Tucson Sunset

Taking time to observe the sunset is something I do on vacation more than other times. I photographed three sunsets while we were in Tucson in January.

The first was when we were driving back into Tucson from our three day road trip that took us to Montezuma’s Castle, Sunset Crater, Wupatki, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Painted Desert, and Petrified Forest…taking the scenic route through Show Low and the White Mountains on the last leg when the sun we down as we got close to Tucson. I was in the passenger seat and took pictures of the sunset as it progressed. There appeared to be rain that was not reaching the ground at one point but then there was enough clearing for the color to develop and reflect.

The second sunset was a disappointment although we did confirm that the Gates Pass Overlook in Tucson Mountain Park (taking Speedway west to W Gates Pass Rd) was an excellent place for sunset viewing. There are lots of saguaro and teddy bear cactus to catch the evening light. At first we thought the break between two cloud layers would make a great sunset but the lower layer was too thick and there was only a little color.

The third sunset was our second attempt from the Gates Pass Overlook. There were some modern technology intrusions - helicopters and a drone - but all was quiet as the sun actually set. It was worth the effort….the best sunset while we were in Arizona!  I started out with a picture of the teddy bear cactus glowing in evening light…then concentrated on the sky.

Tucson Botanical Garden - January 2015

I’ve already posted about the butterflies and poison dart frogs at the Tucson Botanical Garden. Today the post is mostly about cactus! I am always fascinated by how alien cactus sometimes looks. Their flowers look like they don’t belong nestled in thorns or atop smooth surfaced succulents. And what about the ones that look hairy? Sometimes the thorns are unusual colors - or several different colors. Sometimes the ribs stand out - sometimes the plant looks like a cushion - or a long stem that flops over. One non-cactus in the slide show below is the very last image. Can your guess what it is?

A pomegranate! The tree had several dried fruits on it. Another non-cactus was a net-leaf hackberry. I know this one only because there was a sign. The leaves were gone but I was fascinated by the bark.

Poison Dart Frogs at the Tucson Botanical Garden

The butterfly exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Garden (earlier post here) included more than butterflies and plants. There were poison dart frogs that were roaming about the greenhouse. The docent told us they had been imported a few years ago to help control ants and fruit flies; they seem to do a good job! When they first arrived they were about as big as a thumbnail. They are still small - about the size of a thumb.

For some reason - the blue ones (not sure how many of them there are) seemed to be the most active.  These frogs tend to climb around on plants and objects rather than jump. They are quite agile.

They seem to be constantly in motion and like to be under vegetation. One got close to the door and one of the volunteers moved the frog back to some plants. These are non-native to the US so are carefully contained in the moist greenhouse that is the butterfly exhibit in Tucson!

Which color is your favorite? I think the blue is mine but maybe it is because I managed to photograph them more easily.

Pinyon Pines and Birds in Arizona

Two topics today - both from Arizona: pinyon pines and birds.

Pinyon pines are part of the landscape of the Grand Canyon. I have always been fascinated by their cones. They are short and squat and often full of sap. I learned that the hard way on a trip across New Mexico in a new car 30+ years ago. I picked up some pinyon pine cones and put them on the dash of the car - enjoying their wonderful smell as we continued our road trip. The sap stayed on the dash for years! I am enjoying the pictures I captured this time. The first picture is of a cone that has already lost its seeds; the second and third are developing cones.

I accidently took some good bird pictures in Arizona. They were accidents in that I was not set up to photograph birds; I was just being opportunistic. The varied thrush was in the parking lot of the Petrified Forest Visitor Center! The bird is a little out of normal range according to allaboutbirds.com.

The next three birds were in the alleyway outside my son-in-laws research greenhouse in Tucson (I was waiting outside after getting too hot in the greenhouse). The mockingbird kept an eye on every move I made but rummaged in the pebbles for food. This bird lives year round all of the US but they are usually too nervous for me to photograph.

The curve-billed thrasher felt secure on the electrical line. The wind ruffled the feathers periodically making the bird look rather scruffy.

The white-wing dove was also overhead on the lines. The red eye outlined in blue and the white tips on the wings are distinctive….and the ruffling of the feathers by the wind is too.

I am learning to always be prepared for bird photography in unlikely places!

On the Road in Arizona

I enjoy being a front seat passenger on road trips and catching the landscape ahead of the car. Our road trip within our vacation to Tucson was a great opportunity. I’ve perfected my technique over the past few vacations: make sure the windshield is clean, zoom a little to get the car out of the picture, and try to keep the horizon level!

My daughter did all the driving:

• From Tucson to Flagstaff (via Phoenix and Sedona, images 1-8 in the slideshow below),
• From Williams to the Grand Canyon in the early morning (image 9), and
• From Petrified Forest National Park back to Tucson (via Show Low and the White Mountains).

We had plenty of variety in the sky: clear blues, sunrise colors, patches of clouds building and a golden sky near sunset with rain not quite reaching the ground from dark clouds. There were roads winding and straight…up hill and down. Mountains with snow and mesas and buttes. Lots of red rock. Grasses, pines, scrub, and saguaro.

