I am currrently visiting my parents in Arizona, and enjoying the beautiful natural scenery. A surprising variety of wildlife can be seen right from the kitchen window.
This morning, while eating breakfast, we wondered where the quail were -- usually there are up to a couple of dozen, with their little topnots bobbing as they peck at the birdseed on the patio. A few minute later the avoidance was explained when we saw a bobcat casually walk by. Actually, there were two, but I only saw the baby, barely bigger than a large housecat, but with a short tail, and an unusual patterned gray coat. After that we noticed a naive little bunny, hopping carelessly across the very path that the bobcat had crossed. Luckily nothing dire happened (at least not while we were watching). All in all, it was a most exciting breakfast. I wonder who will show up tomorrow!
And of course, there are the bugs. Fascinating, if you are into those things. Some of them are big enough that they look like characters in a scary movie. I prefer the ones that are not too sociable, and that scurry away.
The scenery is beautiful. When I get home I post a photo of the beautiful Sedona rocks.
p.s. I changed my mind. In keeping with the wildlife theme, I've attached a shot of the scorpion in the bathtub. Sorry it's so blurry -- I didn't want to get too close!
3 comments:
I love to travel, but one thing I dislike is adjusting to new entomological experiences. Huge spiders, enormous beetles or centipedes, and unidentified flying objects. Fodor's should publish a Bug series: "Bugs of the Outback," "Insects of India," "Wee Crawly Things of the Highlands." People need to be forewarned.
I recall the beauty of Sedona from the vacations there with my family when I was a youth. I also recall one vacation when I found a huge, strange beetle that I kept for a while in a box. Perhaps if the apostle Paul had described in detail the insect life of his prison, we wouldn't need to wonder whether he was in Rome or Caesarea.
Scorpions in the bathtub! Do they come up through the pipes? I'll never use a toilet next time I'm in Ariz. This brings up terrible nightmares: when I was little, my sister & I went to the tidepools and brought back a bucket of live crabs. After a few days they smelled so bad, our dad flushed them down the toilet. For years after that, I could never sit down in a WC without great anxiety.
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