Blog Backlog Catch-up: Two weeks at home in March 2018

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I was actually home for a full 17 days this time, the second longest stretch of consecutive days I would spend at home this year – by just two days though.

With a drip system on a timer I had high hopes for getting some edibles from my garden plot. I sowed popcorn, melons, okra, tomatillos, and put in tomatoes, peppers, and various flowers.

I spend a day with my friends Keith and Patty on the east side of the Rincon Mountains, mostly along Paige Creek. It was a bit too early for many migrants, but Gray Hawks and Lucy’s Warblers had arrived. Wintering Hammond’s Flycatchers and Townsend’s Solitaires were still around.

But the most exciting find was this Western Red Bat, Lasiurus blossevillii, which I accidentally flushed from its roost in an Arizona Cypress. It wasn’t high enough to get any lift, so it crash-landed where we could get these photos. I eventually picked it up and threw it into air where it was able to take off and find another tree to roost in.

In my attempt to keep my garden safe from the pesky Round-tailed Ground-Squirrels, I continued to set live traps and release them a couple miles away. But I was surprised one morning to find this native cotton rat in one of the traps. I haven’t been able to determine if it’s Arizona (Sigmodon arizonae) or Hispid Cotton Rat (S. hispidus), but it was a first for the yard in any event.