Filed under: Home, Phoenix | Tags: Butterflies, Flora, Home, Phoenix, Scottsdale
This isn’t the first butterfly I’ve seen this year but it’s the first one I’ve been able to photograph in my yard. And it’s another one that is new to me that I had to ID on the internet: a Checkered White!
Hi, there!
Click for better detail on any of these.
Like many places, Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden has a butterfly exhibit every spring as well as a Monarch exhibit every fall but I’ve never been. I guess I assume it would be so crowded it would be hard to shoot. But I also like the challenge of finding them on my own, au naturel, in my yard, mostly, and then trying to identify them.
On May 25th, a whole new butterfly experience is coming to town, in Scottsdale, very close to where I work, Butterfly Wonderland: A Rainforest Experience. It looks interesting so I’m sure at some point, I’ll drop by.
Meanwhile, my yard is my favorite place capturing these assorted beauties. Here’s part of my collection from the past:
Gulf Fritillary~Painted Lady
Variegated Fritillary~Giant Swallowtail
Gray Hairstreak~Skipper
…that spring has arrived in the low desert. In all the years I’ve lived here and 18 of them being in our house, surrounded by oleanders, which are very common in the old parts of Phoenix, I have never noticed their seed pods before. Too bad everything about an oleander is toxic to humans and animals.
This tree is in my neighbor’s yard, it’s a peach tree.
Spring will be heading your way soon…
Filed under: Art, Phoenix | Tags: Art, Calle 16, Downtown Phoenix, El Mac, Lalo Cota, Murals, Phoenix
Well, the murals have been here all along, thriving and growing in numbers. I just didn’t get out to take photos of them for awhile due to the holidays, changes at work, life. Now I’ve lost track of where all the new ones are. Although I’ve tried to keep up through Facebook, it’s going to take some doing to catch up on them all.
But Calle 16, which is quite close to our house, was an easy way to jump back in and there have been a lot of additions and changes there. Check out this previous post of mine from almost a year ago to see how some of the murals have changed since then.
The El Mac portion remains unchanged while Lalo Cota changed his part of it, on the above wall.
This particular wall is all new work that was done in December 2012 and January 2013 by several artists.
This is along the back and side of Barrio Cafe. The owner, Chef Silvana, was the impetus for the whole Calle 16 project several years ago.
This wall is also shown in the previous post mentioned above, as it appeared then. So you can see that there have been some overpaintings and changes while other walls remain the same.
If you’re ever in Phoenix, check out our alleys for lots of colorful surprises.
Encanto Park is one of the oldest parks in Phoenix. I hadn’t been there for many years but on New Year’s Day, Tony and I took a walk around it.
Located in central Phoenix, there is a lagoon with paddle boats.
And an amusement park on Enchanted Island.
Still decorated for the holidays…
With inflatable ornaments…
Colorful sculptures all around…
Winter in Phoenix often looks like autumn elsewhere.
It was a bitterly cold brisk day (for us Arizonans), so we didn’t walk as long as we had planned.
Yet it was nice to see that the park is well-maintained and attractive, being enjoyed by many.
Filed under: Blogging, Home, Phoenix | Tags: Blogging, Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Phoenix, Photoblogging
…Wildlife in My Yard! For my personal photoblogging year in review, that is what first comes to mind. I feel as though I took more photos in my neighborhood in 2012 than I normally do so this particular review will be photos taken in our very own, very urban yard over the past year.
Two Harris’ Hawks who spent a lot of time in our neighborhood this year were in our 2 front yard trees one morning (Halloween, actually).
Skippers hung around all year.
Flies!
A rare dragonfly dropped by and I got him away from the cats before damage was done.
The ever-present urban pigeons and doves…
The strangest sighting of the year in our yard…on our roof in this photo…a raccoon…very odd for central Phoenix. I spotted him on 3 different evenings but the last time I saw him was in October. None of the other neighbors seem to have seen him so I am hoping that no harm came to him but I don’t know that for a fact 
Many Painted Ladies dropped by…
and a Gulf Fritillary or two.
Bees, of course.
Constant hummingbird action at the feeder, year-round. Click on above to animate.
Mockingbirds aplenty.
New to me, a verdin.
I think this one above is an Anna’s Hummingbird. I really can’t tell the difference usually between our hummingbirds…if they are Allen’s, Rufous, or Ruby-Throated.
We also had coyotes in our yard last spring but we didn’t see them. Several of our neighbors did, however, but they left after a few days of sightings and none of our outdoor cats were harmed. I really hope they don’t come back!!!!!
So that was part of my year in review. Other 2012 topics would be our cats, roadtrips, murals (I’m way behind in my local mural documentation), flowers, and holidays celebrated. 2012 was also the year that I started to enjoy putting frames around some of my photos…hokey, maybe…but I find it very relaxing and entertaining, for some reason…and isn’t that part of why we do this?
So, here’s to a great year of photoblogging/blogging ahead for all of us. I enjoy reading all of your blogs and thank you for looking at mine.
