, quail.
     I have gotten to see many, many more quail than I would ever have dreamed of this summer. It appears that all the quails in the neighborhood have spread the word about my pond and quail block. I have an unknown but large number of families visiting daily, with chicks of all ages from perhaps grade school through college. I'd guess the average size is three chicks; some families are much larger, others have only one or two chicks. A few sad couples have no remaining offspring.
     I have seen two childless couples roosting in the citrus tree by my front porch, but have not been paying much attention there. There are several families with young chicks who go rushing off each evening across the front yard to wherever they do roost. 

     And I see a number of families on the post-dawn morning walk. Usually, they are scurrying across the road. This morning a group of about eight quite young chicks FLEW across the road. I wonder if they were surprised to have pulled that off.

MONSOON!
     It came early in July, along with really spectacular (and hideously uncomfortable) humidity. We had a huge amount of rain here for the first couple of weeks: according to my rain gauge, nearly five inches (total for the whole monsoon is supposed to be six inches).
     Then, nothing. It rained everywhere but this neighborhood for the rest of the month, though the humidity remained, and then a week ago the whole city dried up.
      It's supposed to return tomorrow. I look forward to it. It's uncomfortable, but the plants love it so much.

STILL WITH THE QUAIL. I've been spending a lot of time watching the quails. A LOT of time. I have many, many families. One seems to be a blended family of 10 or more chicks (started out with over 20) and two single fathers. They are all ages and all sizes. A few days ago I saw five teeny-tinies on the middle porch that might have just hatched. They were somewhere between thimbles and marshmallows in size (with legs). The very fuzzy picture above shows these guys--it gives some idea of how little they are.

The very little ones are the most fun to watch, because they seem to find the world all new and exciting, even though you can tell they don't like the heat. (They huddle in the shade, when they can find it.) But as soon as they arrive in my pond garden, they go zipping up to the pond or the quail block without checking to see if there are other quails or predators around. They seem very excited, like, "Oh, boy! We're back at Disneyland!" The older chicks are more jaded. Or cautious. You would be amazed at how fast those little-bitty quail can run.

Unfortunately, the other morning I found a tiny drowned chick in the pond, but overall this little oasis is probably more helpful to them than not. The second picture is of the pond area from inside my cool, comfortable office on a very hot day.

Two days ago a mother and three very small chicks found their way into the rose garden, a very narrow patio outside our bedroom. It is surrounded by a 6-foot tall brick wall, with a gate at one end. The gate is covered with mesh to keep rabbits out. Anyway, I tried to photograph these guys, but scared them. The mother flew up and over the wall. One of the chicks--somehow--flew to the top of the wall. The remaining chicks ran around frantically, trying to get out. I stepped away and watched as the guy on top of the wall ran back and forth a few times then took the plunge to the other side. The mother flew back into the garden and led the remaining babies to a gap in the gate. Then they, with the father, took off for the desert.

In other news: for two days running I had a beautiful 2-foot long black kingsnake in my shade garden. It evidently got tired of being watered every morning, though, and I haven't seen it recently. The third picture up there is of the shade garden. The extremely leafy plant at the right is a Japanese Fatsia, which I call my sumo plant.

A group of lizards (as many as 3) have been sitting in the cool breeze from our cooler on the ledge of our bedroom window. The cats watch them with great interest and longing. It's the first time I've ever seen lizards gather together. It's been VERY hot.

QUAILS, QUAILS, QUAILS
...and more quails. We have a new quail block and lots of families of quail(s). Mostly they are two-parent families, but I think there's a single mom out there too. The largest group I've seen so far was a family with ten very tiny chicks. Today I saw a family with eight slightly-larger chicks, and think it may be the same family. There are at least two groups (grade school and junior college) of six chicks. A couple of singletons also. Some of the chicks are nearly as big as adults now, but I haven't been able to distinguish their sex yet. I'm not sure when the males develop their distinctive coloring, or when the topknots on the males turn into fishing lures. I'll definitely keep observing, though!

A couple of days ago I looked up to see a family of quail standing inside the gate on my back porch. I grabbed the camera in time to get this one fuzzy picture. I think I counted five or six chicks... they're all high schoolers.

The families are only allowed to eat one at a time. In the morning when it's cool, you can see new families lined up out of sight of the group that is feeding. Then they move in... the fathers chase each other around a bit, and the feeding continues.

