I took this photo of the flower that bloomed on my Astrophytum “Star Cactus” yesterday. Although related to my Bishop’s Cap Cactus, it doesn’t have flowers as often, at least not yet. This flower measured about four inches in diameter and is, as you can see, beautiful. Click on the image to enlarge.
Some of the lower flower buds are opening on the big saguaro cactus out in front of the garage by the driveway. The big cactus sits by the point adjacent to the where the courtyard walkway meets the main driveway slab.
When I took this photo of her, she was preparing to photograph one of the saguaro flowers on the arm closest to my camera. She did get a pretty good shot of that lowest open flower posted at this link.
We have a lot of flower buds still to open and most of them will be pointing skyward. I was thinking about getting the extension ladder to climb up on the garage roof to photograph them from a high vantage point with the 75 to 300 mm lens for close-ups.
Click on the image to enlarge.
This tiny Antelope Ground Squirrel is enjoying some of the leftover polenta from our recent Pork Stew dinner. It is our habit to distribute certain leftover food to the wash out back so the critters can come and enjoy.
I took this photo this afternoon using my SL1 camera and telephoto lens. The squirrel came close to me, within about fifteen feet, to get the tidbit. The birds and rabbits are more wary than this little guy, and generally keep a larger distance between us and them. Click on the image to enlarge.
My Astrophytum (a.k.a. Star Cactus) had a flower open today. We have been watching it since it was a bud a couple of weeks ago and today it opened wide. There are also some more buds that will likely produce flowers this spring. Last year, this cactus had flowers all the way into August, so we look forward to more of them. Click on the image to enlarge.
This is the time of spring when our Arizona State Flower starts showing up on the saguaro cacti. The image above is of a saguaro crown up the road from us. Flowers are also beginning to appear on our big saguaro out front.
We love our springtime cactus flowers, both in the wild and in our cactus garden. Click on the image to enlarge.
After I went up on the little hill behind our RV drive to reload the bird feeders up there, I hung around the back of the patio with my Canon EOS to see if I could get some photos of birds that come to feed. It took a while, but eventually a cactus wren showed up and took a nut from the trail mix block; the bird retreated to some underbrush to deal with its prize. I captured this image as it posed with the nut in its bill.
Photo details: Canon EOS Rebel SL1, 1/400sec, F7.1, ISO 100, 300mm Telephoto lens.
