Living in the West for the last nine years has given me an appreciation for the strange, weird, dangerous, and beautiful flora and fauna of the high desert. The first thing I learned upon arrival is that most everything in the desert bites in one way or another. The plants have thorns, seen and unseen. There are arachnids with wicked tails, otherwise known as scorpions, Black Widow spiders, and snakes of every ilk. Then we learned that there were centipedes of unusual size and bugs that resembled aliens from another planet. Coyotes, javelina, and the occasional bobcat were local residents too.
The cacti and wildflowers are unique, some even a touch exotic. Cow-tongue, cholla, prickly pear, desert willow, rattlesnake weed, yucca, sage, creosote bush, Apache plume, and fairyduster. All are tough and thrive in our challenging conditions.
After scratching our heads and vainly trying identify what we were looking at, we went to the local bookstore for help. The Audubon Field Guide to the Southwestern States practically jumped off the shelf and into my hands. It has proved to be an invaluable resource for all things southwest. We regularly log sightings of birds and reptiles into this thick little book. Whether it's reptiles, flowers, birds, or the night sky, the guide has information you can use.
Over the years, we've taken a lot of pictures of these high desert sights and I'm in the process of organizing my digital photo files that span almost a decade. This project, however is going to take some time. I should have put more description on those nicely dated electronic folders. You think you're always going to remember when you took the picture of the snake by the big planter. However, this is not true. So, I'm sifting through these folders and try to efficiently catalogue our sojourn here. I've snagged a few pictures for my readers' entertainment this week. It is by no means comprehensive, but if you're not from around these parts, you'll get a taste of southeast Arizona. I know our grandsons love seeing the weird, creepy creatures from Arizona. If you're in the neighborhood, these are common scenes, but you may find them interesting. They're all labeled because of that wonderful field guide. As a bonus there's a video of the fantastic lightning storm that visited this week. Although we didn't get any rain from it, the show was spectacular.
The cacti and wildflowers are unique, some even a touch exotic. Cow-tongue, cholla, prickly pear, desert willow, rattlesnake weed, yucca, sage, creosote bush, Apache plume, and fairyduster. All are tough and thrive in our challenging conditions.
After scratching our heads and vainly trying identify what we were looking at, we went to the local bookstore for help. The Audubon Field Guide to the Southwestern States practically jumped off the shelf and into my hands. It has proved to be an invaluable resource for all things southwest. We regularly log sightings of birds and reptiles into this thick little book. Whether it's reptiles, flowers, birds, or the night sky, the guide has information you can use.
Over the years, we've taken a lot of pictures of these high desert sights and I'm in the process of organizing my digital photo files that span almost a decade. This project, however is going to take some time. I should have put more description on those nicely dated electronic folders. You think you're always going to remember when you took the picture of the snake by the big planter. However, this is not true. So, I'm sifting through these folders and try to efficiently catalogue our sojourn here. I've snagged a few pictures for my readers' entertainment this week. It is by no means comprehensive, but if you're not from around these parts, you'll get a taste of southeast Arizona. I know our grandsons love seeing the weird, creepy creatures from Arizona. If you're in the neighborhood, these are common scenes, but you may find them interesting. They're all labeled because of that wonderful field guide. As a bonus there's a video of the fantastic lightning storm that visited this week. Although we didn't get any rain from it, the show was spectacular.
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