My apologies, I had to upgrade the site theme to a more modern one since the old one isn’t supported anymore. I don’t like the look of the new theme but it might take me a while to figure out how to fix it or find a better theme. I’ll delete this post once I’ve got things more to my liking.
Blog
Hallelujah Jordan
The 118th Street Trail is a service road out to the electrical towers that also links two of my favorite trails into a loop. It has charms all its own, Bear & I have seen four of his favorite creatures on this short stretch: mule deer, coyotes, cottontails, and even a Gila monster. Kestrels are here too though the pup doesn’t care about those.
We also get Hallelujah Jordan, arms raised in permanent praise to the glory that is the Sonoran Desert. I’ve thought about renaming him as one of his arms has fallen off and he reminds me more of the Statue of Liberty these days. I decided against it as though he has changed, his joy is everlasting. Both pictures taken on dog walks.
1st Photo:
📷: Sony A6700 | Sony-Zeiss 24mm f/1.8
🗓️: December 30, 2023
2nd Photo:
📷: Sony A6700 | Sony-Zeiss 24mm f/1.8
🗓️: December 14, 2025
This Happy Little Fellow
Another charm of the auto tour was what I called “Hawks on a Stick”, the juvenile redtails who’d perch on the signs around the big meadow and let you watch them up close. I’d wait until there was no traffic coming, put the teleconverter & extensions tubes on my biggest telephoto, then drive up and mostly watch their backs as they looked into the meadow for voles.
If they turned their heads, with such a good look at the beak I was reminded of the Simpsons episode where Lisa visits the dentist and he holds up a gruesome device and says “this happy little fellow is the gouger”.
Eye of the Bittern
I was re-editing some photos to go along with a saguaro post and realized this bittern image wasn’t even online. The auto tour at Ridgefield was a magical place, you could shut your car off and sit in the rain and the cold and the wildlife would come right up to you.
📷: Canon 7D | Canon 500mm f/4 + 1.4X
🗓️: January 4, 2013
The Land of Small Dragons
I love living in a land of small dragons but you do have to get used to being constantly judged as you hike. Silently judged, but judged.
Elegant Bush Katydid
A few years back I was delighted to find a katydid sampling the wares in our yard. It brought back fond memories of the katydids in Oregon, once I found they loved eating our rose petals it not only changed how I pruned the roses but changed my opinion of roses altogether. This one is an elegant bush katydid, the dramatic white-striping is quite different than the green of the fork-tailed bush katydids in Oregon.
📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: November 5, 2022
500
If my notes are correct I recently made my 500th visit to our local preserve. To celebrate I took Bear up to the spot that became so meaningful during my leave of absence a couple of years ago. Almost all the visits the past few years have been with Bear, I love his enthusiasm for our hikes and let him set a fast pace, even though I prefer to go slowly and revel in the details. Sometime next year I’ll have time to both take him and go out on my own, but for now my priority is enjoying our time together.
📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-70 f/4
🗓️: November 26, 2025
Life & Death, Intertwined
Bear and I came across this snake wrapped around a lizard, one life ending so another can continue. The lizard is a common side-blotched lizard, one of many we saw that day and one of my favorite desert residents. We didn’t have a good vantage point to identify the snake but my best guess is a western patch-nosed snake, though a young one as it was much smaller than the others I’ve seen.
📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm+1.4X
🗓️: November 9, 2025
A Bear & A Frog
I’m pretty sure this is how one of Aesop’s fables starts. So far the frog has tolerated Bear’s prodigious love and still has all of its limbs and no head wounds, a rare sight in this house.
📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-70 f/4
🗓️: November 24, 2025
Thanksgiving
What a blessing the little ones have been throughout my life.
📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 16-50mm DX
🗓️: November 23, 2025
So Many Questions
As Bear and I approached the end of our hike, perched high on boulders beside the trail were several volunteers greeting visitors to the park. They patiently answered questions they must get asked over and over and over, like “What trails are good for beginners?”, “Are there really rattlesnakes here?”, and “Why didn’t the eagles fly Sam & Frodo to Mordor?”
📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm+1.4X
🗓️: November 9, 2025
Boolie 