Mar 11
A successful photography Meetup for our digital club yesterday! We started at the General Store and then moved to Greasewood Flat all the while encountering endless photo ops. The last stop was supposed to be Pinnacle Peak Patio but most had either run out of pixels or got lost. I went but stayed just long enough to get this photo.
Mar 10
I’m guessing the clouds this morning are an indication how windy it is way up high.
Mar 9
Besides finding the Queen of the Night, we also saw our first Poppy on Monday! It was really tiny but I spotted a few more so let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for a big show!
Mar 8
Arizona Queen of the Night is very common in our area but extremely difficult to spot. It looks like a stick or dead branch, doesn’t it? Click the link at the beginning of this post to see the amazing flowers this unassuming cactus produces! I’ve been wanting to find one on the future Marcus Landslide trail so Chris and I went out on there yesterday morning with a goal of locating one. Two and a half hours of searching and success! (NOTE: finding one in the open is not typical. They prefer the support of a shrub like a Creosote but a 1995 fire destroyed almost everything). Anyway….I was excited but also disappointed because it wasn’t easily accessible (at least until the trail is done). It’s OK, though, because where there’s one, there are more so the search goes on. I welcome the challenge 🙂
Mar 7
Cactus Wrens and other birds have been nest building for the last few weeks and I’ve been hearing lots of peeps/chirps recently. It reminded me of a photo I took last year up in the North Access area of the Preserve. I set my compact camera to shoot an exposure bracket sequence of three shots; turned off my flash (didn’t want to freak the babies out!) and positioned the camera slightly inside the nest opening. I then used Photomatix to blend the exposures. Not perfect or in sharp focus but very cool! (By the way…..I had second thoughts afterward about disturbing them so I haven’t done it again).
Mar 6
Another sunflower view. This time converted to black and white and texture added.
Mar 5
Great hike on the Go John trail in the Cave Creek Regional Park yesterday morning. Our goal was to view wildflowers but the last two cold snaps have held them back so we only saw the promise of things to come. It was a great 5mi plus hike anyway! I hadn’t been out there in several years and was pleasantly surprised by all the trail improvements. We were all talking about how trail building was done when we rounded a corner and saw this narrow bulldozer. Pretty cool!
Mar 4
I spotted this Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) last week as I walked out my front door. When I see a butterfly with tattered wings like this, I know their days are probably numbered and I’m hoping they’ve laid eggs somewhere in my yard! Just wishful thinking, though, since this species prefers more riparian area trees. He was probably just resting.
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