Tucson has a lot of attractions, and a beautiful setting, but this exhibit in the heart of the saguaro desert is the one that might bring us back here for a season or two. Museum memberships are not expensive, and would be the way to go here. There is no way to see this place in a single day, and it changes with the seasons as well.
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The desert gardens change with the seasons. This was early April. The yellow blooming tree is a Blue Mountain Palo Verde. I hadn't realized there were different species before this, and was wondering why many palo verde (the Foothills species) weren't booming. Organ pipes are in the left rear. I don't recall the name of the large barrels - past their bloom.
This beauty is a Mexican Fox. They had a virtual zoo of desert creatures, all in natural (if too small) habitat
Eastern Collared Lizard (eastern? compared to what?)
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This is a Black Bellied Whistling Duck - just sitting there, not whistling...
You can hear him whistling here. Sounds more like a song bird than a duck, don't you think?
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-bellied_Whistling-Duck/sounds
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| This mama Bighorn Sheep had this baby just a week ago. Doesn't she look proud? |
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| They also had a hummingbird aviary that was delightful - this is a Broadbilled Hummingbird |
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Many of the babies are whitish - I don't know what species this cutie is
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Black Headed Grossbeak - beautiful, even if his beak is a bit on the gross side
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Mourning Doves. They are so ever present, everywhere, that I never bother to photograph them. But I noticed the lovely soft blue on her eyes and beak as she walked past my feet
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| You need a faster camera, and a better photographer than me to catch a river otter in action - and they are almost always in action! I stole this photo off the web, but it is one of their otters. The one we were watching would dive to the bottom, pick up a small flat rock, put it on top of his head, and then swim up, on the surface, dive, twist, tall while trying to keep the rock on the top of his head. When he would lose it, he'd get another and try again. If reincarnation is real, let me come back as a river otter! |
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