The eyes have it!

Canyon Tree Frog, 12/15/10
Photo by Bob Wenrick

This little guy was hiding in a crevice in the dam wall. I've never seen one in a tree, have you?

Fruit and nut

Desert Cotton

Acorn

Photos from Carol Tornow, 12/17/10. Take a walk along the road for these and other sights.

Stop 8 is great!

Some very nice gneiss

waterfall and pools

Can't beat the views!

Carol Tornow (all photos) took me on a tour of this canyon paradise today. Get out there and see the sights!

Perfect 10!

FON on the Bluff trail. Photo by Peggy Wenrick

FON at the dam. Photo by Peggy Wenrick

Nine Friends of Ned (FON) joined Ned on his Wednesday (12/15) Nature walk. If you'd like to have fun with FON, join us on Wednesday at 8.30am in front of the visitor center. FON will commune with nature in Ned's stead for a few weeks. He's having some titanium installed, but will be back as soon as his back is back.

Don't be an 'item' for this guy!

Gopher snake, Photo by Bob Wenrick 12/08/10

Who said herpetologists don't have a sense of humor? My favorite line in this article: "Living prey items are dispatched by constriction." Thankfully, Bob managed to snag a photo without becoming a prey item. Snakes are out and about - not many, of course, but my family also saw a gopher snake as well as its false twin, a western diamondback, in Sabino canyon last week.
An update on the pronunciation of leucism/leucistic. As I suspected, it's from the Greek for white. Think 'leukocytes' (white blood cells) and say: 'Luke, I'm your father.' Luke-ism  or Luke-istic.

Bird and Word of the Day

Phainopepla Male - leucistic

Thanks to Bob Wenrick for the photo and the word of the day. This male Phainopepla (fain [rhymes with pain] Say: fain - oh - PEP - luh) is white and grayer than he 'should' be. He's not the victim of a bad dye job at the salon, but rather has a mutation that prevents pigment from being 'properly' distributed. Leucism is not the same as albinism. Albino animals generally have no pigment expressed, although there are various levels of this mutation as well. I'll ask Bob how to pronounce leucism/ leucistic and get back to you.

Getting squirrelly

Guys, guys, I said: Put your right foot in. Not: Shake it all about.

Round-tailed ground squirrels are my favorite desert mammals. (At least they are today.) Arizona is one of the very few places on earth where you can find this little guys. They go underground in the winter here, but they don't hibernate; they just slow down their metabolism - kind of like what hummingbirds do at night.