Harris Antelope Ground Squirrel.
Been too busy for photography so far, so thought I would share one from last spring. We have a bunch of these guys running around right now!
Photo Desert Retreat Update
Baby javelina last night at the Desert Photo Retreat near Tucson, Arizona.
It has been a very busy week down here in the desert – renting tractors for the road, moving our RV, setting stuff up etc. Along with the work, there has been some good news and bad news to share, lets start with the bad news.
Despite making a special trip to Arizona in August to work on the water, the water drip clearly stopped working again right after we left. So when I arrived on the property there wasn’t a single bird, the place was disappointingly desolate! A check of the game cam showed no activity as well, definitely discouraging.
Now the good news. Within one day of getting the water going and feeders up, I already had birds returning, and within three days it was back to normal! Now a week in, I seem to have more wildlife then we ever did last year! I think in part that has to do with the hot dry fall Arizona has experienced – the food / water options are more limited.
Also, the gray fox pair is still around, been seeing them every afternoon and evening. In addition, the javelina are now a group of 19 strong, including 6 little babies – a couple can hardly walk correctly yet. The javelina used to come by every couple of days last year. This year, they come by every couple of hours hogging the quail food, so I may need to make some feeding changes, but the babies are fun to watch. More to come.
Gila Woodpecker
A gila woodpecker returning to the next, near Tucson, Arizona.
This is the second spring in a row that a pair of gila woodpeckers nested in this hole near our camp. That is a treat, as they usually dig a new nesting hole each year. We also have a pair of nesting gilded flickers also near or camp – it is fun to hear the babies screeching for attention every time the adult flies to the nest.
We are excited to be flying back to Alaska in the morning, but are going to miss all the wildlife that had become such a big part of our life in Arizona. I have had people ask about how the animals are doing. I can report, both gray foxes were still around and came by most evenings around sunset. The two little baby javelina are still alive – I saw them recently during the middle of the night, and they are almost as big as the adults. And finally, the quail family sill had all 8 little babies, although they were getting bigger. We left a water drip for them while we are gone – it will be interesting to see how everyone is doing when we return in the Fall.
Gray Fox Still Alive!
Two gray-fox in the game cam.
If you read my last post about the gray-fox, you will understand why the first thing I did late last night was pull the game camera to inspect the images. I knew it probably wouldn’t be conclusive because only a couple of times all winter have I seen both fox at the same time in the frame. So, I figured I really wouldn’t know if I’m just seeing the same one over and over, or two. But, to my excitement and relief, both foxes appeared in a single frame a couple of nights ago, so I know conclusively they are both still alive! So cool.
A lot of animals visited the water hole during the short time we were gone including return visits by the coyote, a number of visits by a great horned owl, numerous skunks, even a raptor which I haven’t take the time to ID – o, and lots of javelina!
Safe to say, this is the worse photo I have ever posted here, but still a good one to me! 🙂
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