Enjoy the Arizona scenery from the road!

Tucson Sunrise

January is a great time of year to observe the sunrise in the US since it does not require getting up inordinately early. The added advantage in Tucson is that is it not overwhelmingly cold. We wore hoodies and headed out one morning last week - driving to the parking area in the eastern district of Saguaro National Park at the end of Speedway.

It was not a great place for sunrise because the mountains made for a tall horizon. But I liked the soft light on the desert scenes.

Then I started taking closer views of the plants. There were two kinds of Cholla

A prickly pear with colorful thorns

A wounded saguaro

And young saguaros with their Palo Verde nurse plant.

And finally - just as we were leaving - the rocks of the mountains caught the morning color.

Tucson Butterflies

It was warm enough for butterflies to be active on the lantana on the University of Arizona campus week before the last but the bigger butterfly treat was at the Tucson Botanical Garden’s Butterfly and Orchid Pavilion.

The pavilion is a warm, misty place where the butterflies are numerous enough to get some good photographs - after the camera acclimates to the steamy environment. The exhibit gets new additions each day a pupae in the building next door hatch and are brought into the pavilion. We saw a glass wing being released and then a very large moth - a cecropia. I included two pictures of it in the slideshow below.

The butterflies only live about 2 weeks. Some of them don’t eat in their adult phase - others are active on nectar plants. Caterpillars and their food plants are not part of the exhibit (all the pupae come from the native countries for the butterflies).

What a delight of warmth and color in January!

Touring the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research

I enjoyed the docent led tour at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at University of Arizona last week. The Bannister Building, where the lab is located is quite distinctive - with a scrim of articulated metal tubes. The wind was not blowing on the morning of our tour so we didn’t hear the sound of the tubes in motion.

Inside we wondered around the lobby before the tour. I was looking for various ways the large tree cookies were labeled. I liked the simple white arrows that showed the semantics used: pith, early wood, late wood, branch trace, fire scar, cambium and bark.

Here is a closer look to understand what a tree ring is (the center of the tree cookie is to the lower left of the image). Note that the rings are not all the same…their width reflects the growth conditions for the year they were growing.

And some trees live for a very long time. The labeling on the tree cookie from the Giant Sequoia that lived 1704 years is labeled with more information.

When the docent arrived, we were invited upstairs into one of the labs to talk with one of the researchers who showed us how the sample cores from trees are collected and mounted. The tree-ring lab is multidisciplinary; many specialties are required to glean the information from the samples. I was intrigued by the cross section on one of the upper floors that was very different than concentric rings. This would take a lot of finesse to interpret!

I’ve included two close ups to show the dates labelled on the specimen.

One other tidbit I picked up from the docent: on the elementary school tours, the children are given a small tree cookie (~3 inches in diameter) and the children sand it to reveal the tree rings! That would certainly be a memorable learning experience!

Packing for Travel - the Layers Strategy

As I packed for my vacation to Tucson, I realized that the January weather there required more varied clothes that the majority of the year when it is simply hot, hotter, or hottest. Daily temperature swings of 25-30 degrees are not unusual. And Maryland would be cold both when we departed and returned. Packing layers of clothing is the only strategy that can work.

The innermost layer has to be comfortable in the mid-70s. A tunic over leggings was my outfit for the first travel day. I added a scarf as a first layer since it would help me feel warmer snugged around my neck if I got cold.

I wore two additional layers on the way to the airport in Maryland because it was in the low 30s and snowing: a hoodie and then my coat. Once we got into the airport, the coat went into a bag that I checked and the hoodie went into a tote bag that I carried onto the plane….congratulating myself on applying the layers strategy to my luggage too (lightening the carry-on) as I changed planes in Little Rock.

When I got to Tucson it was in the low 70s….and I loosened my scarf.

First Day Hike

It was a cold January 1 in our area of Maryland and my husband was just getting over a cold --- he didn’t want to hike. So I took a very short hike from a two lane road near us down to the Little Patuxent River. I want to try out my new monopod/hiking pole. It turned out to be a good idea since I managed to unscrew the bottom section completely!

All the leaves were brown and brittle. The sycamore leaves were still largely intact and quite large from the trees growing along the river.

I was not fast enough to photograph the great blue heron that was evidently fishing in the river when I arrived.  There were some deer that were on the opposite bank - white tails flashing by the time I saw them.

The places where the water was still enough were still frozen from the previous night’s temperature drop into the 20s.

I looked for shelf fungus on the downed logs but only saw tiny ones but this moss with sporophytes add some color to the otherwise drab colors of winter.

On the way home I stopped at the storm water pond in our neighborhood.

The stumps from a visit from a beaver a few years ago were still visible near the short - and punctuated the ice at the pond’s edge.

And a surprise from my daughter in Tucson - they had snow on January 1! She sent the pictures below.