Cloe hadn’t moved in almost 30 minutes so I knew she must be staring at something.
My trusty Canon SX10 zooms in to see a huge collared lizard.
When it comes to starting contests, my cats win every time 🙂
All posts by Marianne Skov Jensen
golden saguaro
Golden Saguaro is only a nickname as is Argentine Saguaro. It’s actually an Echinopsis. The species is Trichocereus Terscheckii. This cactus can grow to be 30 feet tall and it develops arms like a Saguaro but it grows much quicker so people like to plant them.
I didn’t plant this guy, though. It’s located at the end of our driveway and literally on the property line of our neighbor. Because it’s behind the Creosote, I don’t think they remember it’s there and it was looking very dehydrated. I didn’t do anything for the first year but then started actively watering it. As you can see, it responded with over a foot of growth (it’s now just over 4 feet).
It bloomed for the first time this morning which I’m sure is a way to thank me 🙂
7AM Addition: As soon as the sun came up, the bees came in so I had to include at least one.
ocotillo borer update
Today’s photo is not mine but the bug kind of belongs to me 🙂
Do you remember the Ocotillo Borer from an April post? Well, I told my Landscaping School teacher, Rebecca Senior, about it and she asked if I’d give her a section of the Ocotillo stalk. She cut the stalk into smaller sections, moistened them and put them in a huge plastic jar and about a month later, this beauty crawled out one of the holes. She took lots of photos and I submitted some to BugGuide for ID. It is a Chrysobothris but no one has specifics yet. Click on the photo to go to the site and see more photos.
sonoran snack food
If you live in this area, have you noticed how loaded down the Palo Verde trees are with fresh new seed pods? We have many varieties of Palo Verde here but the most predominant in the Preserve, and the one I’m referring to this morning, is the Foothill Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla). On Saturday’s MSC hike, fellow steward Len M. reminded me how delicious the beans of Foothill Palo Verde are. (Yes…I said “beans”. They are a legume) When they’re fresh, the taste is reminiscent of peas so I grabbed a few as we were hiking and when I got home, I went out and harvested another handful. Yum!
NOTE: I also tasted the beans of the Blue Palo Verde (Parkinsonia florida) but they weren’t as tasty so I thought I would show you a couple of the differences between the two trees to help you identify the Foothill.
1. First, and most noticeable, are the seedpods. Note that the Foothill’s pods are pinched tightly around each seed while the Blue Palo Verde’s pods are wider and flatter.
2. Second are the leaves. The Foothill Palo Verde has extremely small round leaves (like dots) that are lined up along a stem. The Blue’s leaves, on the other hand, are larger and in clusters. You’re more likely to see leaves on the Blue Palo Verde because it’s typically in home and business landscaping where it gets watered regularly.
It’s so amazing to me how fat and juicy these seeds (beans) are considering the trees in the Preserve get very little water!
(another FYI: The pods were shot in full sun and the leaves in shade which is why the color is different. The actual color is more like the pods but not quite as yellow.)
ocotillo sunrise
We were treated with an even more spectacular sunrise the morning after the other one this week. The colors you see are exactly as they were! This time I walked up close to an Ocotillo and filled the frame with the stalks. I loved the image but thought it might be a good candidate for mirroring so here’s the result. If you’re interested in knowing how to do this in Photoshop or in Photoshop Elements, click on the photo for my tutorial.
two for one
My plan was to take a photo of the fuzzy Creosote seed pods but I ended up with a bonus of a Hummingbird!
He/she flew around me a couple of times before deciding to sit right in front of me. What a treat!
This image is another testimony to the value of compact cameras. With my SLR, I might not have had the right lens with me but my little camera is always prepared for every surprise 🙂
gambel’s quail family
I haven’t noticed many Quail families this year and it finally dawned on me that it was because I’ve been out in the yard working and making lots of noise. The realization came when I went in for a break and passed by the dining room window. I first noticed a male up on top of the Yucca.
I knew he was in “lookout” mode so I scanned my camera below and off to the right and saw mom and 5 chicks.
last of the milkweed
I managed to get a few more shots of Milkweed seeds before the wind took the rest away.
Bush Lantana is providing the color you see in the background of the first one.
Does this look like a bird to you?
sunrise silhouette
Just as I remembered that I didn’t have a photo for this morning, I glanced up from my monitor and saw this. Wow. I ran for my camera, took this shot, sat down, looked up and it was gone. Cardinal rule for photographers is to take the shot when you see it because it won’t wait for you!
TIP: For a successful shot, make sure the edge of your sunrise or sunset silhouettes are sharp. A fuzzy silhouette can ruin a beautiful sunrise. Ideally, you should manually focus but if your camera doesn’t have manual focus, here’s a tip that may work for you. Position the camera’s focus point halfway on the edge of the subject and halfway on the sky. If you have face detection on, make sure one of the squares picks up the edge of your subject. Now press the shutter half way to focus (don’t let go). If it did focus on the edge of your subject, then recompose to include more of the beautiful sky and press the shutter completely down. Check the result on your screen. If the resulting image is too dark, turn your exposure compensation dial up one notch and repeat the previous steps. Of course it the image is too light, turn the compensation dial one or two notches down and repeat. Compact cameras have a tendency to make silhouettes too light, so you are more likely to turn the compensation to the minus side.
Check out YouTube for some excellent video tutorials on this subject. Here’s a link to search results.
(TIP: you’re usually safe clicking on the ones with a high star rating)
cardinal rule and critters
The cardinal rule of Landscapers is “locate all utilities and water lines before digging”. As it turns out, I broke that rule when I put in the fence posts. I was SO sure I knew exactly where all the irrigation lines were that I didn’t uncover many areas before hammering in the posts. Thankfully I only made one mistake but it cost me the whole morning because I had to go to the irrigation store and buy a connector. (I bought 3 just in case).
Besides my irrigation photos, I got some critter shots yesterday. The first is a Pygmy Blue Butterfly (fairly sure). Dozens were swarming around the water soaked ground. They would land momentarily to get a drink but they’re SO tiny (less than half inch) that it’s tough to focus on them. My little Canon SX10 did a great job, I think!
The grab shot below is of one of our many resident Harris Ground Squirrels. It was probably one of their faces peeking out at me last week when I uncovered its burrow. They are often mistaken for chipmunks because of their stripe.
