This is one of several clusters of paperwhite flowers now showing in the courtyard bulb planter. The tiny (½ inch) buds are closely related to daffodils which are in the same planter but have not come up as of yet. Perhaps they will in a week or two. The temperatures have turned very spring-like for mid-February. Click on the image to enlarge.
It doesn’t matter what the season might be, but the cardinals are always visible. Unlike many of the other desert critters that blend in with the colors of the desert (some changing with the colors from season to season), the vivid coloration of the wide ranging Northern Cardinal (cardinalis cardinalis) is always bright and easily observable.
From Wikipedia:
The northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a North American bird in the genus Cardinalis; it is also known colloquially as the redbird or common cardinal. It can be found in southern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Texas and south through Mexico. It is found in woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and swamps.
The northern cardinal is a mid-sized songbird with a body length of 21 cm (8.3 in). It has a distinctive crest on the head and a mask on the face which is black in the male and gray in the female. The male is a vibrant red, while the female is a dull reddish olive. The northern cardinal is mainly granivorous, but also feeds on insects and fruit. The male behaves territorially, marking out his territory with song. During courtship, the male feeds seed to the female beak-to-beak. A clutch of three to four eggs is laid, and two to four clutches are produced each year. It was once prized as a pet, but its sale as a cage bird was banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Lots of paperwhite flowers blooming in the courtyard. Good sign that warmer temperatures are coming. We might have some showers by the first of the week which the flowers (and all of the desert) will appreciate. Click on the image to enlarge.
I will have photos of daffodils very soon. They have started to appear at the flower concession at the supermarket.
This little bucket which sits under the rain spout by the patio serves to not only collect rain runoff, but to provide a reservoir suitable for our little winged friends to get a drink of water. There generally are no places where water stands for very long in our arid environment, so we’re happy to provide a place for the birds and other critters to get water.
I had a birdbath set up out back for quite a while before the monsoon winds and showers totaled it out. This bucket takes the place of the fragile glass fixture that we still find shards from, while not endangering the critters that take advantage of it.
We have no direct evidence of it, but we suspect that squirrels, roadrunners, bunnies, coyotes, mule deer and other assorted local critters take advantage of the water. Someday, we might get photographic evidence of that and post it here.
This is the most colorful sunset of this year! However, there are bound to be a lot more as colorful and more in the coming year. Happy New Year!
Click on the image to enlarge.
I planted two amaryllis bulbs a few weeks ago. Today, the first set of flowers opened. I took this photo in the courtyard so there would be sunshine on them. Click on the image to enlarge.
The flower stalks are starting to open in the other pot I planted. I will update this post when I have photos of the other ones.
