Tag: cactus

This is New

An array of flower buds springs from the top of our backyard saguaro in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 11, 2025. Original: _Z724047.NEF

Our backyard saguaro while likely a bit older than me is still pretty young and has never flowered. Every spring I check for signs, we live in hope, and this year my faith was rewarded. Not a full mop top like our saguaro out front but I saw woodpeckers feeding on it when the flowers opened and there is fruit ripening there now.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-70 f/4
🗓️: May 11, 2025

Looking for the Easter Bunny

A Harris' hawk perches on a saguaro on a cloudy spring afternoon on the Latigo Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on April 13, 2025. Original: _A678444.ARW

A week ago the temperature late in the day was predicted to be right on the border of where I won’t take Bear hiking, so I took him for a long neighborhood walk in the morning and went out by myself in the afternoon. I do enjoy being able to go slowly and soak in all the details of the desert but it makes me sad to hike without my buddy, so this was only the second time this year I went alone.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm+1.4X
🗓️: April 13, 2025

Sonoran Sprouts

A close-up of a saguaro flower bud resembles Brussels sprouts in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 23, 2023. Originals: _ZFC6740.NEF to _ZFC6814.NEF

I was thinking of Brussels sprouts when I took the picture but when this green grows it is the start of one of the desert’s greatest sights that doesn’t involve a lizard. This tip of a saguaro flower bud will bloom into a large white flower, kicking off a feeding frenzy of birds, bats, and insects. Another feeding frenzy follows when the red fruit ripens.

📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 105mm Macro
🗓️: May 27, 2023

The Embrace of Old Friends

A close-up view of the root of an old saguaro wrapping around the waxy base of an old ocotillo in the Sonoran Desert, taken on the Chuckwagon Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 8, 2023. Originals: _Z729938.NEF to _Z729969.NEF

As long as she stands the Elephant will be my desert favorite but this is my favorite close-up. The woody bit in the lower left is the exposed root of a saguaro, the rest the glory that is the ocotillo. I like to think these two old friends grew up embracing, shading each other from the unrelenting sun but one never overshadowing the other.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: October 8, 2023