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| Prickly Pear flower almost opened |
Becca and I got an early start on a much longer hike this morning. It hadn't been my intention to do a longer trek, but the desert was so beautiful after all the rain we've received over the past few days I couldn't resist extending our outing. Becca didn't seem to mind; she did quite well.
Not only were the Prickly Pear Cacti flowers beginning to make an appearance, but other blossoms were still popping. Best of all we saw three or four hummingbirds taking advantage of the pollen dispensaries. I got some photos of one hummer, but I wished I could have done better. I think there will be more opportunities in the near future.
About a half hour after lunch I happened to look out through a window to see a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a power line to our house. I took my camera outside to capture its image, and I noticed he was eyeing up some of the White-Winged Doves on our property. I didn't want to witness any slaughter of our doves, so I kept approaching the raptor closer and closer. Usually a hawk will allow you to get only so close before it takes to wing, but this one let me get right under it while I continued to shoot photos, at one point lifting up as if to fly, but really taking a dump not far from me. Finally, after I spoke to it a few times, it had had enough of the pesky human and flew to another nearby telephone pole.
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| Three buds |
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| Opening for business soon |
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| Mourning Dove |
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| Parry's Agave growing out of Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus |
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| Pincushion Cactus growing at the base of an Ocotillo |
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| Prickly Pear and flower |
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| Valley west of Tortugas |
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| Ocotillo flowers and moon |
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| Soaptree Yucca putting up flower stalks |
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| Closer look at those flower stalks |
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| Northern Mockingbird |
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| New Mexico Evening Primrose |
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| More Soaptree Yucca flower stalks |
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| This and the next 5: Black-chinned Hummingbird |
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| Claret Cup |
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| Desert Marigold |
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| Becca leading the way |
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| Claret Cups |
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| This and the next: yucca producing fruit |
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| Black-throated Sparrow |
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| Soaptree Yucca flower stalks |
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| Red-tailed Hawk on our power line |
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Red-tailed Hawk
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1 comment:
You've outdone yourself with this posting, Packrat. Great photos of the different birds, especially the ones of the hummingbird and the red-tailed hawk.
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