Cactus wrens were one of the first Sonoran Desert birds I learned when I arrived in Tucson to go to the University of Arizona. They are such rascals! Oh, and I grew ironwood trees when I was working in nurseries in Tucson. My goodness that spiny desert native did not like to be tamed in a nursery bucket. Anytime you trimmed a branch, five new spiny shoots would grow out by the cut. Ha! I loved it!
The photo of the cactus wren is from the Tucson Audubon Society web page and the photos of the ironwood tree and blossoms are mine. I love the Sonoran Desert.
Petey feels the need to blame someone for our erratic monsoon and takes it out on La Nina.
Twenty-five or thirty years ago I learned the scientific name of this butterfly as Adelpha bredowii. Then the sister butterfly of the Arizona woodlands...
There is a large batch of horehound (Marrubium vulgare) under a mesquite in our yard. Well, along a fence line that defines “our yard”....