Monday, July 14, 2008

Musing on my backyard

As you know, I love my backyard space and the wildlife that lives there. Today I am going to share some pictures with you that I have taken over the past few days.

Monsoon rains come to the Sonoran Desert. Beginning last Thursday night, we have had a LOT of rain here. Since Sky Harbor Airport is the "official" site for Phoenix rainfall, their measurement for rain is at 3". Now that may not seem like a lot, but it is! Normally, the airport gets 3" for the entire monsoon season. This year's season has just begun! Here in Chandler, we have had at least 3 inches so far. Sunday afternoon there was a flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by the loudest crack of thunder I have heard in years! It must have stuck nearby. About 3 minutes later the sky opened up and poured rain for about 45 minutes! The sky was black!!This morning I saw this mama quail and three of her babies. They were out getting a morning snack among the lantana bushes. One of the little ones was hopping through the lantana and cannot be seen here. But the other two are visible and so cute! They are such fun to watch. If something frightens the little ones, they run for cover under mama's wings and she crouches down and spreads her wings slightly to cover them up. Precious!

This is a new batch of baby quail. The batch I photographed several weeks ago has dwindled down from 7 to just a few but they are much larger than these cuties.

4 comments:

Judy said...

Oh, I love your backyard. It looks like it would be a great place to just kick back and relax.

Judy said...

It is a nice place to sit and relax. Only not at this time of year! It is pretty hot out there! But there certainly is plenty to watch with all the birds and rabbits!

Arcadia Living said...

Those quail are soooo cute!

Anonymous said...

I just found you this morning through Becky at Heart in Hand. So glad I did. I will be back soon!

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KAREN EILEEN