Two views of pre-dawn, the first taken with my standard landscape 17-55 f/2.8 lens, and the second with the 100-400 f/5.6 lens with the 1.4x teleconverter added. So it was certainly not starting out to be an ugly day..
A fellow who is a Low Desert Master Gardener and a docent at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix left a comment on yesterday's blog post, saying that it wouldn't be a good idea to stake then Desert Willow, which I'd done the day before. I think it's worth quoting what he said in full --
I would offer a different opinion on staking your Chilopsis. I was taught that staking a young tree may/can weaken and stunt growth. " Most of us have heard of phototropism - a plant's growth in response to light (plants grow towards light). Many people have heard of geotropism - a plant's growth in response to gravity (trees are highly geotropic which is why you'll see trees with odd crooks in them). But few people have heard of thigmotropism - a plant's growth in response to movement. When plants experience movement, such as caused by wind, their cells grow thicker, shorter and stronger. So it's important for the future strength of the tree that it be allowed to move in the wind, staking that doesn't allow movement
as that makes the tree weaker and more likely to fail as it gets older.
In addition to staking preventing the tree from growing appropriately for its environment, sometimes staking actually kills the tree. It can be hard to believe, but all the living tissue in a tree's trunk is right underneath the bark." http://www.treefolks.org/. My own knowledge is from being a Low Desert Master Gardener and Docent at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix.
Isn't the Internet great? I get the opinions on everything I try from experts in their fields. So after reading that, I untie the tree from the stake, and it's free once again.
The next project was to put in a new water feature. I've pretty much decided to keep the old one, as the deer prefer it and all the critters seem to use and like it. I'd cleaned it out and put "new" rocks in, so more birds are using it for bathing, and the Coues deer used it for drinking at least 3 times during the day, including the Coues family. But I wanted to give the critters in the back yard an alternative, so a good friend suggested I use the rubber dish by digging a hole and putting the dish in it. So I did, and while I'll have to adjust the way it sits in the hole, it provides an alternative to the old water feature. And the first (and only, for the day) bird that came to investigate it was one I've been waiting to see in my back yard --
Yes, a male Northern Cardinal. I've seen birds there that somewhat look like cardinals, but they're Pyrrhuloxia, which has been called a "Desert Cardinal" -- but it's a different bird. Here's a photo of a male Pyrrhuloxia for comparison --
So finally, the Real Deal. I wanted good-quality photos of him, as I never knew when (or if) he'd come back, so I brought out the 500 f/4 lens and --
A bit backlit, but it's a keeper...Luck would have it as he flitted in and out of the back yard throughout the afternoon, and I was finally able to get a better photo of him, this time using the 500 f/4 lens with the 1.4x teleconverter added --
Perfecto! I hope he returns to stay; Northern Cardinals are non-migratory, so it could be that he is looking for a place to spend the winter. I'll have to get chunky peanut butter to spread out on a wood board for him, and a friend here suggested corn meal, chunky peanut butter, and bird seed made into balls and put out for them; she gets Cardinals chowing down on the "confectionery" morning, noon and night, In between Mr. Cardinal's visits I zoomed-in on a hummingbird thats been frequenting one of the feeders; I'll need to check further before I say which species this is --
So it's been a day filled with good birds. But will the sunset complete another extraordinary day here? It didn't start out like it would. Then for about 15 minutes there was a blaze of color over Silver Peak --
Marvelous. I also tried some closeup shots with the 100-400 lens of some of Cave Creek Canyon's peaks with the sunset colors in the background, and actually took the photos, but when I got back inside I realized that -- there was no card in the camera. DOH! But I got the overall sunset photo, which is the one that matters. But there was still even more to come -- a lightning display. But it was pretty far away, and mostly lit-up clouds, and though I did try to photograph it all of the photos turned out blurry, probably due to the distance and being so low to the ground the vegetation got in the way. So i watched the light show, and yes Debbie, so far there hasn't been a ugly day here at Faranuf and the Chiricahuas.
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