As the weather continues to warm as it is wont to do in late spring, more flowers are opening. This astrophytum (star cactus) flower opened in all its glory this afternoon in our cactus garden by the courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.
Today, we celebrated Beltane, a traditional Celtic holiday but with a definite US twist by having what amounts to a New England Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Everyone enjoyed the meal and the ancestral atmosphere.
We get a lot of these Curve-Billed Thrashers in and around the yard. Today, this bird found a peanut that I threw out for whomever wanted it. The bird took it after this photo and delivered it to wherever. Love the wildlife here.
The curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) is a medium-sized desert bird common in the Sonoran and other southwestern deserts, including around towns like Wickenburg and Phoenix. It’s mostly gray-brown with a long down-curved black bill and bright yellow-orange eyes, and has faint round spots on its underparts. They forage on the ground, flipping leaf litter and digging with their bills for insects, fruit, and seeds. Their distinctive call is a loud, whistled “whit-wheet” that’s often heard in desert brush and suburban yards. These thrashers readily use cholla and other native cacti for nesting and adapt well to human-modified landscapes with desert vegetation.
Click on the image to enlarge.
During my morning walkabout, I spotted this cardinal perched in a creosote bush in the backyard. He sat there until I approached with an almond, which I tossed in his direction. I usually carry a few nuts to feed to the squirrels, so when I tossed the nut, to my surprise, the cardinal jumped out of the bush and scooped it up. He took it under the bush to peck at it or something.
The image is cropped down from the original and shows good detail. I took the photo from a distance of about 30 feet using my every day lens which has a maximum 250mm focal length telephoto capability. Camera details:
You may click on the image to enlarge in the image viewer.
The sign was originally installed in June of 2012, but time and the fact the original sign was plastic, it deteriorated and finally came off the post. Verna ordered the new metallic sign which I installed a couple of days ago. Click on the image to enlarge.
More Javelina stuff at this link.
After discovering some “termite tracks” in our garage floor a couple of weeks ago, we contacted a local pest control company to come out and evaluate our situation. The man that did the inspection found that there was a serious infestation on the north wall of the garage where we had some cardboard stored. He gave us a quote and we arranged for him to return today to resolve the problem.
The termite exterminator took a couple of hours to drill several holes through the concrete floor and pump the termiticide into the areas beneath. He did all that, patched up the holes and presented us with a reasonable bill for the services. We have a one-year guarantee should the little critters resurface, but the man says that statistically, they should not return for years to come.
We’re glad that that little annoyance is over and done with and we may now get on with the other important things in our lives. Clickable image of the pest control truck and trailer above.
Once again it is fall in the desert and with it comes the beautiful flowers on our Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus. This trio, along with several others, was open today after a nice rainfall yesterday. Click on the image to enlarge.
Ferocactus latispinus is the binomial nomenclature for what is commonly called the Devil’s Tongue cactus. Wikipedia offers the following information about this cactus:
Ferocactus latispinus is a species of barrel cactus native to Mexico. It grows as a single globular light green cactus reaching the dimensions of 30 cm (12 in) in height and 40 cm (16 in) across, with 21 acute ribs. Its spines range from reddish to white in color and are flattened and reach 4 or 5 cm long. Flowering is in late autumn or early winter. The funnel-shaped flowers are purplish or yellowish and reach 4 cm long, and are followed by oval-shaped scaled fruit which reach 2.5 cm (1 in) long.
