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Animals and their habitat: Bighorn Sheep in the Catalina Mountains
Animals in their habitat: Bighorn Sheep in the Catalina Mountains. When I came to Tucson in the early nineties, there were still occasional sightings of Bighorn Sheep mainly on Pushridge. Massive...
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Animals in their Habitat: Arizona Cardinals
Animals in their habitat: For some birds, their habitat requirements seem very variable. The Northern Cardinal seems to be fine where he has access to big, oily seeds, brush for nesting and some water....
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Animals in their Habitat: Foothills Kestrel
Animals and their habitat: Sometimes I take liberties when I paint: In the background of this watercolor from 1992 are the Catalina Mountains as seen from Tucson. But the Kestrel I had seen close to...
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Animals in their Habitat: Regal Horned Lizard
When photos of this lizard are posted on social media sites, the predictable comments usually are that people used to 'always' see them in the past, but not anymore. Is this true, or is this anecdotal...
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Animals and their habitat: Sphinx Moths and Sacred Datura
Watercolor and photo collage by M. Brummermann The Moon Flower or Sacred Datura opens its flowers in the late evening. During the night, the main pollinators, Manduca spp. and other big Sphinx Moths,...
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Animals in their habitat: Salt River Horses
Animals in their Habitat: Salt River Horses. This is a difficult topic. There is a community of horse lovers here who love this herd passionately and in a way defensively. Federal agencies have made...
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Animals in their Habitat: Mountain Lion
Animals in their habitat: Mountain Lions in the Tucson Mountains. With the exception of humans, the mountain lion has the largest range of any large terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. They...
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Animal Habitat: Cattleranch for Dung Beetles
Photo collage of my watercolor Longhorn Ranch and a digitally created inset of Canthon imitator rolling a dung ball.Animals in their habitat: For some few animals human activity improved the...
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Animals and their habitat: Harris Antelope Squirrel
Cacti of the lower desert are important to the Harris Antelope Squirrels. They feed on the fruit of Barrel Cacti that are available all year round, ad generally stuff their big cheeks with anything...
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As thick as thieves - a bee and a moth
The sky islands of Arizona are treasure islands for naturalists. When the desert wildflowers wilt in the per-summer heat of April and May, in these mountain ranges spring is only beginning. One of my...
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Easter walk at Saguaro National Park West
It was dry and hot and dusty. Of the wildflowers that the rainy (or here, not so rainy) winter had produced, only dry stalks and seed pods remained. Chollas and prickly pair were blooming, but I've...
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Madrean Discovery Expedition Cajón Bonito April 2017
Camping at Ranchos los OjosCamping? In Mexico??? The US customs officer in Douglas, AZ asked in a very offended tone when we got back from our expedition. He and his colleges waved us away from our...
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Unusual Warbler - it's migration!
I just saw a 'lifer' right outside my studio window in Picture Rocks, AZ.Dark head, olive green wings, eye ring flashing in the dark face: an adult male MacGilivray's Warbler It was searching for and...
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Arizona Butterflies
Poster: Butterflies of ArizonaIt's done!To my insect poster collectors and bug friends: After publishing my first 4 arthropod posters (see below), I have been asked for a butterfly poster more times...
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A declaration of love
I know I have married the right guy when he wakes me up excitedly: 'You have to get your camera and get pictures of the Mesquite Tree Cactus - it's performing today!'With nearly 30 flowers, our...
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Black Bugs with red out-lines in Tucson
left: Seed Bug Melacoryphus lateralis. right: Kissing Bug Triatoma rubidaThis year, we have lots of Kissing Bugs In the Tucson area. But not everything that reminds you of a Kissing Bug picture you've...
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Midsummer on Mount Lemmon
Admiring those tall stalks of Swertia radiata (Frasera speciosa) Green Gentian With temperatures soaring above 115 Degrees Fahrenheit in Tucson, I was extremely happy to join Debbi Bird's Wednesday...
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Rediscovering a lost species
Lycus sanguinipennis, Lygistopterus rubripennis, Lycus fulvellus femoratus, Lycus arizonensis Two weeks ago, I posted this series of Lycids (Net-winged Beetles) from Mount Lemmon on my blog. Joe...
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Santa Rita Mts after the first rains of monsoon 2017
Megathymus ursus, Ursus Giant Skipper On big rocks in a creek bed with a little water I found a strikingly big Skipper: Megathymus ursus, Ursus Giant Skipper Butterfly folks always ask if I see these....
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September in Picture Rocks
Our resident pair of ravens visits regularly, but without this years brood of 3. I hope the kids moved on and are healthy! Our dogs have no patients for the ravens' performance of bows and songs of...
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