Zzkino

Bright red chile fruit hang against bright green leaves.

Fall colors. My chiles struggle on the patio in the summer heat. November brings relief and fruit.

two orange black queen butterflies showing top and bottom on yellow desert milkweed

queens on desert milkweed today

an orange marigold in a flowerpot glows in morning sunlight

a cempasúchil in today's morning light

much maligned plant. important in the fall as you say. 45 years ago before i knew better i tried to pull one out by tying it to the rear bumper of a 72 ford pinto wagon. the broom won.

yes been lucky for many years. i think a background process in one's brain looks for such patterns on the ground. I never get used to it though and still leap in the air upon recognition. the diamondbacks typically don't want any trouble but if you step on one it would be bad.

a coiled diamondback rattlesnake sits under a bench. it is still a little cool out so maybe he is a little slow moving. i don't want to find out.

bench warmer. probably a good thing i didn't go out at sunup today to my favorite bench with a cup of joe

All tall saguaro with 3 blooms. Blue sky in the background. 2 smaller saguaros in the foreground with no blooms.

It is October and yesterday morning this saguaro had 3 blooms. A little out of season but a local expert says that over the years he has recorded blooms in every month except January. Maybe the tequila bats enjoyed this.

two lesser long-nosed bats on copper colored hummingbird feeders at night. they are fattening up for their migration south.

its tequila bat fall migration season. yaaaa

black and white trail camera night shot of packrat carrying stick in its mouth to place on the bridge he is scampering on

aha... packrat is guilty

head shot of harris hawk with catch light in eyes and red shoulder. yellow beak.

handsome harris portrait 20 years ago in our backyard. no fear of me but no band on leg so who knows.

two saguaro cacti at sunrise with the moon, venus, and harder to see jupiter in the sky behind them

saguaros watching the moon, venus and jupiter this morning

2 photo frames. first is dark appearing tarantula with front legs in the air and second is same tarantula showing gold body calmly walking away from the close encounter.

tarantula's lucky day on the patio. i was walking along not paying attention this morning when something brushed my bare foot. i am so glad i did not step on it. first frame is defensive position that lasted a couple of minutes and second frame is it sauntering off to continue whatever it was doing.

woman walks with outsized backpack on sandy trail with needle like rock formations in background

backpack with arms and legs needles district canyonlands usa 1988

We call them packrats but now I see that the more precise common name is "white throated woodrat". They are cute until they chew wires in your car. In my experience some car brands seem tastier than others.
www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long...

Sticks are spread across a small bridge surface as if they are meant to block the walker's way.

Every morning I clean up the packrat's mess on my path and every night the packrat puts it back. I wonder if the packrat is claiming territory.

student sits on yamaha enduro motorcycle waving in rain. all street stuff like lights were removed because students often dump the bike during drills

took a motorcycle class last year to get my license endorsement back that i had dropped decades ago.
it improved my bicycling because much of the class was practicing tight turns around cones.

panorama with shadows on the ground, velvet mesquites, catalinas skyline, and wispy clouds

july morning yesterday in catalina state park. few people but lots of birds, lizards, and hard working friendly ants. no water in the cdo wash.

brown colored water runs down a desert wash

sometimes during summer monsoon season the "high gradient intermittent strand" in our backyard gets rockin

nude female figurine rusty metal bottle opener hangs from patio in morning light with cactus in background

bottle opener blonde in the morning light today

orange red light over the mountain ridge line. a saguaro arm is in the foreground with a fruit that still has the "knife" attached.

today's catalina sunrise. note the saguaro fruit with the "knife" still on it. you can use the knife to open the fruit once picked.

mountain and desert plants at the bottom of the shot with reddish clouds above. sun is about to break over the mountain.

sunrise today over the catalinas. the santa cruz river is between us.

blue 1988 cannondale mountain bike in foreground at trailhead with desert peak in background. the cannondale has street tires on it these days.

morning bike ride. time sure does fly. bought this bike new in 1988 and haven't even hiked up that peak in several years. jeesh.

agave sunrise today. a couple of years ago came home and this agave stock had fallen over and blocked the driveway. so i wired it to a fence post and the birds have loved it ever since.

male and female purple martins sitting on a flat topped saguaro cactus

the martins are back at the trailhead in the tucson mts. this is an old picture as the saguaro these two are sitting on is no longer there.

Spoonbill Sunday

Mellow ocean tonite

Skin doc sez cover up so ok

Wild and scenic trash can

It was surprising to us that a Kīlauea lava flow makes noise. A persistent popping sound as it oozed along over an older cooled flow.

The tree seedlings at the Hermosillo ghost bike are growing amazingly fast. The caretaker has used a standard dirt tree ring and added an additional hole next to the tree. Native trees can actually be hard to establish so I think the hole is the magic. The water is carried in.