Sabino Bobcat

Text and Photos from Ned Harris, Monday 8/6/2012.
I went alone to Sabino this morning on the spur of the moment. I looked over at the ramada adjacent to the tram ticket office and saw something dangling down between the slats.

I did a double take then realized they were a bobcat leg and tail. I moved over to the other side and saw this young bobcat looking over the edge of the ramada towards me. 

I moved back to the other side and he then stood up and looked at me.

He then walked over to the Palo Verde tree.

And then across a Saguaro arm. 

What a thrill!

Not a spider, I promise

Photo by Ned Harris 8/3/2012

This dainty beauty is called a (Prairie) Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis). We saw only this one, in the sand by the dam bridge.

Carol spots a tiger!

Photo by Ned Harris 8/3/2012

Ned and I walked right by this Tiger Rattlesnake! Carol "Eagle Eye" Tornow called us back for this beauty and many other great critters she spotted. Stay tuned here for more! (Or skip the banter and go straight to Ned's flickr site, if you prefer.)

Do you have the right stuff?

It's time again to promote the various volunteer organizations whose members do great work in the Santa Catalinas. If you like being outside and want to make a difference locally, there are a number of groups that would be delighted to take you in. And then take you out (but in a good way)!

Search and Rescue Council, Inc. (SARCI) coordinates all six of the local search and rescue groups, including the Southern Arizona Rescue Association (SARA).

Prospective candidate orientation meeting scheduled for August 9th, 2012, 7:30 PM at the Sabino SARA house located at 5990 N. Sabino Canyon Road. Attendance is a mandatory first step in joining SARA. 

Six local search and rescue groups, you say?! Yes, dogs and divers, horses and helicopters. Check out the SARCI site for more info and contacts. Or better, go to the prospective candidate meeting above.

Santa Catalina Volunteer Patrol (SCVP) You see us in Forest Service green (you know the color), patrolling in Sabino Canyon and on Mt Lemmon (mainly); also in Ventana Canyon and other places in the Santa Catalinas.

Sabino Canyon Bicycle Patrol Same uniform as above, but with the addition of a bicycle. No need to cycle up to Mt Lemmon, either. Whew.

Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) We do school programs for kindergarten and elementary students; public programs for all ages. (New website coming soon.)

See you on the outside!

Greater Eggfull

Photo by Carol Tornow 7/30/2012

You'll want to click on this photo of a gravid (i.e., fertilized egg-carrying) Greater Earless Lizard. Note the peachy-orange color. That's the signal, often imitated by juveniles of this species, to leave her alone.

Not found in Canada!

Photos by Nancy "Part time in Tucson, mostly in Canada" 7/22/2012

Nancy asked if sightings of Sonoran Desert Tortoises are common. I'd say: more common than mountain lion sightings! This tortoise has been doing some mud wrestling, it looks like.

Another 'Tail' of Two Reptiles

Photo by Fred Heath 7/21/2012

Fred tells the tale of the tails:

We did the Sabino Canyon Butterfly Count on July 21, 2012. This count is carried out in a 15 mile diameter circle which includes all of Sabino Canyon as well as all the areas along the General Hitchcock Highway to the top of Mt. Lemmon. As has been my custom for the past few years, I lead a group into Sabino in the morning and then head up the mountain as the day gets hotter. This year because of threatening weather, the number of participants was small. In fact only Karen McWhirter [you'll remember her from this post] was able to join my morning foray into Sabino. As it was mostly overcast, the butterflies were not flying and we only managed to find a few individuals of a dozen species. However our rattlesnake count was phenomenal with three seen. The first was found by a couple who was right behind us on the Creek Trail. As we were looking at a Tiny Checkerspot, they mentioned that they had just seen a rattlesnake a few yards down the trail which we had missed entirely. We quickly doubled back and found a Tiger Rattlesnake (above) along the trail. As we proceeded to the area above the dam near the hummingbird feeders, Karen spotted a Western Diamondback. Below the dam we noticed a family looking intently at the base of scrub into which another Tiger Rattlesnake was heading. I guess the cloudy weather allowed the snakes to stay out and about later in the morning, even if the butterflies didn’t find the weather agreeable.

Yes, another Ornate Box Turtle  7/28/2012

More from Fred:

I noticed last week that your blog contained Mark’s sighting of an Ornate Box Turtle. I thought that was pretty exciting even though it had suspicious origins, especially since I had never seen one before. On this past Saturday, we did another butterfly count in the Chiricahua Mountains. Again it was somewhat overcast most of the day, but we still saw a good number of butterflies anyway. However, at the SW Research Station we were shown a beautiful Black-tailed Rattlesnake. I was starting to think I should be doing rattlesnake counts instead of butterflies. However, that wasn’t our best reptile of the day. As it rained heavily that afternoon, we ended the counting and headed west out of the mountains. As my wife, Mary, was driving about a mile west of the Chiricahua National Monument entrance in the grasslands, she saw something which she thought may have been a turtle on the road. Or maybe it was just a rock. She made a quick U-turn and sure enough it turned out to be an Ornate Box Turtle (above), the first we had ever seen! Mary helped it to the road margin before we drove off.

Thanks to Fred and Mary for making today's post a breeze!