Archive for the ‘Sabino Canyon Recreation Area’ Tag
A Many-Armed Saguaro Cactus (Sabino Canyon) — Image by kenne
Mighty Saguaro
Saguaro cacti rise up like mighty sentinels
boldly claiming the high desert plains
tall and proud, their prickly arms
forewarn intruders to stop and beware.
A daunting presence, bold and majestic
toughness flows through their cacti veins
Saguaro endure long hours in the barren wilderness
their roots persevere under the dry, hard crust.
With no respite, save for the night
Saguaro rule valiantly in a god forsaken land.
— Laura Leiser
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Verdin In Mesquite Tree — Image by kenne
“In the heat of desert arroyos and scrublands, tiny grayish Verdins flash bright colors—
a yellow head and chestnut shoulder patch. More slender and small-headed than a chickadee,
these restless birds comb the foliage of trees for insects and spiders, sometimes hanging upside down
to investigate hard-to-reach places. They supplement their insect diet with fruits and even nectar,
which they may sip from hummingbird feeders.” — Source: allaboutbirds.org
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This Greater Roadrunner in Sabino Canyon Just Came Running Up To Me — Surprise, Surprise!
Image by kenne
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Greater Roadrunner Setting On Nest In Sabino Canyon A very carefully crafted nest inside a cholla cactus, providing excellent protection.
— Image by kenne
Roadrunners have elaborate mating rituals and may mate for life. Their courtship begins with the male chasing
the female on foot. Like other bird species, the male tries to woo the female with food, often bringing her a lizard in his beak.
Both males and females try to attract each other with offerings of sticks or grass. The male wags its tail and leaps
into the air to get attention.
Once a pair mates, they stay together to defend their territory all year. Most pairs raise the young together,
taking turns to protect the hatchlings and procuring food.
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Painted Lady Butterfly — Image by kenne
Even More Than Hope: Painted Lady Butterflies
Like spirits, they will dart across our path
in drifts, and zig-zag past our cheeks and hands
just out of reach, and whirling toward a land
far north of us, by predetermined math.
It seems a miracle, winged migration—
almost as hard to fathom as moon flight.
What tiny compass guides them day and night
in rivers of raw determination?
Their journey symbolizes more than hope:
They breathe into each moment the belief
that happiness as real and bright as wings
is just ahead … and therefore we can cope,
and fill heavy hearts with newfound lightness,
and bathe a moment more in their brightness.
— Sally Sandler
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Rancho Fundoshi Above Bear Canyon Creek — Images by kenne
“Where I was born and where and
how I have lived is unimportant.
It is what I have done with where I
have been that should be of interest.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe
In Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, if you hike to Seven Falls, you walk the Bear Canyon road to Bear Canyon trail,
which crosses the Bear Canyon creek seven times. South of the trailhead sets a house on a cliff above the creek
outside the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. Since 2010, I have hiked to Seven Falls several times and may
have noticed the house but was more focused on the hike.
Yesterday, a group of us older, now slow hikers hiked the newly paved Bear Canyon road to the Bear Canyon trailhead,
taking a trail south to get a better view of the house on the cliff, where I took a few images of the house.
After discussing the possible owners, I decided to do a Google search once I got home. I first did a drag & drop
in Google Images with no match. So, started a Google search using a few descriptors. I learned that
about 65 years ago, Jack Segurson, a local high school wrestling, and swimming coach and teacher from the 1950s
into the late 1980s, bought the 151-acre property that he lived on, cherished, and mold into a
naturalist’s paradise — it became become his legacy.
Segurson died at age 90 in 2011, and soon afterward, an appraiser valued his land at $3.9 million.
He left the property to The Nature Conservancy with restrictions that it never be sold or developed.
The Nature Conservancy donated the property, which Segurson named “Rancho Fundoshi,” a fundoshi
is a Sumo wrestler’s loincloth to Pima County. The Pima County Regional Flood Control District
manages the property as open space and owns and manages other lands along Bear Canyon
and Sabino Canyon as part of its riparian habitat and upper watershed preservation program.
— kenne
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Trailing Windmills — Image by kenne
The orchid-colored trailing windmills is a vine that grows along the ground; the plant may be 10 feet across.
The stems, leaves, and buds are covered with soft white hair. The stems and flowers are sticky, and one rarely finds
a flower without grains of sand stuck on the upper surface. Technically, what appears to be 1 flower is a cluster
of 3 resembling a single radially symmetrical flower but no one but a trained botanist would ever guess it.
— Source: wildflower.org
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Spring Break At Seven Falls in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area — HDR Image by kenne
May my feet always touch the earth
Stretching from the desert to the mountains
While I’m still able to hike on the rocks
Made by fire and time.
— kenne
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Desert Cottontail Sylvilagus auduboni (Sabino Canyon Recreational Area) — Image by kenne
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.
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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
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Dead Saguaro In Sabino Canyon (January 15, 2014) — Image by kenne
The skin is the first to go
in the beginning protected
from the sun by a nurse tree.
This symbol of the Sonoran Desert
so slow to grow in the beginning
going unnosed for years
in the shadows of the nurse tree.
We teach children about this icon
by having the guess the age
of a saguago based on its heigh.
— kenne
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Winter Wren In Sabino Canyon — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“‘Hear! hear!’ screamed the jay from a neighboring tree,
where I had heard a tittering for some time,
‘winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel,
if you know where to look for it.'”
– Henry David Thoreau
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Cedar Waxwings Sharing Food In Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
Plenty of berries
Here in Sabino Canyon
For migrating birds.
— kenne
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Desert Spiny Lizard — Getting A Little Sun (Sabino Canyon Recreation Area) — Image by kenne
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Cooper’s Hawk In Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
A beautiful bird
And a super partiture
Love dive booming doves
— kenne
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Becoming is Superior to Being 