Hi fatties!

Just as I was about to  turn off the outside light and head to bed I heard a distinctive squeal and then a sound that only be described as a grunting oink. I called out the window, "Hi fatties' and then heard all sorts of scuffling as their little hooves raced over the sand, finally diving into the brush behind the hill. I didn't know Javelina's made these sorts of sounds so I was very surprised. Their reputation of not being pigs certainly doesn't follow when it comes to what I heard! In any case they devoured the seed block I'd put out only a few days before, hanging around long enough to eat some of the vegetable matter in the compost.

Meanwhile Buddha was going nuts. 'Can't I go out?' he panted, looking up at me with pleading eyes. 'No, Buddha. I don't what they'd do and besides, I like having them around.' Shortly after that I had to put my dog in the closet. He goes willingly when he can't control himself--all I have to say is 'closet' and in he goes.

The next night two of them came again, snuffling and huffing and again making very pig-like noises. They were smaller than the ones from last year and seemed more gray than brown and I wondered if they were fighting as siblings do.

This is the first javelina visit in many months and I was glad to see them--I'm planning to replace the seed block tomorrow. In the meantime the compost has a lot of delicious rotting lettuce and other wonderful delicacies to whet their appetites.

Fall is here with longer shadows and a sun that feels good on the skin instead of scorching. My walks have been taking me further afield and up into the canyons that lead toward the Catalina Mountains. I no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn to walk. this morning it was close to 8:00 before I left the house. And the nights have been cool, allowing us to shut off the air-conditioning. The fruit bats are still draining the hummingbird feeders every night but more than likely they'll be gone in another week or so. I don't remember them hanging around this long last year, but then again it seems as though the seasons are shifting.

I can't end this blog without mentioning the wonderful monsoons this year. There was no wild lightning, crazy wind or sideways rain, instead it was steady and soaking and there was a lot of it! Anyone living in the desert is excited by this and knows the satisfied feeling that comes after a good rain! This year our rains were enhanced by three hurricane turned tropical storm systems that came up from the Gulf of Mexico. But the funniest part about it was the weather predictions got it all completely wrong! The storm they predicted on the national news to be a gully washer turned out to be nothing  more than a fine mist! But the other two added a lot to our rain count.

This is the time to visit the Sonoran desert if you have any hankering to do so. It's more lush than usual, there are still flowers blooming, and the snowbirds have not yet returned!

Summer and monsoons

I haven't written for a while, I guess it's because I've been finishing up my desert story about a shape-shifting coyote! Those of you who enjoy this blog may also enjoy this story that is set here in the Sonoran desert.

 Summer has been very different this year, with less heat and less crazy storms. We've had some good rains but they've mostly come in a soft soaking manner instead of the wild winds that threw around our patio furniture last year. I have to say I've missed the lightning and thunder and the hurricane force winds that swirled around our house, but then again I think all the plants have been VERY happy with how much water they've soaked into their thirsty roots.

Every year we notice differences in what blooms and when, and the kinds of animals and birds who frequent our environs. This year the bats had been oddly absent. I have no idea why although I plan to look into it. The coyotes have yet to roam by with their babies. Still in their dens I suppose. Javelina haven't come to the compost in two months, or if they have, I haven't seen them. I hear the roadrunners and see them in our yard from time to time. I learned about their sad puppy sound when calling a mate and now I'm instantly aware of them. I have seen no snakes and oddly, I miss them. I've been  told that August is the month they are on the move. I've seen one Bufo toad this year--he was hiding under the lip of our house in a cool damp spot during the heat of the day. I fed him a black beetle. But the next day he had moved on.

Wildflowers are in full bloom after the rains, the desert poppies and the blue morning glories mingling to make a beautiful blue and orange patchwork behind our house. The two devil's claw plants that suddenly sprang up in our yard were eaten immediately by rabbits, but I have high hopes for another batch. I pick up their fragrance every so often when I'm hiking the trails behind our house.

I've been enjoying the solitude of this time of year, the lack of traffic and people. Yes, it's hot sometimes--too hot to walk if I don't get out early, but it's still magical. With the clouds the sunsets have been spectacular, and the warm mornings make it possible to sit outside with a cup of coffee in my P.J.'s. And the warm nights offer a time to view the stars. So far I haven't grown tired of the ever-changing light on the mountains, the shifting colors that drift slowly across the sky in the evening. Sometimes I feel like the beauty of what I'm seeing couldn't possibly be real!

