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Posts tagged ‘McDowell Sonoran Preserve’

New Greeting Cards

5x7_landscape_collage-snow-thumbWith the approaching holidays in mind, I have been busy adding lots of new images of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve for making into prints. I’ve also added two new greeting cards. Profits from sales go to the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy (my way of contributing to them). I thank you for your help in raising money! Check out my new stuff at http://mariannejensen.com Read more

Two Mountain Loop

Yesterday morning, I hiked around Cone Mountain and Browns Mountain….an 8 mile loop. It was a spectacular day! I’m posting mostly to Google Plus these days so please visit to see more of my images. CLICK HERE to go to my albums and then click “view all of Marianne’s albums”. I plan to get back in the habit of posting here soon. I have lots of MSC field institute images to share.

Early Wildflowers

I went on an amazing 8 mile hike in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve this morning (Sunday) and saw lots of Wildflowers including several fields of Poppies! This collage shows most of what we saw but not all. Unfortunately for the flowers, there doesn’t seem to be any rain in sight so this might be all the wildflowers we get 🙁

Hummingbird Saved by Textures

Two friends and I hiked to a spring high up in the McDowell Mountains this past week and as we approached, we were delighted to observe a hummingbird gathering fluff from cattails for her nest. I instantly raised my camera but in my excitement, forgot to double check the settings. The image was greatly underexposed. I waited for about 30 minutes but she never came back. I almost deleted this image but then remembered that texture blending can do wonders with underexposed images and they did! At least it is good enough for a small print and a wonderful memory 🙂

Poppies on Toms Thumb Trail!

Lesley F, Kellie E. and I hiked up the Tom’s Thumb Trail yesterday and found Poppies!!! We had been noticing hundreds of Poppy and Lupine sprouts on the way up but didn’t notice this open flower and one other until the return trip to the Gateway. Very exciting! Barring a hard frost, this might be a fantastic year for Wildflowers. I’m so excited 🙂

Anna’s Hummingbird

I assisted on a Bird Walk for the MSC yesterday and when I assist, I typically only carry a compact camera since an SLR with a long lens would be too distracting. Only two people showed up, though, so had I known, I would have brought my “big” camera. But we had a great time and I ended up with an in focus shot of an Anna’s Hummingbird so I was happy 🙂

Anna’s Hummingbird Textured

Small Mammal Survey

As part of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy‘s Field Institute, we set 40 small mammal traps and 5 medium traps last night and then went back to see what we got this morning. Not even one rodent but we were very excited to find a Gray Fox! They are quite common in the Preserve. Only visual documentation was made and then we let him go. All in all, a very exciting morning!

Citizen Scientist

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been part of the Flora and Reptile Surveys going on in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Well…now the Bird survey and the Small Mammal Survey have started and soon a Large Mammal (involves setting up cameras) and Insect Survey will start. I want to help with them all!!! which is why I’ve been a little lapse in posting here. Today I’m posting a photo from our first Small Mammal Survey which resulted in catching a few species of mice. The one posted here is a Desert Pocket Mouse. They were so darned cute 🙂
CLICK HERE for more photos.