The riparian woodland Ms. Mesquitey and I were hiking in is at around 6,000 ft. in elevation. I think that may be the upper limits of the elf owls elevation range. Elf owls (Micrathene whitneyi) winter in southern Mexico then migrate in the spring to southern Arizona, southwest New Mexico and west Texas to an amazing bunch of biotic communities where they breed and summer over. Lucky us!
The photo is taken from Wikipedia. I thank the unknown photographer who took it in Madera Canyon of the Santa Rita Mountains and shared it. It is a beautiful photo of the elf owl perched by a hole in a sycamore tree. Thank you very much, unknown photographer.
It’s spring in the borderlands and something florally is going on and it’s going on everywhere. What a hoot! And…
Petey and Ms. Mesquitey hike into the land of the Apache pine.
While weeding and cleaning his greenhouse Petey finds a nifty native Salvia sp. and tells us all about it.