The only other thing of interest lately, is that I've been deadheading blossoms from geraniums and hibiscus out into the pond area, where they always quickly disappear. This morning I saw a rabbit munch on a spent hibiscus blossom with great relish. He sniffed at the geranium and didn't seem to like the blossom part, but then he started eating the stem, from the bottom up to the blossom. It looked as if he had a geranium growing out of his mouth!

This beautiful picture is used with permission from the photographer, Brian E. Small, whose website (http://www.briansmallphoto.com/index.html) contains not only awesome photos of birds but also several very useful articles on birding and photography.

The photo shows a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, and the reason it is here is that one of these birds showed up in my pond area two days ago. I was at the computer when I spotted a woodpecker on the quail block. At first glance it looked like an ordinary Gila Woodpecker, but I'd never seen one on the quail block, so I pulled out my binoculars for a closer look. Through the binoculars it was clear this wasn't an ordinary Gila: it had yellow above its beak and a very large patch of yellow at the nape of its neck. Instead of a small round "cardinal's cap" it had a larger, brighter, irregularly-shaped patch of red on top. it also looked somewhat... strange. Definitely not a Gila.

I went to my bird book and started looking up flickers, which are very similar to woodpeckers, but none had the yellow patches. So I flipped to the next woodpecker page, and here was the guy out in my yard, exact down to every detail. When I checked the map, I discovered that Golden-fronted woodpeckers do NOT appear in Arizona. They're common in Oklahoma and Texas and even extreme eastern New Mexico. So I posted the sighting on the Audubon Rare Bird Line, and this morning got an email telling me that this is the FIRST report EVER in Arizona.

I don't know if they will take my word for it, but I am 100% sure of the identification. And I'm really excited!

Quail update: yesterday I saw a family of six babies--kindergartners, maybe, so young they didn't even have mohawks yet. They were SO CUTE! They kept sitting down in the dirt, as if walking around was still too new to put all that energy into. A little later I saw a family of teenagers--six or seven. I don't know if this is one of the families I saw before with the offspring having grown. They do mature very quickly.

Also--a big javelina wandered through our front yard a couple of afternoons ago on the way to the back yard. I wanted to photograph it, but by the time I got outside with my camera it was already lumbering off through the prickly pear to the neighbors' yard.

We're having very weird weather this week... extreme wind, and I do mean extreme today and tomorrow, followed by much lower temps (into the seventies!) and maybe even rain Friday. I'm worried about all the little baby birds who will be blown out of their nests and probably die, not to mention the baby quails... depending on size, I can imagine some of them blowing away too. Oh, well.

Quail update: There have been quite a few families at the quail block by my pond. I saw 7 or 8 first-graders more than once, and a family of four sixth-graders. I've seen a family crossing the road on my walk. I don't know if anything is going on in the dorm tree just now.

The most exciting happening lately occurred day before yesterday. I went out back to look at the quail block around sunset. I had my camera with me. But before I could get to the pond area I saw three animals running east across the back yard. Two were rabbits; one was striped and so big that at first I thought it might be a coatamundi. When I got closer I realized it was the BIGGEST gila monster I have ever seen. I thought it was at least two feet long, but the reptile book says they only grow to 14 inches. It was running, with a strange rolling gait in which all movement seemed to come from its front shoulders. I was so excited I couldn't get my camera out and set up before the gila monster ran into a big thicket of prickly pear. So... no picture. I think I do have a gila monster pic I shot while out hiking a few years ago. I'll see if I can find it. And I will be on the lookout for THE GIANT MUTANT NINJA GILA MONSTER.

Finally: the pictures with this post. One was taken the other morning on Calle Karina, one of the streets we power walk on. The other is a closeup of my young pomegranate tree. This is the first year it has really bloomed, and it amazes me. Instead of putting all its blossoms out at once, like a citrus or peach tree, it sets them out now and then, from time to time. New ones are still coming out (it started in February!) while old ones are turning into pomegranates. You can see one of each in the photo.

QUAILS!!!!

Yesterday I saw my first baby quails, out in the pond area, around the quail block with their parents. I counted three, but there might have been more. Today I saw a family with five young'uns. The babies are all in what I would judge to be 6th or 7th grade. I haven't seen any of the adorable fuzzy rolling thimbles. But the season is young.

I went out on the front porch last night to see what was up. (About two weeks ago I determined that at least one male quail was roosting in the dorm tree.) Last night I counted at least three and possibly more males up in the tree. I guess it has become a bachelor apartment. I also saw a female, but she jumped out of the tree and ran off. They were probably talking dirty to her.

