Crittering Archives
This spring, we returned to the Santa Rita Mountains in southern Arizona. Tucked away on the western side of the range, about halfway between Tucson and the Mexico border is the quaint oasis of Madera Canyon. The Santa Rita Mountains are known as “Sky Islands”. Rising abruptly from the Sonoran desert floor, these mountains reach heights of nearly 9,453’ at their highest point, the summit of Mount Wrightson. This dramatic topography creates… Read More
With spring around the corner, it will soon be peak season for visiting Pawnee National Grassland. The Pawnee is one of Colorado’s best destinations for wildlife and nature photography. The vast tracts of seemingly endless shortgrass prairie are a glimpse of days past, before much of the Great Plains was converted to agriculture and center pivot irrigation. Pawnee may be best known as a bird watching destination, and if it is your… Read More
Monterey Bay, California is a hotspot for marine mammals. Noisy sea lions jockey for position on jetties as harbor seals laze on the rocks. Sea otters form rafts in the kelp, nursing their young and cracking mollusks. Pods of Dall’s porpoise, harbor porpoise, and bottlenose dolphins patrol the bay, while further offshore, humpback whales breach in dramatic surges and colossal blue whales migrate to summer feeding grounds. Depending on the time of… Read More
Last year was a memorable year full of fun and accomplishments. In March, Lana and I travelled to Arizona to visit Saguaro National Park, Madera Canyon, and Chiracahua National Monument. We struck out on finding a wild coati, but we did see a few new species including collared peccary, round-tailed ground squirrel, and Botta’s pocket gopher. A few weeks later we were back to Arizona to help out with another round of black-footed… Read More
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