Cacti of the Desert

It's amazing how many different kinds of cacti there are! This is new growth this spring.This cactus looks like it is having a bad hair day!

This is a crested fan. I understand it is an abnormality that sometimes grows at the top of a cactus. This one was growing on the ground.

According to the guy who knows everything at the park, this cactus got too much water. This cactus grows one of these stalks once during it's life. He said this plant was plenty young for the stalk.

After many corrections, I finally remembered to call this a "sa-wa-ra". It is not pronounced as it looks, "saguaro".

Often the elf owl, cactus wren, or the gila woodpecker will use the cactus for a nest.

Flowers of Tucson

We were in Tucson when many flowers were in bloom.
This is an iris.

At Tohono Chul Park, they had many flowers and this little pond with water lilies.

I don't remember what kind of flower this is, but it is unique.

The blooms on the cactus can be wherever!

I caught the hummingbird sipping these flowers.

sights of Tucson

This is the backyard at the MVS house. Maggie planted a garden and the plants were just beginning to come up.

This is inside the church at San Xavier Mission. It was built in the late 1700's.

This is the outside of San Xavier Mission. It stands out in the middle of the desert.
There are some people that live in the area, mostly several different Indian tribes, but no other large buildings. The left side is the same as the right side, but it is under restoration. You can just see a little of it in this picture.

You can see a town in the distance as we were coming out of Miller Canyon and the mountains.
There is a lot of hiking in this area and one of the best birding areas.
This is just beside the border of Mexico.

These saguaro cacti are common in the Tucson area. When you get into the mountain areas, you see more deciduous trees.

Birds of Tucson

While we were in Tucson, I saw 51 different species of birds and 32 of these were new for me.

This is a rufous hummingbird.

There were a lot of curved-billed thrashers around the MVS house. They have a distinct call.

In Madera Canyon, we saw numerous Mexican Jays.

Northern Shoveler

This is a gila woodpecker. We often saw them on a cactus.

This is a female hummer, but I'm not sure which one. We saw Anna's, Costa's, broad-billed, black-chinned, and rufous.

These are black-necked stilts.

I know these pictures aren't professional, but it is enough for me to remember them.

Ed & I spent 9 days in Tucson with Christa & Scott.
This is the office that Scott works out of.

We spent the first day doing what everyone should do. . . visit a museum!
This is Sonora Desert Museum. Most of it is outside, showing the numerous types of cactus, flowers, birds, etc. that are native to the desert. (I'll add these pictures in another post.)

Christa took one day off and we went to the Tucson Museum of Art.
The current traveling display was what I would call "interesting". I was hoping to see more art from the Masters, but it was okay. We made it past all the "hawk-guards" without any arrests.

Scott & Christa took us part of the way up one of the mountains so we could see all of Tucson between 4 different mountain ranges. (Notice who has the binoculars on each picture! I've been accused of just watching birds the whole time. You can see it's not true!)

Scott & Christa took us to Phoenix the day before we left. This picture was taken at Palmer Steiner's home where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch!

More pictures on the next post.