Desert Museum....this and that

Desert Bluebell and Mexican Gold Poppy

We spent half the day today at the Desert Museum. http://www.desertmuseum.org/ Wonderful place! It is a "living museum", as they point out. It is full of the plants and animals and birds of the area. You wander along paths lined with cacti, wildflowers, trees, etc. and there is also a Hummingbird viewing area and an aviary and some animal exhibits. We went today mostly for wildflowers, cacti and birds. Mike and I both were shooting pics, so some are his and some mine. He is taller and can get better pics of some things than I can :-) I don't begin to know what to post!

Brittlebush

They had some rain last week so there are wildflowers along the road (especially the Brittlebush) , that are not easy to stop and photograph because of the narrow busy road with no shoulder areas. The drive there takes you through the Saguaro National Forest and we stopped at one overlook area to photograph some of the wildflowers.

Fairyduster

We saw several Cactus Wrens and got to see their nest, too! One of them was taking bits of fluff to line his nest in the Cholla Cactus where they like to build. It may have come from these strange Cacti, that are nicknamed "Old Men".

This is a Century Plant....Century Plants bloom only once in their life, the blooming spike is so large and grows so fast that it saps all the resources of the plant, which then dies, leaving a tall wooden seed stalk. The plant is called the "century plant" because of this "once a century" bloom (actually the plant lives an average of 25 years).

This is a close-up of the flower of the Century Plant. It is a very strange plant......so tall!

This is a Yellow Grosbeak, that lives in Mexico and SE Arizona. Very striking! This was taken in the aviary at the museum. There were birds there that I probably would not see in the wild.

Enough for now! I'll continue with hummingbirds and other stuff tomorrow!