After walking by the “eye of the tree” in my last post and climbing to Lykes Lookout at the Hassayampa River Preserve, we were able to see a more “typical” desert landscape than the gnarled trees below us.
Mountains, blue skies, and saguaros in every direction.
BNSF Railway tracks wind through this area. And this concludes my winter series of the Hassayampa. Maybe we will head back later in the spring or early fall when the gnarled trees aren’t all bare and more wildlife is around. I have a feeling that summer would be very hot and humid there.
To pick up from my last post, this is more of Hassayampa River Preserve (owned by The Nature Conservancy)…full of gnarled cottonwoods, mesquites, and willows…
The marshy Palm Lake is where we hoped to see some herons or ibises…but only saw some mallards and coots.
I don’t know what this is but, if it’s a web, I didn’t want to see what made it.
Like many desert waterways, the Hassayampa River~which runs 100 miles from Prescott to the Gila River southwest of Buckeye~flows underground. This is one place where the river flows year-round.
Past the river, we began our ascent to the lookout…which will be the next post.
Filed under: Arizona | Tags: Arizona, Butterflies, Flora, Hassayampa, Parks, Travels
Isn’t he beautiful? He’s a Vermilion Flycatcher that we saw at the Hassayampa River Preserve near Wickenburg, AZ.
More than 280 types of birds have been documented at this preserve but we barely saw any during our 3 hour walk. We heard them (including a woodpecker) but until we were getting ready to leave, they kept themselves scarce.
I think this one, below, is a female vermilion flycatcher as they seemed to be hanging out together.
Also spotted is what I think was a Mourning Cloak butterfly which is the state butterfly of Montana so maybe Terry can confirm my guess.
There were quite a few of these flitting around but I couldn’t get very close.
And Tony correctly identified this as a praying mantis egg case which I was able to verify on the internet:
This is an American Coot, I believe.
It’s a drab, stark place in the winter so this may not have been the best time to go. Even though we didn’t see much wildlife, I still took quite a few photos so I’ll be blogging more about the preserve in days to come. Here’s a hint:
Filed under: Art, Phoenix | Tags: Art, Holidays, Phoenix, Religion, Travels
Time to start getting ready for one of my favorite holidays…
Less than a month away so it’s officially the season…
Día de los Muertos…November 1 and 2…Day(s) of the Dead…
I just thought I would start to set the mood…
And, hopefully, I’ll have some fun photos to commemorate the occasion…
To toast Los Muertos in style…
Stay tuned…
I just got back from a few days in northern Indiana, where my mother lives. These photos were all taken in her neighborhood…a totally different sort of scenery than I see here in Arizona. There are a lot of trees in her ‘hood, lush landscapes, and ducks enjoying the little pond.
That’s not her house but this one has a lovely setting.
I had no wifi there so I’m behind on reading other blogs. The weather was lovely but I’m glad to be back to urbanity.
I like the darkness of the woods. And I saw fireflies again for the first time in many years…rabbits and squirrels, too, which we just don’t see in central Phoenix.
Here’s some more of the wooded shots I took in a slideshow.
Mornings at Blackwater
For years, every morning, I drank
from Blackwater Pond.
It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt,
the feet of ducks.
And always it assuaged me
from the dry bowl of the very far past.
What I want to say is
that the past is the past,
and the present is what your life is,
and you are capable
of choosing what that will be,
darling citizen.
So come to the pond,
or the river of your imagination,
or the harbor of your longing,
and put your lips to the world.
And live
your life.
~Mary Oliver
