Desert Critters

In my little patio garden a handsome quail couple are parading  tiny babies through the shade. I've never seen smaller quail babies.

In my little front yard the shade did not seem to keep the fine crested roadrunner to be caused to pant in the hot breeze.

The growing population of human beings don't seem to be effecting the lives of the other critters. Desert iguana young look to be into their pre-teens and doves seem to have gone beyond billing and cooing. And the Argentine fire ants have learned to climb trees

The grey ground squirrels who sometimes act as though the place were theirs, run when they see me coming. The chipmunks no longer seem interested in the coolant of the Suzuki's AC system.

Desert life goes on.

Around the Place

The animals around this J.T. house are getting bold. The quail act like they are my chickens and ought to be fed from my front door.
A roadrunner is acting like I should had deliver raw hamburger to him. The chipmunks are checking out my potted cacti to see which they will eat first. The desert iguanas which nibbled a bit at my flowers now act as though the are fare at a free salad bar. For a few days a handsome lizard of a rare sort spent time in my house. Not usually a healthy place for one of his kind. I put him out. Than two days later I spotted him trying to use a door I had left open to get back in.

"Paisano"

"Paisano" -meaning something like fellow citizen- is a Mexican name for our desert road-runner. New Mexico has made him its state bird.