Notes from Camp Thunderbird and Nearby

There is always 'greasewood' and some kind of cholla nearby.
Haven't seen a tortis in the wild for many years.
I see certain jack rabbits enough so that I nearly come to know them as individuals.
The cute little cotton-tails I know only by age grade. Saw one today even in this very cold weather.
Quail still visit. Haven't seen the little silver gray fox, that seemed to consider the place home, for some time.
Most reptiles a rodents are still in hibernation. Though a warm sun brings out a few little lizards.
Seems very long since I've heard a coyote sing. Did see fresh droppings on the place that indicates that I have had a full grown visitor.
The winds stir a wild dance from the larrea tridentata and the skys are beautiful.

Lively Desert Sand

There are none of the well-grown desert iguanas to seen these days. They had been getting big enough to be a bit intimidating, if one didn't know that they are vegetarians.

I have seen a pair of elegant chipmunks heading to or from my patio these days. They are the largest I've seen in these regions. Their full curled tails have a bit more white near their nicely bushed ends. Their nicely marked fur fits their healthy bodies just right. They could be called regal. The little fox might call one of them a banquet.

There have been lots of lizards around, mostly very young ones. Those most in evidence these days are the very speedy ones, nearly white in color, with a set of black strips circling the upper part of their tails. Those tails curl upwards when these guys are showing off their speed. I guess that right now they are mostly of an age we could call pre-teen. I'm not sure, but do suspect that they are eating some of the small ants living in many colonies in a wide circle around my home. Many had been living in my house and their dispersion is a direct result of our wars. I have been trying to keep them from organizing a counter attack.

There has also been a solitary road runner close around the house. He is probably eating some of the little wiptailed lizards, He'll be working hard to earn those tiny mouths full. He'd eat better if the portly iguanas hadn't become cautious enough to spend their days under the sand.

Home on the Desert

The Sky and roads carry more traffic than ever. The media still brings me the problems of the world.
Still, watching a pink snake, big and beautiful, gliding and nosing across my front yard this morning reminded me that earlier I had seen the jack rabbits sitting in the shade of the creosote bushes: which reminded me that I had nearly stepped on a tiny, half grown, cotton tail yesterday evening: which reminded me yesterday I had watched two strapping alligator lizards making love not far from my kitchen door; which reminded me that my cactus is blooming; which reminded me that I still hear coyotes and even see some handsome desert iguanas from time to time; which reminds me that my world is right.