George Doc Cavalliere Park – Page 3

A Little and a Lot

Only a little sliver of red atop this Gila woodpecker’s head is visible but the whole scene is bathed in intense red light as the sun begins to dip below the mountains behind me. Even as I took it I wasn’t sure how it would turn out as I think in isolation the red is a bit too overwhelming, at least until the light softened shortly thereafter (but after the woodpecker left) when the sun was more obscured by the hills. I had been shooting with my other camera but the patient fellow hung around until I went back and got the telephoto one.

After he left I lowered the camera and set the tripod aside as I went back to my camera bag for a drink and to get my other camera. With the woodpecker image still displaying on the back of the telephoto camera I realized I could use my shadow to mimic the saguaros to my right and take a bit of a self-portrait as a reminder of the little trail in the little park a little ways from my home.

Art in the Park

Dotting the short hiking trail at Cavalliere Park, a multi-use park near our house, are seed pod sculptures by Jeff Zischke. I love how naturally they are placed in the landscape, they remind me of animal sculptures we saw years ago at an Audubon Center in Maine. This is one of the larger ones, sitting just uphill from the basketball courts, near a saguaro as obliging as it is beautiful as it leans over to more easily fit into the picture.

You Don’t Have to be Straight to be Beautiful

Two dimensions don’t do justice to how much this battered old beauty leans over, its trunk and surviving arms littered with woodpecker holes. How many families has it sheltered on this little sliver of land, protected from the development that surrounds? I meant to photograph it months ago but got pulled up and down the trail first by a phoebe and then a woodpecker, so I was thankful it still stood in all its perfect glory on a visit at sunset a couple of weeks ago.

Welcome to the Jungle

If it feels like an eternity since I last went hiking it isn’t too far from the truth, but at least since I’ve been able to work at home a few days this week I was able one evening to go to a nearby park for a quick one mile hike with my wife. Nobody on the trail but us, perhaps not surprising given it was a weekday and near sunset the heat hovered around 100 degrees. I’ve always liked when I get a glimpse of my car through the trees on the way back from a hike, this time I even remembered to take a picture.

Foreshadowing

You know it’s going to be a long day at the dentist’s when you arrive and see this laid out before you.

Phoebe on a Stick

The bony fingers of a saguaro skeleton provide the perfect perch to watch the sun set.

New Growth

It is not necessarily a death sentence when an old giant loses an arm, they seal off the wound as best they can to prevent water loss and go on to live their best lives. While a new arm will not grow where the old one once stood, sometimes the saguaro will slowly push out a phoebe in its stead.

One Last Look

A female Gila woodpecker poses on what I suspect is a favorite perch in front of a saguaro and a barrel cactus as the sun is about to dip below the mountains behind me.

Square

You can find mourning doves across the United States but you’ll have to visit the Sonoran Desert to see the square ones.

Stay Off Target

I was heading up to photograph a particular saguaro when I got pulled off target by a phoebe. As I made my way over to the saguaro in the last light of day I heard a siren’s call up the trail and got pulled off target again, thankfully instead of luring me to my demise she posed for a picture. Based on her call and her hammering I could guess well enough where she was but had to hope she’d sidle around into view before the light faded. Finally she not only popped into view but stood far enough out of the shadows for the fading light to catch her face.