These pictures are of some tragic quail chicks whose parents made a nest in a small porch area on my friend Hayford's carport, about five miles east and north of here. As he describes it, the deck is small and surrounded by a 3-foot wall. Apparently the parents thought it was a safe area for a nest, but didn't give any thought to how they would get the babies OUT of the safe area once they hatched. Alas, once the hatchlings appeared reality set in and after a couple of days the parents abandoned them to starve. Which they did.

Apart from the sadness of the whole thing, this did allow some fairly decent closeups of young quail. Check out their amazing camouflage. They look just like sandy ground with pebbles, where they are meant to spend most of their gradeschool education. Thanks to Hayford Peirce for the sad story and the great photos.

KILLER BEES!
It finally happened. We finally were invaded by killer bees. "Killer" is something of a misnomer for Africanized bees, which can and do kill humans and other animals, but it's not as if they're going out looking for other beings to slaughter; rather, they will attack when they feel their hive is threatened. Thus, it's not dangerous to do stuff while the bees are foraging (buzzing flowers or my pond), but it can be dangerous to do pretty much of anything near the hive.

Anyway, our handyman was here this morning fixing the cooler baffle when he noticed a few bees going in and out through a crack at the top of our house just below the roof. I immediately called a bee exterminator, and they said they'd be here in a couple of hours. About two and a half hours later, Rocko heard a very loud sound of buzzing outside his office. I came in to look, then over to my office, and the air outside the windows was literally thick with bees milling around. It was like something from a horror movie.

I thought it was probably just a swarm, getting ready to move in, which wouldn't have been dangerous (till after they moved in), but I wasn't sure enough of my natural history knowledge to go outside and see what was up. About five minutes later, the bee guy arrived. When I told him the sequence of events, he said that it was probably a swarm, and went to take a look. He came back and said that the bees milling around were drones, and that the main part of the hive was already inside. He said the guys we saw this morning were probably advance scouts, who had decided that this was indeed a lovely place to set up the new hive. I took a picture of the swarm as it proceeded inside the crack. (I've seen swarms on trees, and they look like very strange, constantly wriggling, buzzing footballs.)

Bee guy put on his bee suit and went back to the swarm. He told us that the whole thing was inside now, and we should get out of the way. So we went inside. I watched as much as I could see from the window, which wasn't much, except that suddenly the air was thick with bees again, only this time they were dropping out of the air as they died. They began to pile up on top of the cooler, and he brushed them to the ground.

Five minutes later he was finished, except for plugging up the hole. He's coming back Sunday to bee-proof the whole house and the shed. He used pyrethrine, which does dissipate, but smells awful. He said that ants will probably eat the dead bees.

A couple of hours later, after doing some errands in the neighborhood, I went back to the bee area to change a hummingbird feeder. There were practically no dead bees around (they had already been eaten or blown away, I guess), but there were about a dozen live bees, buzzing around in seeming puzzlement. They could smell the Queen's pheromone, I guess, but had no way to get to it. I'm assuming they were stragglers, or scouts who had checked out another location or something.

And that's my bee story.

As Anonymous noted, that turkey has been up here for a long time. And the desert, indeed, is very beautiful. The brittle bush in our neighborhood was in exuberant bloom for weeks, as yellow and vibrant as forsythia back east. Cactus are starting to bloom; prickly pads are ringed with young new pads and in some cases buds. Some of the mammalia are starting to put out blossoms.

Nevertheless, I have no gorgeous desert photos today, though there will be some soon. Instead, I offer a distant, blurry photo of a phaenopepla, perhaps the same individual that I saw drinking out of my pond the other day, and two photos from a fairly recent full moon over the garden just before dawn.

Quail update: For some time now, we only see them in pairs, though large groups still gather at the quail block. I don't know if any roosting is going on in the citrus tree beside the porch. About a month ago I saw ONE female jump up into the tree to roost, but from the lack of clucking, I think she may have been alone. I'm hoping for some baby quail soon. We have no dove nests in the carport so far this year, but there's a lot of bird sex going on out by the pond. This is such a wonderful time of year!

How long it has been since I have posted here! We've gone all the way through winter and are now just starting with spring, though I suppose there could still be a freeze. There's been a lot of rain and a couple of freezes, so my garden looks awful. I have some pots of petunias and pansies that have done very little so far, and my beautiful vines and flowering shrubs have all frozen back.

This picture is of the turkey that has free run of the patio at a vegetarian restaurant we go to for Thanksgiving dinner. It always looks very thankful, and I've been meaning to post it for a while.

