It's been a long time since my last post. Now I'm back in the Arizona desert, a place I love and a place where the birds and plants and other living creatures (including, of course, we humans) are increasingly stressed by drought. Only half of the expected monsoon rain fell this summer, and in addition our part of the Southwest is in the middle of a mega-drought ten years in duration. October is typically a dry month, but we all hope we get some real winter rains this year. In the meantime, I'm doing everything I can to make the backyard a small oasis for birds and other small creatures.
Here are a few of the visitors to our backyard during the past month:
This desert hackberry butterfly sat nicely for its portrait:
Here's one of our hummingbirds competing with the bees on an old, leaky feeder:
Here's a hummer using the new bee-proof feeder:
