Osprey

The osprey was once one of my favorite birds (the honors still go to the cedar waxwing). I had never been this close to one before today. Just look at those talons! I understand the bottoms of their feet are padded so they can hold fish easily while they fly. They turn the fish head first so they are more aerodynamic in flight. Eagles will sometimes make them drop the fish so they can steal them and they grab the falling fish out of the air!

THE Itsy-Bitsy Spider

OK Anna, this is the itsy-bitsy, or eensy-weensy, spider. In this picture its on a poppy flower stem, not a water spout. Its about the the size of a thumbnail. I'm sure there are smaller spiders around, but not as easy to get a picture of. Caught this one, a crab spider, in the spring - maybe a year and a half ago in the spring.

A Busy Spider

With the temperatures finally dipping down in the evenings, seems there's a little more active nightlife in the parks. And not just the human kind! This one was busy building a good sized web between a storage building and a trailer. Kind of interesting how only one strand of the web is visible even with a flash. Maybe that's a good illustration on how insects can't seem to see a spider web before flying into one.

Probably not the eensy weensy spider here either. About the size of a quarter or maybe just a bit bigger (with the legs). Not huge but still a respectable size.

Snowflake

Our BIG, white cat is named snowflake because when we got him he was pretty tiny. He's 11 now and lies around a lot. This picture struck me as interesting with the shape of the chair pieces. It's about as abstract a piece as I will likely ever get around to doing.

Barrel Cactus Flowers

This is the typical barrel cactus in our desert, the Sonoran desert. Maybe the full ring in bloom at once isn't typical but the yellow is.

This is a different kind of barrel with a red flower. It isn't large enough yet to have a ring at the top - more of a cluster.

More on the Sun Spider

This little guy was outside the office again. Perhaps I should say 'big guy' - definitely not the eensy weensy spider! This one would cover the palm of my hand. I tried to get close enough to show the huge mouth parts.

Devil's Claw

This is what a Devil's Claw looks like before its the familiar looking, dried up pod most people think of when they hear the term Devil's Claw.

Kind of looks like an out-of-place pumpkin patch here.

Nice looking flower

Here is the fruit starting to grow. The long curved part is what will eventually dry up and split open forming the 'devil's claw'

Such large leaves should be an open buffet line for a host of insects, but this one doesn't seem to have many takers. The leaves and stems have kind of dewy/sticky hairs all over - must not be very tasty. This was about all the damage I saw.

If this one makes it far enough, I'll post some pictures of the final pod, too.