AZ Nature In Focus

  A little while ago I talked about the lessons that I learn from nature during my journeys.  Patience is among the lessons that I keep trying to learn over and over again.  It is so nicely demonstrated in the steady gaze of a bird over the water just waiting for a fish to swim by.  The statue stillness of a ground squirrel when it senses my presence just hoping to blend into the surroundings.  Since learning should never stop, I have r ecently been reminded of an additional lesson that I have seen over and over again in nature. Never Give Up This one seems especially important as 2020 draws to a close.  This has been a challenging year.  I have lost many friends and relatives this year and we have all generally been challenged with a new lifestyle of "normal".  This little grebe demonstrated the lesson of perseverance so clearly during a peaceful morning I spent visiting a local lake.  He flapped mightily to fly but never achieved flight.  Grebes are not generally known as

  There is no denying that the holidays this year are very different.  Holiday parties, rushing into stores, and a long line of gifts waiting to be wrapped wasn't something that was part of my holiday this year.  I am a rather extreme optimist and so I look toward the positives of this holiday.  I envisioned a very relaxed holiday with plenty of time to just enjoy the season.  Surprisingly this holiday didn't feel less busy and it sort of snuck up on me in a way that had me putting up my tree just a week and a half ago.  My escapes into nature were limited this month but I did carve out time early one morning to explore and was met with some rather grumpy characters who made me smile. This spoon-billed duck was full of determination and while I don't think that he was swimming directly at me to get me to move, he didn't seem thrilled that I was present or perhaps he just couldn't believe that it was morning already.  I backed up some but this serious and rather grum

  Birds can be very fast and they can also be great at hiding.  The Arizona desert experienced a rather cold, by our standards anyway, and breezy few days so I headed out with my camera to find a deserted patch of nature to explore.  Whether it was due to the cool weather or the wind, the birds seemed especially difficult to spot on this particular morning and provided me with a game of sorts and lots of smiles. This guy was hiding in a tree.  He was a rather large bird and the branch didn't seem to hold him as well as he would have liked.  His head swayed back and forth as he fought to keep his balance and each time his head came forward, it was rather like a game of peek-a-boo.  This little "game" didn't last very long as he completely lost his balance in a fluff of feathers and flapping and then circled back to land next to the water.   On I ventured and heard a good deal of noise in some reeds.  The noise ended up coming from sparrows who quickly decided to fly aw

Has anyone else noticed that the lure of travel has gotten much stronger?  That pull of the open road and the freedom of stepping out of my normal life to escape for a little while has only gotten stronger over the past ten months.  Vacation and traveling, in general, allows me to get off the roller coaster of normal daily life and take a break.  A break from responsibilities and demands.  A break from routine that allows me to see the world just a little bit differently.   The holidays are busy times in general and while my family and I might sneak away in past years for a weekend to see holiday lights or experience a festive gathering, this year is very different.   Mentally I knew going into the holiday season that we wouldn't be traveling between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I threw myself into imagining the outside lights that we would now put up to enjoy.  The indoor decorations and the cookies that I would make this year.  And then travel restrictions began to pop up and gue

  I will state right away that I am not a very patient person.  This might sound odd from a nature photographer but in the real world, I don't care for waiting in long lines or sitting in slow-moving traffic.  When I hit the hiking trail with my camera or wander into the wilderness however that all changes.  I wasn't always a photographer but the more I began venturing into nature, the more patient I became.  I learned to slow down to not only appreciate the plants and animals that I was seeing but also to find humor in the little things that I would overlook by rushing down the path. Animals don't tend to appreciate fast movements and tend to shy away from loud noise.  This mama bird in the saguaro made her nest not too far from the ground last spring.  I kept a healthy distance away so as not to stress her and she happily took care of her babies allowing me the honor of observation.  At times animals are just on their way from here to there.  In those moments, I feel exci

When most people think about Arizona they think first about either the Grand Canyon or the desert.  Not bad first thoughts as Arizona does feature a rather large desert and the Grand Canyon is one of this state's most popular tourist attractions.  Today I am going to try to debunk a few popular myths and verify some facts about the state that I have chosen to call home.   Arizona postcard from our Zazzle store by southwestcreations It never rains Never is a bit of an overstatement but I will say that it very rarely rains.  In fact, I can't even remember the last time that it rained in Phoenix.  Probably several months ago at least.  Even during the monsoon season which should be our rainiest time, our rain consists of a downpour of rainwater for a short amount of time before the store quickly moves off.  This past year we had a very dry monsoon and just for kicks, I checked our rain for this year so far.  In 2020 up until today's date of November 20th in Phoenix, we

  When most people think of Arizona they tend to think of desert and cactus.  Southwestern cactus bring to mind long needles and plants that can be admired but steered clear of.  While we do have a huge variety of cacti in our state, cacti are not the only plants to use needles, thorns, or spikes to protect themselves.   Barrel Cactus Pillow Available in Our Store by southwestcreations So why does a cactus plant have needles?  The obvious answer is to protect themselves but why do they need so much protection.  Cacti are made up of a huge amount of water.  The mighty saguaro for example can be caused to topple from too much water.  A cactus will soak up water and store it allowing it to get through our long periods of drought.  Animals seek out water and so a quick meal on a cactus pad can provide needed water for animals.  While the needles keep away some animals, there are others that are very adapted to life in the desert.  Javelina for example will munch on a cactus plant