Tag: Coconino County

Crypsis.

Greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi), hanging out and blending in, at Elden Pueblo, in Flagstaff, Arizona.

I don’t intend for this to be a herp blog, but jeez, Arizona, you’ve sure got a lot of lizards. All of them cry out (so to speak) to be photographed.

I’m somewhat disappointed I haven’t seen any snakes so far, except for the one that flew over my car while I was driving on a back-country road in Yavapai County a few weeks ago, and that snake wasn’t flying so much as it was being carried uncomfortably in the grip of a common black-hawk’s talons, and it didn’t seem to be enjoying the flight at all, based on all of its wriggling and writhing. It was, if possible, having a flight even worse than the last time I flew Continental. I wriggled and writhed on that flight too.

Crypsis.

Greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi), hanging out and blending in, at Elden Pueblo, in Flagstaff, Arizona.

I don’t intend for this to be a herp blog, but jeez, Arizona, you’ve sure got a lot of lizards. All of them cry out (so to speak) to be photographed.

I’m somewhat disappointed I haven’t seen any snakes so far, except for the one that flew over my car while I was driving on a back-country road in Yavapai County a few weeks ago, and that snake wasn’t flying so much as it was being carried uncomfortably in the grip of a common black-hawk’s talons, and it didn’t seem to be enjoying the flight at all, based on all of its wriggling and writhing. It was, if possible, having a flight even worse than the last time I flew Continental. I wriggled and writhed on that flight too.

Antelope Heart

I’m posting a full-color version of a photo I previously posted in monochrome, because I’m excited by something I’ve just learned about it, and other petroglyphs at the V-Bar-V Ranch Heritage Site in the Coconino National Forest, Arizona.

I had assumed that the deep indentation in this and other glyphs at V-Bar-V were a product of vandalism. Scholars actually believe that these secondary marks, called cupules, were made by later Ancestral Puebloan visitors to the rock panels, who hoped to obtain power or spiritual virtue from the sacred images. The cupules are only seen on animal or human figures, and are typically excised near a vital area on the figure, usually corresponding to the placement of the heart. In context, what I had assumed was needless modern defacement is actually an expression of faith in the spiritual power that ancient people attributed to these images. 

Antelope Heart

I’m posting a full-color version of a photo I previously posted in monochrome, because I’m excited by something I’ve just learned about it, and other petroglyphs at the V-Bar-V Ranch Heritage Site in the Coconino National Forest, Arizona.

I had assumed that the deep indentation in this and other glyphs at V-Bar-V were a product of vandalism. Scholars actually believe that these secondary marks, called cupules, were made by later Ancestral Puebloan visitors to the rock panels, who hoped to obtain power or spiritual virtue from the sacred images. The cupules are only seen on animal or human figures, and are typically excised near a vital area on the figure, usually corresponding to the placement of the heart. In context, what I had assumed was needless modern defacement is actually an expression of faith in the spiritual power that ancient people attributed to these images. 

Plumes.

Seed head of dandelion-like western salsify (Tragopogon dubius), at Walnut Canyon National Monument, Arizona.

This plant is also known as goatsbeard, an idea captured in the genus name, derived from the Greek tragos (τράγος) for goat.