It's just a little bit cooler today, and the fauna are taking advantage of it.
The photos may not be as wonderful as those I usually post (yes, I am patting myself on the back) but catching wildlife in the wild requires a better camera than the proceeds of this blog (to date, $0 of income) afford.
So, look at what I encountered this week:
These Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii) are all over the neighborhood. They travel in family groups when the eggs hatch. For now, they are foraging for sweet creatures living in and around the flora. This one sat on the window sill and refused to move away from the screen so that I could get a clear picture.
My desk abuts this window; I'm typing 3 feet from this bird.
I saw this coyote as I finished photographing my avian friend and looked out toward the road.
Prior experiences have taught me that I have to go outside and try to snap the picture as the beast traverses my property. Someday I'll be quick enough to change the camera setting to sport mode as I'm racing to the front door, but today was not that day.
I've labeled the fauna so you can see what I saw.
There was definitely some eye contact as I raised the camera to my face, but I suppose I wasn't all that fascinating because the animal just kept walking.
I'm not entirely sure what I'd have done had the beast decided that a closer look seemed reasonable ....
For the really up-close-and-personal interaction, though, I leave you with what I saw (or didn't see) when I went out early one morning to hand water my transplanted oleander.
Do you see anything except the walkway and the stone mulch?
Neither did I. So you can imagine my surprise as I looked down to be certain I was not crushing a cactus baby and saw this fellow absorbing some energy producing rays:
Life in the desert is nothing if not surprising.
I stepped to the left, did my watering, and went back inside.
There was no sign of snake when I headed out to the gym an hour later.