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.
Sycamores are the genus Platanus, which was the old Greek name for the tree that is the species Platanus orientalis. There are five or...
Petey talks about seeds and the native annual Nama hispidum that had a spectacular spring show. Let’s listen.
It’s been a long time since the Santa Cruz River ran and even when it did it only ran in intermittent sections along its...
