What I Saw

Any meteorologists out there who can identify these clouds? Trained Weather-Spotter Hubby and I have never seen a sky like this before (July 26). Click to enlarge.

A baby desert tortoise visited under the breezeway on hubby’s birthday, July 16. Look at those angled legs! Click to enlarge.

It was a night of magic in the desert July 11 as the Night-Blooming Cereus (The Queen of the Night) unfurled for her singular eve of bloom. This is friend Roxanne’s plant, as all of mine dropped their blooms early (boo). Click to enlarge.

These puffy clouds behind a fruiting saguaro were a welcome sight on July 2, denoting the arrival of monsoon season. With the severe drought we’ve experienced, we were more than ready. Click to enlarge.

A wildfire that began June 17 continued to burn in the mountains in front of our home, captured in this photo on July 6. More than 14,000 acres were claimed, and the fire – only with relief from the monsoon that finally came – ceased in mid-July.

I didn’t realize as I was taking this photograph on July 4 that this lizard had a regrown tail. Remember the post I wrote about a similar spiny lizard whose tail had begun to regenerate? Wonder if this is the same guy? Click to enlarge.

Another view of the same sky in the first photo. Note the angles and sharp edges at the left, converging; those are two different cloud fronts meeting one another above the mountains. Click to enlarge.

As usual, we are going to the birds. This hooded oriel and his mate have been hanging around the past few days under the breezeway attempting to build nests. They join an ADDITIONAL two dove babies, a second batch of Say’s Phoebes, a hummingbird mama who laid one egg and abandoned it, a nesting pair of cactus wrens, a pair of hissing barn owls, a roadrunner, and a cardinal pair visiting with regularity. Click to enlarge.