But what about the quail, you ask? It's been a very long time since I've watched them roost in the tree by the front porch. I don't actually know if they are still doing it. It's been too cold to stand out there and watch.

But I watch them in the back yard and around the neighborhood. They've been in large coveys for a while--usually I see at least six, eight, or more quail together at a time. A lot of them gather around the quail block by the pond (I will have to stop putting those out soon because the white wings will be back in March and they are just pigs. A block that should last for a month is gone in a week. (A quail block, to answer the question posed earlier, is a compacted, dense block of seeds held together with something sticky but I don't know what.))

What I've been noticing is that the quails are starting to appear more in pairs. Today I watched two male quails harrassing a female who clearly wasn't in the mood for sex yet. But that is coming. All kinds of baby birds are coming! I can't wait!

The female with the missing tail that I watched in the fall eventually regrew all her tail feathers. I also watched a female with an apparently broken wing. Her covey-mates were very solicitous of her. I lost track, though. Either she healed or died.

I have so many things I want to blog about that I have been paralyzed. I'll try to hit the high spots here, and then hopefully be more current in the future.

First the quail. Very shortly after my last post, half of my quail disappeared. I sat out there every night for weeks, but the only birds that came to the tree were two females and a male--possibly the children from the family of five, and two males, possibly from the other grouping. Since then I have occasionally seen one or more other birds show up at dusk, but never the tight-knit family.

I don't know if something bad happened, or if they all just split up when coveys started to form. I haven't been able to find out anything through Internet research, and I haven't been able to find a quail behavior expert.

Meanwhile, I continue to observe. I only catch the guys going to roost occasionally, but there have been a lot of quail in the back yard, especially since I put out a quail block (see the picture above, with a mourning dove). I have also spotted largish groups of quail pretty much everywhere on the property, and I see smaller groups of up to five or six throughout the neighborhood on my walks.

One of the females that roosts in front (who I suspect is a daughter from the family of quail) lost her tail somehow. I first spotted the tailless quail in the back, at the quail block, then happened to see her in the front. The tail is slowly growing back. It started out as little bitty feather-stubs and now is a few inches long, but still obviously way too short. When she's in the back at the quail block she is usually with the other young female, along with two males and a larger female. Maybe it's the family group reuniting for food? The largest male keeps guard on the top of the fence while the others eat.

In other news, for several days in a row I saw a beautiful mockingbird drinking from the pond. I haven't seen it lately, but am holding out hope that it will set up a spring territory here and breed nearby. The other day when I was out walking I heard the unmistakable sound of a mockingbird calling (but not singing--it's a very weird sound). I glanced over to see a beautiful mockingbird in a pyracantha bush, looking directly at me. I like to think it was the one I've seen, telling me it will be back. The mockingbird picture above is of a bird that frequented my yard in the other house.

You'd think by now I would be bored with the quail, but I'm not. Night comes quite early now, and I haven't been hanging out on the front porch every evening as was my wont. The last time I saw all nine quail, in their two groups, was over a week ago. About five days ago I saw seven quail--the family and two of the others. The most I've seen since then was five, last night: the mama and papa plus one daughter from the family, and two males from the other group. I'm hoping that the other quail have just gone to roost at a different time, or that maybe some of them are roosting elsewhere, but I'm worried. I never saw the family group without everybody before. And they didn't seem to be looking for or waiting for anyone. It's been VERY HOT and dry, and I'm wondering if the stress has done some of them in.

In other news, the beautiful Cooper's hawk that visited me last year--or perhaps his brother--has showed up at my pond several times lately. (Gulp! What if he ate one or more of my quails?) In his honor I'm posting a picture of a different hawk, on a saguaro, partly because I have nothing else beautiful.

The other pictures are of a small nest (one zoomed in, the other a long shot) that was firmly attached to the top of an ocotillo till just recently. I think it is a verdin nest, but the bird book says they are five or six inches in diameter, and two observers have told me they are sure it was no more than three or four. It was football-shaped, which rules out a hummingbird nest, and also it was very prominent, which is typical of verdins but not hummers. I don't think any other birds around here are that small. In any case, it finally fell off, but before I could measure it someone ran over it.

Finally, the other day I put out some old, hard bread for the birds. It was so stale and so hard that even a pyrrhuloxia couldn't make a dent in it. This morning a ground squirrel grabbed it up and ran off with the whole piece of bread. I'm sure he'll be very disappointed when he gets back to his nest and breaks his teeth.