Summer approaches the Sonoran desert

The weather has been very windy these past weeks, following an incredibly dry winter that made records! I haven't seen a Gila monster, Javelina or coyote in a very long time, although the coyotes have been active at night. The wind has broken our outside table and a chair and broken off several plants. Can't say I enjoy it--had thought the winds were only this bad during monsoon season.

Walking in the desert I've been astounded by how nature survives these weather changes...just today I saw many blooms on the purple

Chollas, and several wildflowers that were still going strong. This is without a good rain since the beginning of December! And the wind has been  hellacious, sucking any residual moisture right out of the ground.

 The Saguaro's bloomed at least a month early this year, but the white winged doves who come for the blooms have been oddly sparse. When I asked a man at 'Native Seed Search' about this, he told me that the native tribes gear the blooming of the Saguaro's with the ceremony to bring the rains.

Since these incredible cactus usually bloom in late May or early June, it takes until late June or early July for the fruit to ripen. They harvest the fruit and make the wine and then they have their ceremony. He said he wasn't sure if this early bloom meant earlier rains or if it was just an affect of global climate change. It will be interesting to find out.

I've seen only one rattlesnake so far this year, and that one seemed oblivious of me or my dog, lying immobile in the middle of the narrow wash I was walking in. I jumped over him and continued. I miss the snakes, not the rattlers, per se, although I do like them, but the King snakes and the Gopher snakes. The year we moved here they were around, but now they're not. We even had a Gila monster that first year! Perhaps human activity and dogs and cats caused them to change their habits.

We are planning a trip in early June up to cooler climes in the Pacific Northwest, but it will be hard for me to leave. There is something magical about this place even when the temperatures soar. I don't want to miss any of the strange and wondrous insect invasions or the baby quail coming to our feeder...(they've been here but I have yet to see them) But as my friend in New Mexico said: "The best thing about living in the desert is going away and coming back."

Bats and hummingbirds oh me oh my

With the monsoons the summer wildlife has been heading elsewhere for their midnight snacks. All except the fruit bats that are still arriving to drain my three hummingbird feeders every night!

Cute little guy isn't he? Looks like a teddy bear. I LOVE watching them swoop into the feeders in the night--not sure how many come but I would say ten to fifteen...of course now they've discovered their sugar bar they're surely addicted. Last year I think they were gone by mid september but our weather has remained warm, with temps close to 100* in the day, going down to 75* at night--one morning I got up to 61* but that was a fluke it seems.

We've had at least four and I think maybe five different types of hummingbirds. The Costa, which are here all year round, ditto with the Annas. The migrants are the Rufous: feisty little redheads who have completely taken over one of the feeders.

Looks like a little sweetheart, doesn't he? You should see them in action! Loud angry cht cht as they chase every other hummingbird away.

We've had another one that I'm not sure about. Dark oily green back, darker wings with a light colored underbody--the violet crowned below is the closest I can come to what he looks like--unfortunately the one who frequents our feeders doesn't have a red bill! Or if he does I can't see it. Can any of you Tucsonians shed light on this?

I'm missing the nightly visits of the javelina and also the coyotes, who have been strangely absent. Once in a while I hear the yips far in the distance but they haven't been traveling by our house.

The clouds have been outdoing themselves, great billowing masses that send cloud shadows racing across the Catalina Mountains. I have to say that since spending time in Portland in June and July I am even more appreciative of the Sonoran Desert. Not only is it peaceful but the beauty is at times so awe-insiring that I don't have words to describe it!



I am looking forward to the fall when I can open my windows at night again. The only thing bad about that is that my dog smells things and occasionally goes nuts, barking hysterically. He hasn't had to spend the night in the closet for a long while.

Here is a picture of myself and my dog taken outside our house by my husband's very talented second cousin, Sherry VanDyke:

Aren't the clouds amazing?

Javelina havoc

Things are beginning to stir, from the magenta flowers on the hedgehog cactus, to the riotous nightlife that wakes me up with alarming regularity. Two nights ago I heard a crash. Thinking it was my cat I came from the bedroom into my office to check, but when I heard the sound again I realized it was coming from outside. Looking out the bathroom window I spied two javelinas very close to the house. One was taking a drink from my waterlily pot and the other was just standing motionless in the moonlight as though taking a moonbath. I wondered what might be going through his mind and then thought, probably not much...

While I continued to watch, the moonbathing javelina began walking very slowly along the driveway in the direction of the sound which had begun again--this time there was no mistaking the clink of glass and cans, the noise of something rummaging through the the strewn contents of the  trashcan, which I realized was overturned. How those tiny hooves could knock over the fifty gallon behemoth is beyond me! I never saw the others, although I assume there were at least two more. I went back to bed, trying to ignore the din that would reveal an utter mess in the morning.

