Good morning at Sabino Canyon

We opened our day with another spectacular sunrise at our condo.


With breakfast stowed, we set out for Sabino Canyon. It was sort of quiet at first with just some fiddlenecks to look at.

The birds also seemed to be taking the day off,    but finally we saw a nice cardinal in the distance. 





Then our luck changed. We had reached the Bear Canyon Road on the Esperero Trail and turned back on the road trail when a herd of Javelinas started marching across about 70 yards in front of us. It was our first javelina sighting of the year. I wish the pics were a bit better, but they did not stop to pose. 

 

 

  Bye Bye big fellow

 

We started walking again and then saw a female peeking out of the brush.  We stopped, I took a quick photo and she backed off and turned further into the foliage followed by a young one. 

 

   A little further along some unidentified high flyers were holding my attention when Jan pointed out  a tree full of Cedar Waxwings who were more cooperative in sitting still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are indeed pretty birds.

 

To top things off we stopped to admire one of the  few early blooming Saguaros. 

My sharp eyed spouse then said that there were hummingbirds hovering.  And sure enough it was nectar time.


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It was a perfect end to the walk.

 

 

 

 

Sabino Canyon's Spring Flowers

My wife and I are not naturalists or even long time Tucson residents, but she loves flowers and I like to take pictures of them.  We are a bit too elderly to climb the heights yet there is plenty to see within a mile or two of the visitor center.  We carry our little book and try to identify at least some of the plants we see.  You are encouraged to let me know if we have made any egregious mistakes.  Along the way we have discovered that a lot of plants have more than one general name in additional to their scientific classifications, which can add to the amateur's confusion.

So here goes some pictures of some of the more common blooms we have seen in the last couple of weeks.

The Mexican Gold Poppy is starting to pop up everywhere and can literally cover whole hillsides in magnificent yellow when it reaches its peak.

 

The brittlebush also has bright yellow daisy like flowers.

 

 

 Smaller but still yellow is the common London Rocket.

Unfortunately it is an invasive non- native species and is not loved by the naturalists we have talked to in the Canyon.

 

 

More of a native and also small is the Fiddleneck with its hairy stems, leaves, and tiny yellow flowers that will bend over in maturity to look like miniature fiddles.

 

 

 

 

White is standout color in the desert. So far we have tagged the Desert Chicory. 

 

The desert zinnia is also big enough to see from a distance.



Fleabane is more delicate, but is still fairly easy to spot.



The tiny Crypthantha takes a bit of looking for underneath nurse trees or shrubs. It's a "borage" like the Fiddleneck.

 

We've also seen a few nice stands of Rattlesnake-Weed. The redish stems here hold multiple tiny cup like flowers with deep red centers. Not sure why the rattlesnake name.  Perhaps the snakes like to crawl under this low down bush.

 

A final more delicate white flower is on the Big Root or Wild Cucumber.  At least we think that is what it is.

 

 

 

Blue is a nice color as well and in the past two weeks we have seen more and more of the elegant Blue Dicks poking up on their long slender stems

This one has even attracted an early pollinator.

Don't get them confused with the lovely Desert Lupin which does not have a long slender stem. .

 

The Lupin also has a signature star shaped leaf that is a perfect identifier.

 

 

 

The Caliche Globe Mallow takes us into the red or orange color palette.

 

 

 

 

 

And let's finish the abundant and beautiful Fairy Duster

 

 

 

 

The first stage of their bloom is a five pointed star.

 

 

As they mature they simply explode into a wispy cottony ball.

 

 Thanks for looking in and we hope we have not made too many errors in our classifications.