Ocotillos produce clusters of bright red flowers at their stem tips, which explain the plant’s name. Ocotillo means “little torch” in Spanish — Images by kenne
Waiting It Out
Desert display as Saguaro’s spiny arms raise to the darkening blue sky. Days of heat waves chase Ocotillo flower buds drooping slowly in the mauve air very still … and then, with the distant rumble of thunder and a flash of lightening, comes a first drop. Coming fast, the rain begins a flood within the gulch and there, from nowhere, from the nothing dust, from the ether reconstituted as out of a mirage appears by the side of the road … a toad.
I don’t know, why I don’t Put it out baby We kiss and the flames Just get higher But yeah I know When I hold onto you baby I’m all tangled up in barbed wire I get burned, I don’t learn I’ll be back, give it time Yeah, I know it sounds crazy But guess I like playing with fire
A megadrought continues in the west to make life difficult for desert plants. Still, a common desert shrub, brittlebush, knows spring is the time to green up and bloom. A member of the sunflower family, yet another symbol of strength during difficult times — a.k.a. Ukraine.
The desert portion of their common name arises from their distribution across the arid lands of the American Southwest and Plains states. “Auduboni” honors John James Audubon, the famous bird painter and naturalist.
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Black-tailed gnatcatchers are found throughout Mexico and the southwest United States in North America. These birds inhabit the Sonoran desert, which covers California and Arizona in the United States. Their range also extends to the northwestern part of Mexico. Their range is found in the Chihuahuan desert which covers the western part of Texas, the southeastern part of Arizona, and extends to the northern and central part of the Mexican plateau, in the range of the Sonoran desert in the west. Migration is not seen in these birds during the winter season. Source: kidadl.com
Morning Shadows In The Sonoran Desert — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Yes, the sun has risen again. I can see the windows change and hear a dog barking. The wind buckles the slender top of the alder, the conversation of night birds hushes, and I can hear my heart regular and strong. I will live to see the day end as I lived to see the earth turn molten and white, then to metal, then to whatever shape we stamped into it as we laughed the long night hours away or sang how the eagle flies on Friday. When Friday came, the early hours perfect and cold, we cursed our only lives and passed the bottle back and forth.
Northern Mockingbird in Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
One of the most familiar birds in the Sonoran Desert is the Northern Mockingbird. They hunt insects and spiders eat a wide variety of fruits; berries of lantana and pyracantha are mainstays. Males and females have similar plumage: nearly uniform gray except for long dark tail and white patch in open wing. Males are the singers that often practice all night long on a concatenation of bird songs borrowed from a variety of other bird species. Three plants in particular produce fruit attractive to mocking birds: Desert Mistletoe, Fremont Thornbush, and Desert Hackberry.
Podaxis is a genus of secotioid fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Species, which have the appearance of a “stalked-puffball”, have a worldwide distribution, and tend to be found growing solitary or scattered on sandy soils, especially in arid regions. Although close to 50 species have been described, it has been argued that many of them may represent extremes in the natural range of variations found in Podaxis pistillaris. — Wikipedia
