White-winged dove (Zenaida asiatica) on organpipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi), at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.
Tag: Phoenix
Patches.
If you are very lucky, you might have a chance meeting with Patches ambling down a garden path when you visit the Desert Botanical Garden. There are several free-roaming Sonoran desert tortoises (Gopherus morafkai) on the grounds, as well as a few adopted pet tortoises kept in an enclosure in the education center. I met Patches wondering on the paved Desert Discovery trail.
Despite having a given name, Patches is a wild tortoise, released in the garden after sustaining an injury to her/his/hir carapace. In the bottom photo you can see the fiberglass mesh used to repair damage to the tortoise’s scutes – the horny keratin cover for the bony plates that form its shell. Living in the garden provides a safe and familiar home for this rescued animal, as well as access to veterinary care and future body work, as needed.
As the genus name suggests, Patches is a type of gopher tortoise, so named for their burrowing habits.
Patches.
If you are very lucky, you might have a chance meeting with Patches ambling down a garden path when you visit the Desert Botanical Garden. There are several free-roaming Sonoran desert tortoises (Gopherus morafkai) on the grounds, as well as a few adopted pet tortoises kept in an enclosure in the education center. I met Patches wondering on the paved Desert Discovery trail.
Despite having a given name, Patches is a wild tortoise, released in the garden after sustaining an injury to her/his/hir carapace. In the bottom photo you can see the fiberglass mesh used to repair damage to the tortoise’s scutes – the horny keratin cover for the bony plates that form its shell. Living in the garden provides a safe and familiar home for this rescued animal, as well as access to veterinary care and future body work, as needed.
As the genus name suggests, Patches is a type of gopher tortoise, so named for their burrowing habits.
D.B.G.
D.B.G.
Another way to see a sunflower.
Another way to see a sunflower.
Here’s an antidote to that black widow spider post: a male Costa’s hummingbird (Calypte costae
♂), at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website, Costa’s flee the desert for cooler chaparral and scrubland habitats during the hottest summer months. This little fellow may have missed the memo.
Here’s an antidote to that black widow spider post: a male Costa’s hummingbird (Calypte costae
♂), at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website, Costa’s flee the desert for cooler chaparral and scrubland habitats during the hottest summer months. This little fellow may have missed the memo.
Here’s a little text-and-graphics I came up with for our impending heat wave. Currently in PHX we have clear skies and only 108°F/42°C! Not that hot, but I bet hot enough to fuse glass in the interior of my car. Cheers, y’all! Send me any bottles you want melted down.
Dithyramb 