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October Night in Sabino Canyon
Lower Sabino Canyon, so safe and easy to walk but usually too busy with visitors, changes character at night. A little more wilderness, a lot more mystery. Very few people. The air seems to vibrate...
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Machaerocera mexicana (Mexican Blue-wing Grasshopper) at Patagonia Lake
Machaerocera mexicana Saussure, 1859 (Mexican Blue-wing Grasshopper) Just a short note about a very vibrant grasshopper population that I found in this otherwise strangely grasshopper poor year 2016....
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Moths of Arizona - a new Poster
Just before the Holidays I produced another photo collage of Arizona Insects, bringing the number of available posters to four. This time I chose another huge group - Moths. We have thousands of...
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I always loved Ravens
Or rather all corvids. They have been among my favorites wherever I lived. Konrad Lorenz and Bernd Heinrich did not have to plant the seed to this love, but they did nurture it in me through books and...
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Dung Beetles - important for environment and agriculture
Scarab beetles are one of our largest and most divers beetle families. Most Arizonans are quite familiar with the day active Green Fig Beetle and smaller brown beetles of several genera that tend to...
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Santa Rita Mountains, February 2017
Yesterday morning I finished my 'Coyote Prowls' and then headed south for the Santa Rita Mountains. More about the painting in my watercolor blog.After a rainy January, the weather has turned sunny and...
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Paintings of Desert Animals in their habitat: Jack Rabbit
In an effort to brighten up social Media with art postings, I will regularly post some of my watercolor paintings here and on my Facebook page. Hopefully they'll all have some appeal to the...
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Painting of desert animals in their habitat: Racoons
'At Night at Sabino Creek'. Often I just find the left-over shells of crayfish in the morning, but lots of five-fingered prints tell the story. The clear, cool water shows the gold-brown color of...
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Desert animals in their habitat: The Owls of Sabino Canyon
To me, this is also a painting of wildlife in its habitat. If you can't see it, close your eyes and listen. There: the hooting call of Great Horned Owls. I have never hiked the area at dusk without...
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Desert Animals in their habitat: Urban Doves
Mourning Doves are so adaptable. They breed on top of sun exposed cacti in the pristine desert, but I also had a pair in the tiny patio area of my very first Tucson apartment. They raised their 2...
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Desert Animals in their habitat: Backyard Hummingbirds
Costa's Hummers stay year round in our backyard and the males fiercly defend their territories, often in form of a particular feeder and pearch nearby. February is already mating time and nest-building...
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Animals in their habitat: Acorn Woodpeckers in Madera Canyon
Acorn Woodpeckers in Madera Canyon. The creek was running underground at the time, as it does during longer and longer periods each year now. When water is a limiting factor, artificial water sources...
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Animals in their Habitat: Coatimundis in Sycamore Canyon
A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to watch a single Coati foraging under the bird feeders of Madera Canyon Lodge. That reminded me of a quite dreamlike experience from my very early days in...
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Animals in their Habitat: Elegant Trogons
'Habitat' includes of course the geologic base (soil and profile), the resulting plant society, climate and geographic location. But the animal neighbors are as important. They are part of the food...
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Animals in their habitat: Gamble's Quail
Gamble's Quail Family. This species lives in the creosote and Saguaro areas of the Sonoran Desert. We have Mearn's Quail in the south eastern canyons and Scaled Quail in the grasslands further east....
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Animals in their habitat: Burrowing Owls
Animals in their habitat: 'Burrowing Owls'. These little long-legged owls are fun to watch and don't seem to mind posing for photos and sketches. They like to take over burrows of rodents or just...
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Animals in their habitat: Blister Beetles on Spring Wildflowers
Finally! The first wildflowers and the first seasonal insects are gracing the Arizona deserts. After a relatively wet winter, poppies are popping up (ugh, sorry!) under Creosotes and around saguaros....
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Animals in their habitat: Desert Sparrows
Animals in their habitat: Black-throated Sparrows are character birds of our SW desert. All during spring their metallic song can be heard around our house in the bajada of the Tucson Mountains, but...
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Animals in their Habitat: Crossidius sp. Longhorn Beetles
Animals in their habitat: for many beetles all the habitat they rely on seems to be a single plant species. They are so faithful to their hostplants that they show up on the flowers as adults, may it...
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Animals in their Habitat: Roadrunner
Roadrunners are one of the icons of the deserts Southwest. They are most often depicted running through open spaces of sun-bleached sand with maybe some cactus, or, cornier, an even more bleached cow...
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