Christmas in Arizona…
Merry Christmas from sunny Arizona. My Christmas wish for you is that you don’t
have too much snow to shovel!
(I just checked the blog and it looks like my pictures shuffled around somehow...bear with me and just enjoy...they might not be in all the right places!)
(I just checked the blog and it looks like my pictures shuffled around somehow...bear with me and just enjoy...they might not be in all the right places!)
Friends from
Castlegar, Helene and Jim, arrived in Green Valley, which is about 20 km north
of us, just a few days ago. We were able
to get together with them yesterday and spent a wonderful day at the Sonora
Desert Museum. The Desert Museum is not
the kind of museum you might expect however, but is an acreage in the middle of
the desert with a variety of animals, displays, gardens, and events to
see. Just as we arrived, something
called “A Free Flight” was just beginning so we hurried down to see it. It was all about raptors. It started with an owl that had been trained
to fly from perch to perch while its caretaker told us all about how they exist
in the desert wilderness. Next came the
peregrine falcon. Peregrines have been
clocked at over 250 miles per hour in a downward swoop and are the fastest
animals on the planet. They were pretty
amazing. After that four hawks of some
kind came on display. They were pretty
amazing. The birds found some kind of
little animal near where we were watching and all four of them swooped down on
top of it in a group hunting display…it was amazing to watch them. Lastly the grey hawk was set in flight and
flew from perch to perch again quite proudly displaying himself to us. We really enjoyed the whole event.
After watching the raptor
show, we walked around to the Javalina (said Havaleena). I’ve been waiting to see one of these wild
piggies since we got down to Arizona.
They do come into the RV park from time to time but only at night so all
I’ve seen are tracks. They are on
average about 55 pounds so are not terribly large. The normally travel in family groups and are
quite thick skinned with dense, wirey hair.
Interesting animals.
The coyotes were
next…there were a pair of them…one lazily sleeping under a bush and the other
was pacing back and forth. They were
sure nice looking animals with thick healthy coats. Legend calls them “God’s dogs”…kind of a nice
idea.
What desert would be
complete without the big fellow pictured here…rattlers are all over the place
down here in the summer. Actually, one
of the folks who was moving their RV out of the park and went to disconnect
their water found a baby rattler in the water well. Luckily they saw it before anyone stuck their
hand down inside the well and got bit.
There was a display
of animals found near water…the main feature was a whole bunch of frogs in a
little pond.
Tom got a really
good shot of this desert big horned sheep looking right up at him. The sheep look a lot like the big horns we
see up at Spray Lake but are a little bit browner in colour.
This goofy duck was
in one of the bird aviaries we went through…a beautiful green parrot let me
take a picture of him. Cardinals and
other native birds were flying around too but it was hard to get a picture of
them as they didn’t sit still too long or were deep in the bushy trees. 
The
hummingbird aviary was one of the highlights of the whole trip. They were buzzing all around us and we were
lucky to catch some of them sitting on branches waiting for their picture to be
taken. This fellow had a lovely bright
crimson head and green back. I fell in love with him! 
As well as these little beauties, we saw plenty of cactus
and plants that were actually flowering.
This owl was perched
on one of the caretaker’s arms. Owls
amaze me with their large heads and relatively small bodies. This one, with his long legs and wings
reminds me of a cartoon character wearing a long overcoat.
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tour through the
Desert Museum. It really was a great
experience!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
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