Birds, Trees, Flowers sans Bees

Early morning on the foothills trail

Becca and I got an early start this morning hiking alongside Tortugas Mountain and then west into the outback.  It was 40F when we first set off, but the temperature warmed rapidly.  We're headed for a high of 79F today.  Although we encountered a mountain biker about a quarter-mile in we saw nobody else in the area where we were exploring.  We saw quite a few birds and new flowers, and the Mesquite Trees are all greening nicely.  It seems too soon for Strawberry Pitaya Cacti to be blooming, but I saw several with a few flowers already.

Scaled Quail

Yellow Evening Primrose

On the Crosscut Trail

Black-tailed Jackrabbit eating Prickly Pear Cactus pad

You need a really hard hard palate to eat one of these

We're headed down to that arroyo

Becca treats the arroyo like a giant sand bed

Gnarled bark of a dead yucca

Scorpionweed

This and the four following:  Black-chinned Hummingbird

Getting ahead of the pack for a quick lie-down

Mesquite Tree and Creosote Bushes

Ocotillo buds

Small Ocotillo putting up a few buds

Strawberry Pitaya Cactus flower

Prickly Pear Cactus in bloom