Adapting To Hot Days

With a predicted hot day, I arrived at the trail head this morning before six.

Early in the morning the birds are active. As I walked along a trail, a cactus wren flew out of the nest in the cholla. I then peered in to see the peeping of two wide open mouths. Grabbing the camera, I was too late to catch the baby birds mouths. Rather than a nest, it is a cave of sticks and grasses.

At one point I could hear the distinctive song of a purple martin. Soon I noted a couple swooping at a saguaro. It appeared that the one time home of a gila woodpecker had become a nest box to raise a generation of purple martins.

My grandfather (in the farming village of Morrison, Wisconsin) maintained a condo style bird house specifically designed for the purple martin. Nesting material from previous years was removed. With plugs for the holes, those plugs were not removed until purple martins arrived in spring. That was to prevent the sparrows from making their nest in the condo spaces.

As I hiked, I spotted cottontails, jack rabbits and lizards. Might have been too early in the morning for rattlesnakes. That's okay.

Some varieties of cholla have been blooming for a couple of weeks. Perhaps jumping cholla are just beginning their bloom. I found a single bloom on one plant.

 
The saguaro are still in bloom. Along my walk this morning, I noted one saguaro that did not have a bud or a blossom. It certainly was an unusual find since I couldn't spot any others without buds or blossoms.

Using the cameras telephoto, I was able to catch the morning sun shining through the petals of a saguaro blossom.

I was back home before 8:30. Time for a nap.