Last night I set up my chair at the edge of the porch, with the door open, hoping to be able to photograph the quails. But by the time they roosted it was way too dark and all I got was pictures of dark grainy things. I do, however, have a nice picture of the front yard of sunset (above).

When I closed the front screen I scared the pee-waddin' out of at least two quail, who exploded out of the tree. I hope they didn't hurt themselves. We are having a party tomorrow night beginning about roosting time. I'm a little worried that one of my babies will get run over, but probably they'll be okay.

The second photo is from this morning: it's two (well, really 1 1/2) of our cats enthralled by a very tiny collared lizard on the outside windowsill of our "cat window."

Okay, I promise I'll stop with the quail after this one last post. Last night I set up my chair on the porch to watch as usual. The three males plus one female came along and pretty quickly headed for the dorm tree. About five minutes later a lone male showed up... plunked himself down in the middle of the yard under a scrawny palo verde tree... and just sat there. Sitting, not standing. Not scratching for food. I began to wonder if he were sick or what. Also no sign of the family, and it was getting dark.

About ten minutes after the male showed up, two females arrived, then another male. The females, at least one of which was a juvenile, headed for the tree but didn't roost. The two males stayed in the yard till finally, the remaining female, I'm assuming Mama, showed up, and the whole family went to roost. So Daddy was simply waiting for Mama. I think that is very sweet.

Final note: today we saw a humongous crow standing by the side of the road. He did a knee bend before jumping into the air to fly away.

The picture above is a male verdin from the old house. These are very tiny birds--somewhat smaller even than goldfinches but bigger than hummers-- that build football-shaped nests, usually low enough in trees to see. They love sugar nectar and have a very loud voice for such a tiny bird.

Bird and Ant update

I wish I could hide out in a quail costume and take pictures, as has been suggested, but they would never go for it. I will soon get another quail block, however, and may be able to take pix of quail at that. Stay tuned....

First, the ants. It has turned cold in the mornings, plus I have poisoned the heck out of several ant hills, so that crisis seems resolved. I feel a little guilty, but knowing they are like the Borg helps. Destroy one hive and ten other spring up to take its place. I've read that they form vast underground labyrinthal colonies, and I'm sure this is true. I'm sure they are underneath our entire property. Our next door neighbor also has problems with them. I don't actually mind that they do what they do. They help aerate the soil, and probably do other good things. They take the leaves they tear up back to the nest, where they chew them up and create a kind of mash for fungi that they tend, which I think they subsist on in the winter.

Anyway, birds: First, the whitewings have migrated for the winter. I didn't even notice, but a friend pointed it out, and it is true. It is much quieter without their constant calls of "Who cooks for YOU?"

Hummers: I've had a lot lately. I think mostly migrants, and mostly Anna's and Black-chinneds. The other day while sitting in the Jacuzzi we watched about six madly chase each other through the porch, around the house, into the trees. All of them swearing a blue streak in Hum-speak. It is amazing that any of them ever gets enough to eat. They look very like old movie scenes of airplane dogfights.

And the quail. My quail are all just fine. I am now certain that my young covey consists of two groups: the family of five, which is intact, and another probable family of four: three males and a female. The four-guys usually come to roost first, followed a few minutes later by the family of five. They are all roosting earlier and earlier. The dorm tree is full by about 6:30 now; just a few weeks ago they were coming home at around 8 PM.

Finally: while watching my quails, I've noticed that they move very slowly through regular desert (presumably so they can spot and eat anything yummy on the ground). But when they come to a bare patch, like the gravel driveway, they speed up and zip across. This, presumably, so predators won't spot them out in the open. I HEART QUAILS!!!

Quail in a moment, but first ants and snakes. The leaf-cutting ants are driving me insane. First they nearly stripped my pomegranate tree. I poisoned that nest, then noticed a few days later that they had completely stripped a climbing rose that I have been trying to grow for three years in the backyard. It's been attacked by rabbits, other bugs, and now the damned ants. I'm about ready to give up on the poor thing.

I couldn't find the ant nest, then noticed that they were also attacking the cape honeysuckle growing against the porch wall, and had spilled over into the carport. My husband found the nest the next morning, in the middle of a big patch of prickly pear, covered with old cactus pads. I poisoned it, but then this morning when I went out to check I almost tripped on another line of ants, marching toward a different cape honeysuckle in a different part of the yard, almost completely stripped. These guys joined the main column of ants from yesterday. So I went back and poured more poison on the nest. We'll see tomorrow if it did any good. It's too late for the rose now, and probably for the second cape honeysuckle.

