Biggest Surprise!

A neighbor got our attention this afternoon, told us to quickly, take a look in our front yard. Hard to believe what I was seeing!

  A Mallard Duck and 10 newly hatched ducklings. 

The nearest pond or water is a golf course a mile and half away across major hiway. What is she doing here?!

Apparently she had a nest in a back yard down the street.  They were watching her sit on her eggs for a couple of weeks and last night they all hatched. Today Momma decided to move. Our yard was a resting spot on her way to. . .who knows where. They rested in the shade of my Jasmine for an hour and then got nervous with all the attention and moved on. I am hoping she found someone's swimming pool. I can't imagine she had a good outcome with her babies.

But they were darn cute.

Morning Hike

Started with a Canyon Wren singing right at the trail head, then 2 deer, a coyote, Ash Throated Flycatcher, Blooming Saguaro, sunrise over the canyon wall, remains of the 1930 Bowman homestead. . .all on our 2 hour hike on the Yetman Trail this morning.

And this little Finch on my backyard fountain. I think he just fledged as he did not have sense enough to fly away and I got really close.

Night Out

We had a night out last evening-- Virus style. We put some lawn chairs in car, stopped at Subway and picked up dinner and then drove to a park near the Rillito River and met our friends, Pete and Alice for dinner together--proper social distance, of course. 

  SO good to see them and catch up. They will be returning to South Dakota from thier winter stay here in Tucson before long. Temps are predicted to be high 90's this week--even 100 by Sunday--not snowbird weather!!

  We did celebrate Pete's birthday with some chocolate cake, some of us even had two pieces!

Birding near Tubac

THAT. . .is a nest of a Rose Throated Becard!! This is a tropical bird that on rare occasions makes an appearance in Southeast Arizona. We have been "hearing" that a pair was nesting off the DeAnza Trail near Tubac. This morning we found it! That's a "life" bird for us.

It builds this large hanging nest at the end of a branch high in a large tree. This one had to be 50 feet up. We spied the nest and then stalked it for at least 20 mins before the bird emerged.

We only saw the female but she was busy going in and out while we watched. The male has the dark rosy throat but didn't see him. Maybe he was sleeping in.

We ALSO saw a Summer Tananger which was a pretty good spot also.

My newest cactus bloomed this morning. Just bought it and haven't planted it yet. Several buds to come so will be showing for a few weeks. Is a Torch Cactus

Home School 2020

Its suddenly a different world, isn't it!!  We are all making the best of it.

The girls haven't had to give up their ballet lessons.  They are continuing

from home via Zoom!  As they are doing school, Chinese language classes, piano and

cello lessons.  Amazing what is available.

Latest

One side is my clay tile, two sides are stained glass. Artificial succulents.

Combining clay plants and artificial plants.

Dish garden with small piece of petrified wood

Picture Rocks at Ironwood National Monument

We explored something today that I have wanted to see for a long time. We drove out west of Tucson to Ironwood National Monument to see if we could find the Petroglyphs that are suppose to be out there. It's really a desolate area, the Monument has no maintained roads or trails so you have to pick your spots pretty carefully. We found good directions to the Petroglyph site on an internet search so today we went out looking for it.

We followed "Mile Wide Road" until pavement ended and then it was all dirt roads through the desert. Once we entered the Monument--gate closed with instructions to close the gate behind you--it was 4 miles of very slow rutty road to (unofficial) trailhead.

Maybe a mile before you reach some small hills-rock piles where the ancient Native American rock pictures are. Directions told us to watch for the "big dead tree" on top of hill which was pretty easy to spot.

And there they were, hundreds of them scattered all through the rock jumble. We could have scrambled up to get a better look and probably seen many more but we could see many from bottom and binocular views of tons more.

Hard to imagine what was here at one time as it is so desolate now. Didn't even spy any wildlife this morning, other than a Roadrunner and a couple of Turkey Vultures circling over our heads.

Still a bit of color.

And got good view of an early blooming Saguaro! Just starting to happen.

This was declared a National Monument maybe 10 years ago but has not gotten any funds to improve it for visitors. There is a local "Friends of Ironwood" that does what it can to promote the area and keep vandles from destroying what little infrastructure is there. It is also one of the areas that current Administration wants to eradicate.

Nothing new

Most exciting things in our lives now are those daily hikes in the desert, or walks around the neighborhood, or to the local golf course pond. In reality we are finding some pretty cool stuff. The desert is beautiful, waving "hi" to neighbors we hardly ever see while out walking, and all the birds now singing or nesting or calling for a mate. (The Gamble Quail are down right annoying!!!)

And this inch long emerald green beetle with bright orange tummy crawling along the Cottonwood "cotton."

This moving mass of bees was incredible. I should post the video. Literally hanging out in a blooming Palo Verde tree.

That s the Palo Verde with Will walking ahead on the trail.

Will stood close to this Saguaro Cactus just to get a perspective of how tall this thing is. I have always said that some of the oldest, biggest Saguaros are right in my neighborhood--although this particular one is off a lonely trail in the National Park on West edge of Tucson.

Not mine, but it is in my neighborhood. Mine won't bloom for a couple of weeks, plus mine not nearly so large.

This is that big Pink moon we just had over my neighbor's house.

Think we will go out for dinner tonight. Of course, that means Take-Out. I want to support our local restaurants so will spend some time perusing take-out menus on line to see what we are hungry for.

Shelter in Place

We are staying pretty close to home--just like most of the country. Numbers of positive virus cases continue to rise in Pima county although nothing like the hot spots of New York, etc. We still consider ourselves fortunate and blessed as this is "minor inconvenience" for us--not the dire hardship so many people facing. 

  We get out as much as we can for exercise and fresh air and have been enjoying some great desert hikes. Today we were out at Saguaro National Park for a beautiful early morning hike.

We came upon this HUGE Saguaro cactus that had fallen over very recently! First thing we noticed is the very small root system for such a huge plant. Barely left any hole at all. And then, got a good look at what the insides looked like! Lots of birds out there too this morning.