Uncategorized – Page 71

Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Companions for my morning neighborhood walk.

Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens), on the Presidio trail, Cochise County, Arizona.

Untitled.

Roadrunner hunting poses.

Greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

Desert stink beetle (Eleodes longicollis) fending off the pesky hiker. On the Presidio trail, Cochise County, Arizona.

Ruins of Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate, Cochise County, Arizona.

Construction of the presidio was begun in 1775, but the work was abandoned only five years later, and the adobe structures slowly dissolved back into the landscape.

Coues deer at Ramsey Canyon.

Coues are an elfin subspecies of whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus couesi), with ears and tails that seem disproportionately big relative to their small body size. In other words, they are adorable. The deer at the Ramsey Canyon preserve are entirely habituated to human presence, and they barely look up from their grazing.

Full disclosure pyrrhuloxia.

For every unobstructed, clear, and nicely framed shot of a bird I take, I end up with a hundred shots obscured by a scrim of leaves or twigs or branches. This is one of those hundred, and a candidate entry for a side-blog project I’m thinking of starting: anevenfatterchance.tumblr.com, where I will only post pictures of out-of-focus birds.

Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus) with mesquite leaves and twigs, at Rabbitbrush Arroyo (not its real name), in Cochise County, Arizona.

Dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis), at Parker Canyon Lake, Coronado National Forest, Cochise County, Arizona.