Anyway, I can't help admire the ants. They remind me of the Borg, from Star Trek, and I do believe RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

My pictures today include one of the ant trails. I tried to get close enough to show the ants, but all you can see is the bits of leaf each one is carryig. I also posted a butterfly, because the ant trail is ugly.

Snakes: I saw another, this time medium-sized king snake when I was out looking for the ant nest.

Quail: the family is no longer together! But they may be okay, or they may not be. Night before last all the quail showed up together and went up in the tree almost simultaneously. But then a mature male and female repeatedly hopped out of the tree, squawking, ran around a bit, then went back into the tree, then out. I thought it might be the parents, looking for a missing child.

Last night, the quails showed up in groups. I counted five males and four females into the tree. At least one of the females was a juvenile (she showed up with an adult male, the last two to get into the tree). I'm pretty sure she is part of the family. I think I saw another juvenile female. All the males looked pretty big, but maybe one of them was the young male? I'm thinking that these guys have probably formed a flock and I may never again see the family as a unit again. But I'll check them out again tonight.

Just to prove that this isn't the All Quail All the Time blog, I am going to talk about snakes today. But first a quail update! The days are getting shorter really fast. I'd estimate that night falls about five minutes earlier every evening now. The quail no long take their time pecking around the front yard before retiring to the dormitory tree; instead, they appear all at once in the dusk, and usually together, so it's pretty hard to count them or be sure who's who. But I'm keeping my eye on them.

Now, snakes...

A couple of evenings ago two of the cats didn't want to come in after the quails went to roost. I saw they were intently watching something
on the flagstones in front of the porch. Well, it took me a minute to see it in the near dark, but it was a little, teeny, tiny snakelet, striped (I couldn't tell what color) and wiggling frantically as it tried to get over the lip of the metal thingy that separates the front plant bed from the flagstone. It was about the size of a soda straw. It was adorable. I'm assuming it was a king snake, but don't know for sure.

Then, this morning as I was heading out to get the paper I nearly stepped on a quite large king snake on the flagstone. I guess it was warming itself to get ready to start the day. It moved off into the pyracantha, but really slowly, so I guess it wasn't very warm yet. I think it was probably the snake I saw in the back yard the other day. It was about three feet long and black, with broken pale-yellow stripes.

When I went out a bit later to see if the snake was still there, I saw a very small lizard trying to eat a pretty large caterpillar. I'm pretty sure the caterpillar was winning, but I didn't stick around to find out.

Last night there was some rain to the west, resulting in a beautiful sunset that I photographed from my garden. Pix are above.

Before I return to my obsession with quail, I must thank Aiyana, who posts as "no rain," and who pointed out that my hedgehog cactus blooms are actually pincushion cactus blooms; that is, from Mammillaria genus rather than from Echinocereus genus. I definitely need to learn my cacti better. I do, however, know that cholla and prickly pear are from the same genus, Opuntia.

Quail. I've been watching just about every night. The family of five is always the last group up in the tree. The children are now nearly full grown. I just love to watch any quail get ready to fly up to roost. First they gaze up at the tree as if gathering determination. Then they do a deep squat, and then they jump into the air with their little wings propellering. I could watch that for hours, but it actually only takes a few seconds.

Today's pictures: Some Opuntia blossoms, from this year's cholla crop. I have NO IDEA what kind of cholla this is, except it is not a teddy bear cholla. I think it might be staghorn. And a picture of one of our Texas Ranger shrubs, right after the rains made it bloom.

Am I obsessed with quail, or what? I have decided that Gambel's quail are my second favorite birds, after Hummers and Mockingbirds. (Still no mockingbirds here, alas, despite my best efforts to attract them.)

Last night all nine birds were around in the yard, though I didn't stay to watch them roost. This morning while watering the garden, I saw a large group of quail--I was able to count nine, though there may have been more. And I wondered if it might include the guys who roost in my tree, so I went online and found a site that told me quail form coveys in the winter, when family groups come together. Then they split apart in the spring for mating.

What constitutes winter? I'm thinking the guys I saw this morning might already be a covey, but maybe not. And probably all the guys who roost in my citrus tree will form a covey if they haven't already. I've got to do more observing and reading. Already I know that they have fourteen separate vocalizations.

I have no more quail pictures, so am posting a picture of our rose garden from last April. I have never seen a quail in the rose garden.