And sure enough--the devastation was scattered across the gravel, several plastic bags caught in the mesquite trees a few yards away. The prickly pears, which had just begun putting on new paddles, had been chewed and some were uprooted. In the back where we had been starting a compost pile it looked as though they had taken a dust bath, wallowing like pigs, although I know they are not pigs, they are peccaries, part of the family Tayassuidae or New World Pigs...they may also be related to Hippopotami.

What we're hoping for is what you see here on the right. Baby piggies coming to our house--yes, yes, I know...not wise to feed the wildlife, but how could you resist? And in my defense I'm not feeding them--they only come because there are sometimes vegetable peelings under the mesquite bush in the back.

Spring!!!!

Spring seems to have sprung! Walking through the desert I've been astounded to see leaves bursting out on the trees, all the Ocotillo's in full leaf...this is after examining them for the past month or so for buds. That is not what happens here--instead of bursting buds the trees go from looking completely dead to leaves within a day or two. Wildflowers, in various colors and sizes, dot the landscape like bright gems. The angle of the sun has changed--I can see the goddess in the mountain once again.

We've had the same old javelina several nights in a row and sometimes he's still here in the early morning. He finished off the block of seeds I put out for the quail and doves--I could hear him gnawing on it. Of course with the full moon other animals have been coming around as well--this morning I heard a gunshot from our neighbor who called a few minutes later to tell me it was a warning shot to scare off a scruffy mountain lion. I wondered why our cat and dog were so subdued this morning and no birds at the feeders! He said that right after the lion he saw a beautiful coyote coming across our land to the north...I've seen this male before and he's truly a magnificent specimen.

The way our house is situated we have missed the bobcat and mountain lion sightings and because of the wall around our back yard we don't always see the roadrunners. But the cat and dog are safe there and they know it. A few nights ago a pack of coyotes were very close to the house and Buddha managed to howl, which they answered. I couldn't see them, which was frustrating. It sounded like an enormous group but from what I've read they throw their voices. During these past few months their calls have changed, turning into more haunting high-pitched cries mixed in with the normal yipping that goes on. I have  deduced that the babies from last year are now traveling in the pack and making these different sounds. It's really funny how they all shut up at once, as though the leader holds up a paw signaling quiet.

Along with the Costas, Annas and Black-chinned, we've had several new species of hummingbirds coming to the feeders--don't know if they're traveling through or summer residents. They've been hard to identify. Quail are pairing up. But unfortunately they won't be able to nest in our yard again since we've redone it, taking out the planter boxes AND we now have a cat that hunts.

We will enjoy the gorgeous weather until it grows too hot and then I plan to take a trip up to the Pacific northwest, getting out of here for the month of June which is purported to be the hottest one!

The lushness of the desert-who would have known?

We've had no rain for several days and I'm ready for more monsoon madness! All the newly arrived weeds and wildflowers are looking sad and the temps are rising again and keeping us indoors. Some clouds are building over the  mountains but the chance of rain today is rather slim. To the right is the picture of our last storm, about a week ago now.

My walks are getting later since the sun is rising after six now. This morning I saw a mule deer, a large one, bouncing away as they do. The dogs didn't see it or hear it. A jackrabbit, however, did capture their attention.

I've seen several unfamiliar kinds of scat lately on the road by our house--I looked them up on the internet and I'm fairly certain that one of them is bobcat--the other is stringy and filled with seeds...not coyote, so it is more than likely javelina--I haven't seen one yet. Around the house I found what looked like the droppings of a small dog. Now I know it's from the Colorado River Toad! I'm glad they're only here after a rain and when it's dark!

It's lovely outside in the early morning listening to the mourning doves. The quail have been around but not vocalizing as they did earlier in the summer. I've seen Maurice and his brood in the front of the house where I sprinkle seeds each morning. They're nearly full grown. In the enclosed garden in the back a pair brought their smaller babies to eat out of our hanging feeder. A roadrunner has been back there as well and we've seen the quail chase him off!

In my last post I mentioned the sweet-smelling flowers blooming in our area. I've looked it up but can find no information on it. If anyone knows what this is, please comment below! It's a mystery.

Around our house we have hundreds of bright orange poppy-like flowers. Behind us on the state land, they carpet the ground--another unknown that's appeared with the rain.

I am still surprised by the differences in each day--how the clouds move and shift. Sometimes 80* feels HOT and other times cool depending on humidity and wind. Coming from the Pacific northwest, I didn't notice the sky the way I do here where the view is long. And although I miss my forest walks, I  appreciate the utter uniqueness of the desert.