Around Camp Thunderbird

The shed is raised and the sand raked. The lumber it sheltered and the wood of which it was constructed has mostly been given away and hauled away.

The present generation of round tailed ground squirrels seems to be made up of individuals smaller than those of preceding generations.

Slender alligator lizards are eating voraciously.

Grand looking male desert iguanas are protecting territories from one another.

At Camp Thunderbird

The yellow flowers on the greasewood (larrea tridentata) are being replaced by the usual pussy willow like fuzzys. Haven't seen any of the ant-like insects which look so amazingly like the 'fuzzys.'

But speaking of amazing, I was reminded today of a happening I experienced on the desert sometime about the fourth grade in grammar school. I was a well experience lizard and bug hunter and had caught and kept snakes. However, one day upon turning over a rock I was truly surprised by finding there a creature from outer space. It looked a bit like a lizard, but I knew the creature was unearthly because sunlight passed through its body! and in the place where earthly creatures had claws or talons it had suction cups; suction cups! What good luck for a fourth grade boy.

Well today while cleaning out my woodshed I encountered five more of the creatures. They were of two different kinds. The larger ones were identical to those I had first discovered. The others were smaller and of a darker color. Now I know them as species of earth geckos. Still interesting even if not as alien as I first thought.

All of this reminds of of an experience I had with an eye when I was only a four year old.