Good news! All my baby quails are fine. I have watched the family group the last two nights: Mom, Dad, and three college-age kids (two female, one male). There is also another group of four, all adults, three males and one female. I'm assuming they are also a family group.

They all sleep up in the tree, but when they try to go up there at the same time there's always a lot of squabbling both before and after. The father of three seems to be the alpha male.

Here's another quail picture, of a VERY YOUNG quail.

Just a quick update on what's happening. The rainy season is hanging on, making everyone miserable, since we now have both heat and humidity, but little promise of much if any rain. (Though this afternoon, to my great surprise, we received .50 inch while we were out.)

The most exciting recent nature news is that about a week ago, when our nonfunctional fountain had some rainwater in it, a beautiful bobcat came strolling into the yard, placed his front paws on the lowest rung of the fountain, and drank his fill. There wasn't enough time to get a camera.

Quail and dorm tree update: I've been checking that little quail family most evenings. Last night I was a little late, but it appeared that there were only TWO children. I'll look again tonight. I hope it's not so, but life is perilous for a quail. The picture here is my only current quail photo--it's from the old house, but it shows their beautiful coloration. I love the little black fishing lure that hangs off the male's forehead.

Speaking of which, this morning I found a young mourning dove trapped in the chicken wire around my grapefruit tree. Her wing appeared to be broken. I freed her, and she slowly walked to the other side of the garden, but I doubt very much that she will live. Very sad.

Three items on the agenda for today. First, I DO have at least one male Broadbilled hummingbird. I got a good look at him the other day, and he is gorgeous!

Second: a couple of days ago as I was about to sit down for an afternoon look at the pond and birds, I spied a snake moving across my garden area, a BIG, black snake, probably over three feet long. I ran to get my camera, but by the time I got back it had moved into the upper part of the pond and was crawling under the turtle that spits out water. I managed to get a couple of pictures before the snake moved on out into the desert, but it doesn't show very well. It was basically black and thick, very like a fire hose, with light-golden broken bands on the lower part of its sides. I'm almost positive it is a king snake, but I'm not sure what kind.

Finally, the tree above, which is on the west side of our front porch, is a dormitory tree. It is actually a double tree: part of it is an ornamental orange, and the other is a Meyer lemon. For some reason at least one part of it is in bloom right now, about four months out of season. I've taken to watching from the front porch right before sunset, and a lot of birds are roosting in this tree. I've seen a baby cardinal or pyrrhuloxia hop into the tree; I've heard cactus wrens in there, I think I saw a couple of hummers fly in one night, and there are a lot of quail. Last night I saw two childless quail couples and the couple with the three school-age kids (by now probably freshmen in high school). The big family is usually the last to go into the dorm. I haven't checked it out in the monring, so I don't know what order they wake up in.

The rains have brought a huge crop of hedgehog cactus blooms in the front yard. They are scattered throughout the yard, and they are beautiful, as these photos show.

They are predicting more rain today. At this point, we don't really need it. The cactuses and trees have already taken in what they want. Our prickly pears are no longer shriveled and wrinkly, but have become fat and juicy-looking. The saguaros have also become fat, to the point where their pleats have mostly filled out. The drooping agaves now stand upright once again.

I wish there were some way to space the water out more evenly over the year. Or even over the monsoon season. But some of this should soak in and help recharge the valley's very depleted aquifer.

Well, we got another storm shortly after I posted yesterday. It lasted about 45 minutes, and looking out into the yard you could see a virtual wall of water falling. I figured maybe another .70 or so, but when I went out to check the rain gauge I could hardly believe my eyes: 1.80. With another .15 falling overnight, we got 2.65 inches of rain in less than one day. This in an area that averages 10 - 12 inches in a year.

This morning when I went out very early to get the paper, the air was filled with swarms of small insects. I think they were looking for sex partners; sort of a singles swarm. The birds all seem happy and very active this morning, and the cacti and trees all look great. the ocotillo are leafing out, and it's just gorgeous.

Bird notes: we have a bumper crop of young cardinals and pyrrhuloxias. They have all mostly learned how to use the seed feeder, and they or their parents are at it throughout the day. I'm going through a huge amount of striped sunflower seed. Also, the other day I saw a big bird eating the blossoms of my golden jubilee vine. On closer inspection I saw it was an oriole, but I'm not sure what kind: either hooded or Northern, probably. A beautiful bird, very like an overgrown goldfinch.

Finally, my yellow bells were in full, glorious bloom (see them and the golden jubilee in the picture above) until three nights ago when something ate all the blossoms and a lot of the stems. I suspect a pack rat, because the dregs were left in my planter on the porch.

