Finally got a photo of the Black Capped Night Heron that roosts in a carob tree nearby. We’d seen him flying out in the evening and back in the morning but here he was parked on the fence. Didn’t seem at all bothered by us on the patio either. The pics are noising because it was getting dark, and I missed a shot of him extending hie white crest (like a skinny cockatoo crest). These aren’t small birds, stocky with bodies the size of footballs!

A different kind of backyard bird. We live on a small urban lake in Glendale Arizona. I call it “Lake Effluent” because it’s part of the golf course water system.
Every night at dusk small bats begin to swoop up skybugs just over our heads. The bats are smallish, maybe 5 inches in body length or less, flying lazy arcing zig zags low in the sky. Sometimes they skim the water.
Last night I was out trying to snap flash pics of them to post here. Nothing good to show yet but I’ll keep trying.
So we’ve wondered where the little scamps roost during the daylight hours. No caves nearby that we’re aware of. Do they live in attics like back home in Detroit? Not too many attics around our neighborhood. Turns out that many bats live in palm trees, and are disrupted or even killed during trimming.
They also live in other trees, we’ve got quite large neighboring mexican fan palms, Sissoo, and Ficus. I suspect the Ficus and the Sissoos as the homes of these bats because the palms are trimmed regularly (and they seem to almost fly out of the semi deciduous trees).
Southern Yellow Bats? Not sure but I’m thinking most likely.
Whatever, these little bundles of flying fur are amazing.

It’s July.
It’s summer.
It’s Phoenix.

The cicadas are out, signaling that the monsoon rains aren’t more than 30 days off.

Thunderbird park isn’t the botanical garden it was a few short months ago.
Spring:

Summer:

Spring:

Summer:

Notice the black ground? A largish chunk of park burned a few days ago, likely courtesy of a butt tosser. It’s mostly a flash through the fine grasses and dried wildflowers/shrubs. Wonder what the ground squirrels thought of the situation… I did see a few cotton tails, some big rock squirrels, and a ton of lizards today.
Anyhoo, winds were calm when the fire happened, as evidenced by the curious pattern of areas that weren’t touched.

This sign suddenly becomes seriously accurate:

And now the trash is easier to find and pick up…

We may see more fires when the monsoon lightning hits. I’ll be in Minneapolis for the next month or so but hope to catch some good weather photos when I’m home on the weekends. Guess I should take the camera on my travels too eh

“going to the river gonna get me a frog yeah”
What the heck kind of frog is this? I’ve scoured the internet to ID this fellow, can’t do it.
It’s a big frog, at least 8 inches from nose to butt. Haven’t heard its voice yet. It’s in the pond out back seen in my other photos (north Phoenix AZ).
If you can ID it please post a comment, I’m curious whether this is a local or a release pet or an alien from another planet.

The unusually spactacular wildflower season is showing signs of winding down. The first couple of weeks without rain combined with temps in the 80’s over the past weekend and high wind yesterday have begun to dry out the grasses on the hill top. Everything is well into seed. Owls Clover is one of the last species to make a big appearance in the neighborhood. Next up will be the Cholla and Barrel cacti, followed by Saguaro blooms in June.

Egret

and Kingfisher