Cacti beginning to bloom.......

We drove around on two different days looking for the cacti that were starting to bloom.  We went out on the first day of our trip and again on the last day.  They are really lovely and such wonderful colors....varieties of yellow, orange, and pink and red.  They were still not fully blooming on that last drive, but we saw quite a few.  I would probably get the names all wrong without my sister sitting next to me, so I will not try to identify them.  We were trying to get as many different colors of the Cholla cacti as we could.  There are also Prickly Pear and Ocotillo and Hedgehog and more.

 The Palo  Verde trees were blooming and you see a sea of yellow everywhere you go.  

 There are 3 basic kinds.....Blue Palo Verde, Foothills Palo Verde, and Mexican Palo Verde.  The Blue Palo Verde have 5 yellow petals and look very golden in color, the Foothills have one white petal and appear more pale yellow over-all, and the Mexican have one orange petal....I have a photo below of one of those.

 This was an unusual one that we only saw at this one house.  Haven't looked it up yet.

 These are the Mexican Palo Verde flowers...see the 1 orange petal.  They were just beginning to bloom and the Blue Palo Verde were about done.  I never got a close-up of the Foothills Palo Verde with the white petal.

 This pale pink was behind the darker one above.  Some of the houses had really gorgeous plantings. We were shooting these while driving around in a car....Mike shot a lot of these photos.

Tucson backyard visitors....

I'm back home and Evansville, but I still have stuff from Tucson to post!  I may be switching back and forth. Here are a  misc. bunch of photos from my sister's backyard.

 She has two tortoises.  They hibernate in the winter, but one of them woke up and came out for a visit while I was there.  They are so funny to watch walk.  They spread those front legs way out and sort of walk on the toenails.

 This is the female.  She loves eating Mulberry leaves, so we picked some and fed her.  She really gobbled them down.

 "Yum!"

 I was trying to get her with her mouth open :-)

 "One of these things is not like the others......"

A stroll in the grass

 I think the only 3 butterflies I found in her yard while I was there are all ones that I see at home.  This is the American Snout.

Gray Hairstreak.....the sprinklers had just run and you can see water bubbles hanging underneath.  They seemed to like the sprinkler. 

A skink....haven't looked it up.

This cute little guy was a favorite of mine....but not sure my sister feels the same.  Harris' Antelope Ground Squirrel.  

Looks like a little chipmunk with a squirrel type tail.....very cute.

....and curious.... 

"Any food here???" 

They ran around all over looking for seeds with the birds.  They also run along the top of the wall that surrounds the backyard.  If they come to something....like lizards....they just leap over the top and keep going. 

 "I'm sure there must be more seeds somewhere."

In Tucson the House Finches ranch from yellow....to orange...to the normal red.  Has to do with the diet.

A pair of the Abert's Towhee.  These guys kept pecking on the windows outside the bedroom we were sleeping in.  They could see their reflection.  Mike helped to tape some mesh screen over the window and we hope that will end the problem.  It didn't bother me, but I guess my sister could hear them in her room, too.

 Mr.and Mrs. Bunny courting in the front yard.  When she got up, he chased her around the flowers ....love in the rocks :-)

A Lesser Goldfinch hanging on a flower. 

Hawk that visited the backyard one afternoon while I was sitting there.  Swooped right down over the yard, up into the mulberry tree, and finally over to the wall.

I'm guessing something like a Sharp-shinned or Coopers. 

 One of the many lizards doing it's mating thing.....we saw a lot of these lizards in the yard and elsewhere.  Even watched one pair mate.  You can just see the blue and yellowish colors on the neck.  They stand around doing "push-ups".

 This one came up on the patio every day.......when not sitting on the stump or flower pot.

The Pyrrhuloxia.......never got a great photo of it. 

 In the tree.....

....on the ground.   

White-crowned sparrow.

Haven't looked this butterfly up yet, but am sure I see it at home, too and can't think of a name.  Hackberry Emperor?

The Cactus Wren from the back.  It seem to come just looking for some nesting material....grass. 

The White-winged Dove and Pyrrhuloxia having a disagreement about who should get to land on the suet cake.

Bunnies.......I saw as many as 5, but usually there were 3 in the backyard.  One of the attractions for the bobcat, I'm sure. 

I just liked this with the ground squirrel, the sparrow and the bunny together.  

Time to go eat dinner.....hope I didn't make any errors hurrying too much.

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The last day we were there we met up with Marie from A Colorful World.  I met Marie last year for the first time and looked forward to seeing her again.  We ate lunch together at Union, where her daughter and son-in-law are both chefs.....excellent food!  Her daughter makes the desserts...yummm.....we sampled two of them!  And we went to a quilt store together since Marie and I both quilt.  A nice time of renewing our friendship....glad we were able to get together, Marie!