Tag: desert

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

The Tortoise & The Bear

The Tortoise & The Bear.

I finally saw my first desert tortoise! I love seeing how Bear reacts to new species but he wasn’t remotely interested in the blinking boulder, soaking up the warmth before the sun dipped behind the McDowells. They join bobcats and (initially) rattlesnakes on Bear’s list of “yeah, whatever”. Apart from The Elephant, it’s the only animal I’ve met in the desert who might be older than me.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-70 f/4
🗓️: April 6, 2025

Missing Entries

A black-and-white shot of a distant Weaver’s Needle as shadows fall across the foothills. Taken in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 19, 2023. Original: _RAC4307.ARW

A telephoto snapshot of Weaver’s Needle when I was teaching Bear to hike and having fun documenting how different it was compared to walking Ellie in Portland. I looked in my hiking journal to see if I had any notes about the day but there was a big gap, with the next entry coming a month later noting “I’ve been hiking a ton since December, but they have been dog walks with Bear in the preserve and I haven’t been documenting them. Which is a shame, and I regret it.”

From then on I wrote up our walks in the desert just like any hike, which is fortunate as almost all of them since have been with him.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm + 1.4X
🗓️: February 19, 2023

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