A Western Naturalist's Blog
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The Deluxe Trade Paperback Edition is printed with premium glossy text and cover stocks by Bookmobile Craft Digital of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each book is signed, and you can request a personal inscription. It makes a great gift and, even better, it’s on sale now for only $39.95 while supplies last—this price is lower than the standard trade paperback offered by Amazon!
9/13/2020 The past week has brought us many fascinating sights and sounds here in our southeastern Arizona landscape. One of my neighbors discovered a very young ornate box turtle on his property just a few days ago. For almost two decades, I have been seeing ornate box turtles in this valley, but something soon became puzzling about them.
In all my time here, I have yet to see a single individual that is not of adult size. No hatchlings, no young, no pint-sized box turtles. I have thought for some time that they have been having trouble reproducing successfully in this area, so these images are nice to see!
A giant mesquite bug (Thasus neocalifornicus) appeared on our screen door. This actually is a true bug, a Hemipteran. The growth stages of this large insect involve several iterations as bright red social nymphs. Only in their final stage of their development do these insects become solitary and grow wings that enable flight.
This has been a stellar week for bird sightings. Many migrant species are passing through, or arriving to spend the winter. Among the new arrivals here the past week have been calliope, rufous, Allen’s, broad-tailed, and Anna’s hummingbirds, Nashville, black-throated gray, Townsend’s, Virginia’s, and Wilson’s warblers, lazuli, varied, and indigo buntings, Brewer’s, clay-colored, vesper, chipping, and savannah sparrows, a lark bunting, and more. This morning, as always, our resident pair of ravens, Mike and Mavis, came to visit, along with a female Cooper’s hawk that spent many minutes bathing in one of our bird watering dishes.
Cooper’s hawks are exceptionally agile, quick, alert predators that fly with more than enough finesse to catch songbirds on the wing in dense cover. When small birds go to sleep for the night, Cooper’s hawks must color their nightmares!
Our days have been very hazy this week, the sunsets a surreal deep, dusky orange, even the moon has glazed over with smoky orange hues. For Arizonans, the smoke-filled skies are a daily reminder of the horrors that are transpiring in neighboring California as the worst fire season in history wreaks utter havoc across the state. My heart goes out to all Californians, for I know what it is like to suddenly leave home not knowing if it will be there upon our return. Huge wildfires and evacuations were a part of our lives more than a few times when we lived in Montana. May the people of California stay out of harm’s way, and may the rains come!
I am happy to announce the publication of my newest book, The Life of the San Pedro River: A Naturalist’s Account of an Iconic Desert River and its Watershed, on the Cascabel Books imprint. The Standard Trade Paperback Edition is available from Amazon; the Laminated Hardcover Edition is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram Wholesale; and a Deluxe Trade Paperback Edition is available directly from me.
The Deluxe Trade Paperback Edition is printed with premium glossy text and cover stocks by Bookmobile Craft Digital of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each book is signed by me, and you can request a personal inscription. And even better, it’s on sale now for just a few more dollars than the Standard Edition!
