Cooper’s Hawk and Prey — Image by kenne
Returning from a morning walk my eye caught a Cooper’s Hawk flying into a nearby Mesquite tree. After closer observation, I could see the hawk had captured a mourning dove. Since the tree was near my house, I quickly grabbed my camera and began shooting.
Predator and prey
Each seeking to win the chase
A daily event.
— kenne
Saguaro Scars — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
Hummingbird On Nest Near Sabino Canyon Creek — Images by kenne (Click on any of the images to see a larger view.)
Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) have found several hummingbird nests in the canyon riparian area. This one is a real architectural work of art.
Nearby this nest is an active Cooper’s Hawk’s nest, which provides an exciting and educational bird-nest contrast for the students in our elementary nature program.
— kenne
This time of year Picacho Peak State Park is an excellent example of the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert.
Plants are at the greenest and wildflowers provide dots of color on the desert canvass.
The canvass of the desert
may appear to have no order.
Yet it is orderly,
but we don’t know why.
A poet has said;
If you want to know
where the flowers came from,
not even the spring goddess knows.
— kenne
Images by kenne
Lichens on rocks along the Wasson Peak trail. — Image by kenne
“Lichen is a composite organism consisting of a fungus (the mycobiont) and a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont) growing together in a symbiotic relationship. The photobiont is usually either a green alga (commonly Trebouxia) or cyanobacterium (commonly Nostoc).”
When teaching children about lichen, Sabino Canyon Volunteer Nationalists (SCVN) share this short poem:
View of Kitt Peak from Gould Hill Mine Trail In the Tucson Mountains. — Images by kenne
The Kitt Peak National Observatory is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono O’odham Nation, 55 miles west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona.
Cream Cup Wildflower (Platystemon californicus) — Image by kenne
This lovely wildflower often grows in the moist, sandy ground at the edges of desert washes.
These flowers are partly wind-pollinated and partly pollinated by solitary bees.
— kenne
