animals / pets / wildlife – Page 5

November 20, 2015

5 Arizona Things that People Don’t Believe Exist

“Wait…that’s a real thing?!”

People from outside of Arizona have been surprised or skeptical when these 5 things have come up, but they’re all for real.

How many of these have you seen?

1. Tumbleweeds – Not just the stuff of western movie lore, they’re actually Russian thistle plants. When they’re alive, they’re green and grow like weeds. The dead, dry ones break off and roll around in the wind. It’s not like I have to stop my car for tumbleweeds rolling across the road every day. But it has happened.

Also, the city of Chandler builds a big tumbleweed tree for the holidays every year.

2. Gila monsters – They’re more fat lizards than monsters. Yes, they have a poisonous bite. However, that’s not a big concern, since they’re not particularly quick or aggressive or likely to chase you down (or meet you at the airport). In fact, it’s rare to even see one out and about.

We felt lucky when we spotted a Gila monster sauntering through the shadows at Boyce-Thompson Arboretum.

bta-gila-text

3. Desert monsoons – A friend from Taiwan laughed when I mentioned monsoons in Phoenix. While what we call “monsoon season” isn’t what you’d see in South Asia, it comes with bigger storms and more rainfall than we get other times of the year. Sonoran desert storms are dramatic – and beautiful – in their own way with downpours, thunder, lightning, wind, and dust storms (see #4).

4. Dust storms – If you saw Mad Max Fury Road, that’s not what a dust storm is like inside. Think fog made of sand, and you’ve got the picture. When it’s dry and very windy, blowing dust forms a cloud you can see approaching from miles away. sometimes an eerie orange color in the afternoon light.

5. Roadrunners – Although they look nothing like the Wile E. Coyote’s nemesis, they are an actual type of bird. That runs. Sometimes on roads.

So there you have it: the real story behind Arizona’s mythological-seeming creatures and phenomena, which are, in fact, the real deal.

Of course, the jury is still out on the Phoenix Lights.

sierra-estrella

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Photos:

1. Willcox, AZ

2. Tumbleweed Tree, Chandler, AZ

3. Gila monster. Photo by Blueag9. CCL.

4. Gila monster at Boyce-Thompson Arboretum.

5-8. Phoenix area during monsoon season.

9. Roadrunner. Photo by Ralph Arvesen. CCL.

10. Sierra Estrella Park.

November 9, 2015November 1, 2015

A Fish Called Frida

This is Frida. We realized after naming Frida that the colorful Bettas with the long tails are actually males. But I’m pretty sure fish don’t care about our gender norms.

After some research I learned that (a) Bettas like having plants in their tank – both to hide in and to keep the water oxygenated (b) they can tear their fins on plastic plants (c) they can coexist with live pothos plants. There are other plants that are even more recommended for fish tanks, but I thought I’d start with what I have and add a pothos cutting to the tank. Frida likes to swim around it and sleep on top of a leaf near the surface like it’s a hammock.

Bettas are more interactive than a lot of fish. They notice you and recognize the people that feed them, doing a little happy/feed me dance when you walk by.

I seriously didn’t know one little fish could make me smile so much.

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August 15, 2015May 23, 2023

A Mount Lemmon Trip

Mount Lemmon doesn’t have a website.

Which, I guess, makes sense, since it’s a mountain. Although that didn’t stop Mt. Rainier or even Camelback. Maybe the difference is that they’re both the main event in their respective parks. Mt. Lemmon, on the other hand, is just one impressive part of the impressive Santa Catalina Mountains and extensive Coronado National Forest.

It’s right outside Tucson, but, as much as Phillip and I like hanging out in that area, I’ve never been on Mt. Lemmon itself. Tucson is a 1.5 hour drive, and then it takes another hour to wind your way up the mountain, so it kind of requires its own designated trip.

Which is happening soon, because my dad thought we (he, Mom, Phillip and I) needed to take a day trip before Phillip goes back to grad school and ~~disappears for 9 months~~ / ~~can’t do anything fun~~ / gets much busier.

We decided to go to Mt. Lemmon since my mom hasn’t been there either. We’ll drive around, picnic, and maybe take a hike. But probably a short one, because the elevation at the top is about 9,000 feet. That is significantly higher than Denver. It’s actually closer to La Paz, Bolivia’s 11,000+ feet.

Side note: Thinking about this made me wonder about all the high-altitude places I’ve been and how they compare to each other. So I made a little, roughly-to-scale chart. Maybe I’ll do a better one later, where I actually write legibly and measure the lines. Maybe.

Side note to the side note: I’m thinking of titling my chart “Great Heights” or “Altitude is Everything” or “Elevations I Have Known and Loved” or maybe just “Places I’ve Been High.”

Really, the point is that I’m gonna be moving slow up there in the thinner air.

Driving from the Tucson desert to the pine-covered top of Mt. Lemmon takes you through climate zones equivalent to driving from Mexico to Canada.

Mt. Lemmon is one of the sky islands, a poetically-named category of mountains in the Southwest U.S. and Mexico that have dramatically different environments than the areas around them. They have remarkable biodiversity, including plants and animals you normally wouldn’t find in the region.

My favorite is the coatimundi, a mammal that’s native to Central America but also inhabits the sky islands. When we went to Chiricahua National Monument (also sky island territory) a few years back, I got kind of ~~obsessed~~ focused on trying to spot one in the wild. It hasn’t happened yet, but, during the trip, I’ll definitely be on the lookout.

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PS I’ll be posting info from my Craft Camp presentation soon.