Flowers - A Lizard - Shorebirds - A Neat House

In this blog post we will look at a couple of flowers, some shorebirds since the southward migration is underway, a lizard, and an old house out by itself. Come along and look at what we found.

It has rained quite a bit here recently and I noticed the morning droplets on this rose in our back garden. It turned out to be a decent image, nice looking red rose.

This lizard has some interesting markings. It is about 8 inches long and was on the wall by the front door one morning. It has absolutely no problem running up and down the wall on the house. I am sure the texture from the stucco helps with the traction.

Now if the lizard can only bring with him a few friends and eat more of the flies that are somewhat annoying, that would be wonderful.

We were over near Willcox AZ, a location we have mentioned before that has some water settlement ponds. The shorebird migration is underway and many of the shorebirds will stop here to rest up and then continue south to escape the cold of the winter. You can see a wide variety of shorebirds at this time of year passing through.

Here are two Back-necked Stilts and the bird in the center is a Willet. The Black-necked Stilts actually have two legs they just rest on one and tuck the other up in their feathers.

Here is a group of Black-necked Stilts as you can see they do have two legs, well most of them.

This is a group of American Avocet. They are a long legged shorebird with a bill that curves upwards on the end. They will often time keep their bill open a little and sweep it side to side it just below the surface of the water to feed on tiny food items.

Note the Willet in the middle of the Avocets. It is a different Willet than shown earlier as the markings are much darker showing he is still in partial breeding plumage.

The flock of Avocets has been joined by a group of Wilson’s Phalaropes who are passing through on their way south. The Phalaropes will spend the winter in South America.

The female Phalarope will lay the eggs in the spring and then leave the nest having the male incubate, feed, and raise the young. The female is brighter colored than many other females of bird species because she does not need to sit on the nest hiding her presence with drab coloration, that’s the male’s job here.

A thunderstorm with some rain had just passed through when this Song Sparrow appeared. It certainly needs to work on feather management but it is fine with skipping the afternoon shower.

This is the flower of what we believe to be a White Torch Cactus. It blooms only for a few days here and then the flower dies off. It is beautiful flower to have such a short lifespan.

This is a Snowy Egret, a wading bird that stands a little over two feet tall... It is identified from other egrets (Cattle Egret and Great Egret) by having yellow feet. Often times they are called Golden Slippers. No it did not raise its foot on command, we just happened to catch one foot in the air while it was walking.

This is a Gamble’s Quail chick and it is about half grown. While quietly sitting on a bench watching for birds an adult pair of Gamble’s came walking down the trail in front of the bench and there were four chicks with them all the same size as this one. It is much easier to identify the young ones when Mom and Dad bring them along.

Here is a decent house. Just a few shingles, some paint maybe a window or two and some good looking doors and you are ready to move in. Somewhere in the process you would want to fumigate, a lot, before your personal belongs were moved in. Nice house in dark sky country the night stars would be absolutely amazing. There is not much near here for miles.

That concludes our look around at various flowers, lizards, and birds. We hope you enjoyed the sojourn and found something of interest.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna

All the best – George & Deanna