Desert rain and more flora and fauna

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day. If you are a woman you are some kind of 'mom' whether you have given birth to a child or not. We are all role models and nurturers in one way or another. I got my kids "scond hand and house broke" (both the human and the canine ones LOL) but that was all right.  I had a nice day; kind of lazy but also some work, mostly yard work which to me is almost fun! I love to be outside and even getting a little dirty is okay!

Friday we had a wonderful rain. I think we got the hjghest total of anywhere in the state right here because I had .95 in my rain gauge! It came down hard for an hour or so, even a bit of fine hail. That kind of made up for the times the showers have skirted all around us. It was a real desert kind of  rain, too, with lots of "donner and blitzen" which puts that fine ozone sharpness in the air to add to and enhance the scents of wet creosote and mesquite and the other pungent, wild scents that come with the wind and rain. I love it!!

Now all the desert plants will brighten up, grow and thrive for a time. They are all adapted to absorb life-giving moisture whenever it comes and do their growth spurts, bloom and make seed if they can and become vital and energized for a time. Ginger and I took a nice walk today, early, from about 7:00 to 8:00 and made our way along some nature/hiking trails up the hills a bit to our east. Of course I took pictures!

In the last week or so we saw some special birds. I did not get my own pix but here are some of two of the birds we saw, a western tanager and a western scrub jay. The tanager is especially gorgeous. This is the male, of course, since the females like many birds are rather drab.

We see lots of quail and doves of course. There are several kinds of doves but only one quail instead of the two I used to feed in Arizona. The Gambel Quail is here, and that is not a misspelling as the bird is named after a naturalist of the past, not either gamboling or gambling!! I'm sure I have a shot or two of them in my collection.  If not I will scan one when I can. I *think* I have figured how to get my old scanner back on line!

And then of course there are more plants to share. An ubiquitous  SW resident is the Prickly Pear cactus. There are several varieties but they all have similar yellow flowers. Here is one that I got a shot of the other day.  Then here is another variety, the "Mule Ear"; this one is a kind of sickly looking specimen!  It may be we're at the edge of its optimum range here, a bit too chilly at times or maybe high as I think they are more of a Mexican species.   At any rate there is so much to see when we go out for our walks and we never know for sure just what we may see. I have taken to sticking my little camera into the belt pack in which I carry Ginger's training treats. That way I can slip it out and snap a shot in a jiffy, She now knows "Stop. Wait." as a command very well. :-) Tomorrow I will try to present some more birds and plants!