A Photographic Tour of Early Summer Life Along the San Pedro River

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Summer has come to the river and its valleys, bringing a cavalcade of change to the animal world. Today, my thermometer registered 113° F. I don’t leave southern Arizona during the summer like so many people do every year. This is my favorite season here, because so much happens in the natural world during the fierce heat of summer…

Mike and Mavis have successfully raised their seventh brood here on our land. This year, four new ravens have fledged and left the nest. Here are two of them. Note the pinkish-white bordering around their beaks and their pink mouths. As they mature, the pinkish color on their beaks disappears, and the inside of their mouths turns black.

Several weeks ago, the velvet mesquite trees erupted with fresh blossoms. These are the precursors to an abundance of bean pods that provide one of the most crucially important food sources for the valley’s wildlife.

A closer look at the flowers of a velvet mesquite tree. These blossoms perfume the air with a sweet, heady fragrance.

A queen butterfly alights to drink from the wet mud surrounding our watering hole. This insect is often mistaken for its well-known cousin, the monarch.

The back side of a male Gould’s turkey in full display. These birds – and their tails – are huge! The white tips on the tail feathers are one of the field marks that distinguish this race of wild turkeys from their eastern relatives. Part of the display involves dragging the wing tips on the ground, an action that creates a loud rasping sound, meant to intimidate rival males.

A male summer tanager comes to feed from a block of suet. This is America’s only all-red bird, a living statement of resplendent color and grace. Their future in this valley is being threatened by large numbers of brown-headed cowbirds.

This male black-headed grosbeak has been sending his voice through the bosque every morning, a series of loud, robin-like notes.

Few of our western birds are more strikingly colored than the western tanager. A different race of this species stays here in the valley floor to breed every summer. Most western tanagers utilize very different breeding habitats – namely, conifer forests at higher elevations.

A male blue grosbeak that visits daily for water. Blue is one of the rarest of colors among Earth’s terrestrial vertebrate animals.

A new beaver dam graces the flow of the San Pedro River. Dams like this permit substantially more water to infiltrate the ground below their surfaces, recharging the shallow aquifers that give life to the river’s riparian forests of cottonwoods and willow trees. There were five more dams below this one. I cannot think of a single mammalian species that is more beneficial to the river and its forests than beavers are.

I awoke one morning to find this characteristic fresh imprint at the foot of my entry steps. A rattlesnake had curled up there the night prior, leaving its signature circular mark. No other Arizona snakes rest in such a circular position. For reference, the grizzly track cast in concrete is six inches in width. Grizzlies were once common along this river until they were wiped out by Spanish and American settlers.

A black-tailed jackrabbit resting in the shade of a mesquite trunk on a toasty summer day. When the heat cranks up, animal behavior changes. This hare let me approach within four feet, something it would not have allowed on a cooler day. The name “jackrabbit” is a misnomer, as these creatures are hares, not rabbits.


Until I came to live in southeastern Arizona, I would not have believed that there could be pink snakes native to our country. This coachwhip snake appeared on a hot afternoon, five feet of blazing bubblegum pinkness!

Coachwhip snakes are expert climbers. Kathleen and I looked out a window one day to see this tail protruding from an active Gila woodpecker nest. Fortunately, the snake did not wipe out the entire brood – it consumed one or two nestlings and moved on.

A gopher snake encountered on a sandy bank of the San Pedro River. These snakes attain lengths of seven feet or more and are often mistaken for rattlesnakes. They are among the most effective rodent controllers we have. Favored food items include mice, rats, and gophers.

A diamondback rattlesnake slithers through the mesquite bosque, traveling in a manner common among rattlesnakes, using caterpillar motion. When snakes crawl in this fashion, their bodies remain almost straight rather than sinuously curved. We never kill these animals. They have a right to live here, no less than we do. When summer comes, we are always on guard, watching closely where we place every footstep, especially after dark.

Beavers add a special touch of beauty to the river, creating ponds that mirror their surroundings and provide needed habitat for a long list of other creatures.

14 thoughts on “A Photographic Tour of Early Summer Life Along the San Pedro River”

  1. Thank You Ralph,

    A very fascinating blog, enjoyed reading this, so many beautiful birds this time of the year. If it wasn’t for the San Pedro River, few of these gems would exist in this valley.

