As I write this, we leave Tempe tomorrow. As you read it, we left Tempe yesterday. And yet, in the eternal now of dogs and the internet, today we can walk together through Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler, enjoying this wee part of the space-time continuum.
OK, that’s enough physics for today. Maybe for the year. Let’s continue with biology.
This mallard was happy to pose–with and without some vegetation dangling from his beak–until a jet overhead distracted him. At least that’s what seemed to happen, as he rolled his neck, apparently to check out the loud noise from the heavens above us.
If a great nose indicates a great man, then by similar logic this must be a great cactus.
But soft. There are many kinds of greatness: not all involve noses.
As usual, there were old friends. First, a hummingbird, flaring its gorget and not flaring it, as we saw a few weeks ago at a different park altogether.
There was an Abert’s towhee–one of the first Arizona birds I learned by observing it, realizing I didn’t know what it was, and describing it sufficiently well that people who did know could, in effect, recognize it from my description. Easier in theory than in practice.
There was a pied-billed grebe–which I usually see as a singleton amongst a gaggle of ducks. And sometimes see like this, half in sun and half in shadow.
There was a cormorant, which my mother once said had a face only a mother could love. Here, it resolutely kept its face turned from me to showcase its magnificent wings.
There were verdins in full-on nesting activity under cover (prudently for them) and therefore in the shade (sadly for me). This sequence shows it preparing to enter its nest, entering its nest, and the pile of sticks that said nest appears to be when no tiny bird with a beakful of fuzziness is hanging about.
Finally, there was a new-to-me and taller-than-me bush known as Arrowweed, apparently because its straight branches were sometimes used for arrows, back in the day. Like many flowering bushes (looking at you, rhododendron) it’s unremarkable when not in bloom, but today is not that day.
The desert and the artificial riparian habitat that runs through this park are remarkable. Remarkable for diversity. Remarkable for colour. Remarkable for reliably providing familiar subjects while always also providing something new.