The other picture here is my mutant golden barrel cactus in the back yard. It is a gorgeous plant, and very unusual. There is another in the front yard.

The monsoon has been raging the last few days, with heavy rains everywhere but here. This afternoon, finally, we got a really good one: .70 of an inch in about half an hour. They are predicting more rain for later, but I'll see it when I believe it.

The pictures here are of an approaching storm seen from our backyard, and another of a distant storm to the north beyond my garden fence.

As you can see, I have changed the format for this blog. I have unfortunately lost all previous comments, and want to thank everyone who commented in the past.

A bit of bird discussion today. First, hummingbirds. I finally have a decent variety in the yard, including, at last, I'm pretty sure a broad-billed, which is my very favorite. The picture here is a broadbill from my old house. We called him "Olivier" because he was so dramatic and self-confident.

Second topic is the monsoon, which so far is pretty much a non-soon. Though it has been very hot (105 plus most days) and humid, this neighborhood has received only .18 inch in the last three weeks. It has been horribly uncomfortable out, and my back porch is full of baby birds panting in the shade. They are very messy, but I love to watch them because they are so full of curiosity, interested in everything around them. There's even a baby cardinal who occasionally snags a sunflower seed from the feeder, then brings it to the porch to try to open. He seems to be getting pretty good at it.

This morning while I was watering, a black-headed grosbeak landed on the fence about two feet from where I was standing. I wish I had a picture, as this is a very impressive bird. About the size of a cardinal, maybe a little bit bigger, but its body is a bright russety orange, it doesn't have a crest, and its bill is large and parrot-like.

Finally, quail. There are a number of quail families of varying sizes that visit my pond and run around our front and side yards as well as the back. I've been hearing quail calling at sunset in the front yard, and suspected they might be nesting in citrus tree outside the porch, which has a thick security screen. Yesterday evening while I was standing on the porch looking at storm clouds to the south, a quail family including three young fourth- or fifth-graders began preparing to roost. First the parents began herding the children toward the citrus. Then, after everyone was in position, the father flew up into the tree, quite high, and began calling to his family. Then the mother flew up. Then, one by one, the babies flew up. Their little wings flapped so hard they looked like little sideways helicopters. The third baby didn't quite get the angle right and slammed into the screen door. He then picked himself up and made another attempt, landing perfectly on a branch.

No picture for this one, but trust me--you don't want a picture. I just watched a cactus wren on my porch with something large in its mouth... big bug, maybe, I thought. I got my binoculars as the prey tried to run away, and it was a small lizard. I think a gekko. The cactus wren grabbed it again, and again it tried to escape. Then the two of them disappeared out into the garden beyond my view.

A few minutes later, the cactus wren returned to the shade with the now-limp lizard in its beak, and is now dismembering and eating it, using that very sharp beak to peck the lizard's body into pieces.

If my cats had caught the lizard, I would have freed it, but I can't bring myself to interfere in this. Nature Red in Tooth and Claw. Indeed!

I have three things I want to talk about today, only one of which is illustrated. The first one is tall things in the desert. You can tell what pollinates a plant by how high it is off the ground. The examples above, all from our yard, are a saguaro cactus, a yucca blossom , and agave blossoms. They are all way high off the ground, and they are all pollinated primarily by bats, though I believe bees also work on the yucca, and birds on the saguaros.

Next, I want to talk about the pre-monsoon, which is here now, and which is the worst time of year. It's very hot (this year, rather unusually, around 110 or more every day), and a bit humid, enough to make you uncomfortable but not enough to do the plants any good. It's the meteorological equivalent of PMS.

Finally, bees. More specifically, bee behavior. My little bird pond in my garden attracts a lot of bees this time of year, and by "a lot" I mean dozens--though probably not hundreds. They congregate on the algae in one corner all day long. In the morning, when I water, they are very active and easily agitated. if I stir them up by getting water on them, they lift up and fly around irritably.

Now, these are almost certainly Africanized bees, also known as "killer" bees, because they can mass and sting large animals, including humans, to death. (Every year now a few people in Southern Arizona are killed by them.) But I'm not afraid of them, because I'm pretty sure they only attack when they are defending their nest, and their nest is somewhere to the northwest of here. How do I know? Because after soaking for a while, each bee flies off in that direction. I believe they are acting as apian cooler pads, saturating their bodies and taking the moisture back to the hive, where they and others will beat their wings to cool it off.