Petey gets a Pleistocene moment in some man made wetlands near his home.
Sandhill Cranes have only been wintering over in the Sulphur Springs Valley for around 60 years, so we won’t be finding any million year old fossil remains as found in Nebraska near the Platte.
Ironically, the cranes winter over in the valley because of the intense agriculture giving them fields to glean during the day. Also, it helps to have the White Water Draw wetlands and the Willcox Playa giving them shallow water for loafing and roosting. Otherwise, they would certainly fly on by to another more exotic location.
The flat agricultural lands of the Sulphur Springs Valley hardly qualify as exotic, but those Sandhill cranes make them look quite beautiful.
Petey takes a drive into the hills near his home to see spectacular fall color of the local sumacs.
The common name of Calylophus hartwegii is Sundrops. That’s considerably easier to say and I suspect that the common name covers a few species...
It took a visiting niece to get Petey back out into the Sonoran desert and remind him that the desert is beautiful.
