Giants in the canyon

Photos by Ned Harris 6/27/2014

Click on these photos for a closer look at the exceptionally long tail of the Giant Spotted Whiptail, a sub-species of the Canyon Spotted Whiptail. Info on page 36 of your Naturalist's Guide to Sabino Canyon, but we didn't have these photos in 2012!!

Selfie with Bore(r)

Photo by Marty Horowitz 6/21/2014

This looks like one of those plastic bugs your kids/grandkids/friends hide in your bed in order to freak you out. But it's a real, live Banded Alder Borer. Mistook Marty for a rotting tree. Totally understandable : -)

Pocket Gopher

Photo by Marty Horowitz 6/21/2014

You rarely see these cuties, but there's lots of evidence of their presence - in Sabino Canyon and on Mt Lemmon (where the photo above was taken). From the Firefly Forest site:

Botta's Pocket Gophers and other Pocket Gophers leave a fan-shaped dirt mound in front of their burrows, and the burrow entrances are usually kept securely closed up with dirt. Even though they live in areas with many others of their own kind nearby, Botta's Pocket Gophers are solitary and territorial, and they will fight any other gopher that dares invade their burrow.

 Keep out!

Snake 'n' Bake

Photos by Mark Hengesbaugh 7/3/2014

Jean and Mark, Linda and Mark and their children saw this very glossy black Coachwhip finishing off another snake. From the end they could see, it looked like a Sonoran Whipsnake. Circle of life, anyone?

Birds

All photos by Marty "don't give me the bird" Horowitz 6/29/2014

House Finch dining on Saguaro fruits 

Male Gambel's Quail, foot-less...I mean footloose...and fancy free!

Male Costa's Hummingbird doing some kind of impossible yoga move. The preening bird, perhaps.

Portrait of a female Broad-billed Hummingbird. You'll want to click on this one for a better look!

Limber bush and monsoon myths

Photo by Ned Harris 6/21/2014

Limber bush in bloom, two weeks 'til monsoon. Okay, I made up the bad poem, but I did hear of this limber bush lore. Ned and I heard something similar about cicadas. When cicadas you first hear, 2 weeks 'til the rains are here. Okay, I made that one up, too. But at least it rhymes : -)
Both of these were presented as '2 weeks until the rains begin.' We might be able to fudge with the limber bush promise; it did rain (briefly) in some parts of Tucson approximately 2 weeks after some limber bush or another started blooming. But I recall hearing cicadas in May...
Any other predictors of monsoon rains involving the natural world? Send 'em in! Next year, we'll investigate them scientifically.

Words of the day

Dudley Dewlap - Photo by Ned Harris  6/21/2014

Dewlap - flap of skin under throat of many lizard species, including the Greater Earless lizard, above. Possibly a power display, but herpetologists don't know for sure.

Glenda's Gravid - Photo by Ned Harris 6/27/2014

Gravid - pregnant, carrying eggs (in this case) or young. Gravid Greater Earless lizards have more orange on their sides and under their throats. Compare the 'groin bars' in the female to the male above. The bars are much lighter, and she's not nearly as blue. As always, click on the photos for larger views. 

Be sure to check out the Tucson Herpetological Society's (relatively) new website, especially the 100-Mile Circle. Consider becoming a member. They've got some great t-shirts! (And more : -)