    1. Thank you, Gilbert. It is nice to know that at least a few people are viewing this blog.
      As for the presence of our birds and the river, your comments are right on.

  3. Good stuff, my brother! It’s amazing how much life goes on during the summer heat. I was just up at 6, looking out at my very different front yard where I placed a water feature two years ago. The birds wait for it to come on, and then bathe and drink, sometimes just seeming to sit there and look around. I want to do something out back as well to bring more water access to it as it is not interrupted by traffic in the neighborhood. Not a lot of variety, like you have, but I enjoy it greatly. Keep up the excellent blogs – I read every word!

  4. Hello, Ralph, a fascinating read and so wonderfully written, worth a re-read and more contemplation. I’m interested in the fact that the race of western tanagers where you are is not as red-headed as those that migrate through here on their way north.

    Things are very quiet here this year, I’ve noticed fewer birds: black chinned hummingbirds, scaled quail, and black headed grosbeaks. I live in the pinon/juniper hills just south of Santa Fe. It is dry, dry, dry here.

    Thank you! I have passed this on to a couple of friends urging them to sign up. Luisa Baldinger

    1. Hi Luisa,

      Sincere thanks for your kind comments regarding my blog. I have noticed that these tanagers are not as red-headed as those living in the northerly Rockies, and have wondered about that characteristic.

      I have also been noticing major declines in our songbird populations like you have in New Mexico. It is a sad facet of modern life to see such beautiful and important creatures declining so quickly.

      I is extremely dry here, too! Pray for the summer monsoons…and thank you again, Luisa, for passing my blog on to your friends.

  5. I don’t know about the 113. We had 72 in the shade, loon and beaver about 50′ from from the dock. Moose and calf this morning. But no lovely snakes.

    1. 114°F. here today, Joe. Your comments brought back a flood of memories from my decades in Montana!
      I also recall cool days, loons, beaver, moose, and many others.

  6. Thank you Ralph! I’m glad I signed on to your blog for the information and neighborhood update. I love your photos and am envious that you manage to get so many great ones. It’s baby quail season around my bird feeders and water caches and there are many javalina munching on the surrounding prickly pear. Ysa the dog and I have to pay close attention when we’re out walking in the morning.
    Surprised to see so many deer staying down in the valley right now. We have an infestation of ground dwelling bees in the yard at the moment. Their holes cover about a 30′ diameter area. That’s not happened since we’ve been here but the Palo Verde in front had such a profuse bloom this spring that I’m not surprised they’ve decided to homestead for a while. So far, they seem completely not aggressive and they aren’t in a high traffic area so we’re leaving them alone. I had a clump of Africanized bees stay on a branch in an acacia off the front porch for about 3 days while the same said tree was blooming. Typically they stick around for a short time. Like we’re an air B&B 4 B’s.
    I too love the summer here. Can’t wait for the monsoon to begin!
    Thanks again for the information and local updates!
    Bonnie

  7. Love the photos, and I’m glad to read that you have embraced the heat— better you than me!
    I think that’s all the more remarkable given all the years you spent in Montana, where hundred degree days were probably very rare, with 113 unheard of.
    That coachwhip photo was awesome; the pink color is just so striking! We have a subspecies here, the San Joaquin Coachwhip, that’s on the state list as a species of concern. I saw two roadkills within 5 days of each other on the same stretch of road. Pissed me off; people are either driving too fast or running them over on purpose.

  8. I’ve been thinking about you lately; it is very nice to hear from you, Joe. How is
    your ankle doing?
    I recall walking one mile to school in -43°F. weather in Montana during the 1960s. Also days on the Rocky Mountain Front when the winds were sustained at over 90mph and the temps. were subzero.
    That kind of weather is far more serious than this blistering heat…but the transition (to life in AZ) was not too difficult because of the desert’s extremely low humidity. This year, however, I am really feeling the heat, and that is due to increasing age! 🙂 Afternoon siestas have become essential.
    I’d guess your coachwhips are falling victim to fast drivers. They are extremely alert snakes with exceptional long-range visual acuity. I have often seen them do a split-second about-face to race off of the roadway with such remarkable speed that they can usually avoid getting run over…unless the vehicle is going too fast.
    It really gets to me when I see run-over wildlife, because I know that most of the time, excessive speed and/or a blatant disrespect for non-human life are the culprits.

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