DesertBauers: APRIL 2011, THE YELLOW MONTH

April is surely one of most beautiful months in Arizona. Everywhere you look it's yellow. It's not just because everyone has planted trees and shrubs that have yellow blooms.

When you walk in the desert many plants are also blooming as you can see in the photo of Ellen and Larry who finally got out for their hike.

At the riparian I photographed the beautiful European Starling in the yellowness.

When I walked the desert this month I noticed all the ocotillo cactus were in bloom as well. After I passed one plant I heard a woodpecker call out as if to say "Hey, I'm back here". It took me awhile but I finally located him. He's so well camouflaged. It's a red-shafted Northern Flicker Woodpecker.

When these cacti are used in formal landscaping and are regularly watered their tiny bright green leaves appear when the blooms appear. In the dry desert the flowers are out first. This display is at the Community Center in Apache Junction where my mother lives.

A quick trip to the Rio Salado Habitat entrance on Central Ave. provided photos of these 2 next birds.

I think this one is a Wilson's Warbler but the other? The female perhaps?

One morning in April we both agreed a day trip was needed. The Prescott area was close enough for time to wander around and still be home for dinner. Our first stop was Lynx Lake which is in a National Forest. Cool and green with tall pines, surely there will be a ton of birds! Heck no! I was forced to take pictures of ducks and a goose!

To my surprise I decided to look in the guide and had trouble! So google helped me out and I found my ducks were Crested Ducks, a genetic mutation of the mallard. Awesome, a new duck!

Then yesterday as I was preparing this post, I took a better look at the goose from Lynx Lake. Wow, I think he is a Greylag Goose. He's listed in the Exotic waterfowl section and is from the Eurasian species. This exotic waterfowl group was brought to North America for private collections, zoos and parks and then escaped.

Deciding to move on to the Prescott County Courthouse Square seemed like a logical choice. The grounds are beautiful with tall trees and surely a lot of birds. Well, lots of birds were singing but I couldn't find them. They flitted back and forth in the uppermost canopy of leaves. Darn!

Just as we slowly made our way around the building to find our car, a guard asked us if we saw the owl? I thought he was joshing us because a building across the street had a fake owl on the rooftop in an effort to scare pigeons I guess. Who knew that every year a pair of owls build a nest high up by the clock on that beautiful building.

The guard pointed out the nest and said see?, there is the baby now. And come over here because the parent sits in a tree opposite and watches over the nest. Well, I was fascinated but I never got a full shot of either one.

Since I have never seen an owl outside the zoo I was impressed to have these photos of a Great Horned owl. That was a great road trip!

Easter surprised me this year. I wasn't prepared but at the last minute I arranged for Ellen and Mark to host my own egg hunt on Saturday.

Ferdy and Mimzie benefited with treats form Jen. Thanks Bolduc family!

At Howard and Jen's on Sunday we had a mammoth egg hunt. The kids cousin McKenna and her parents joined in as well as a neighbor family. The delicious dinner we all enjoyed before the activities didn't seem to slow us down.

The adults had already hidden dozens of eggs everywhere-- front yards, the back yard, high and low. It was definitely a challenge for the kids them to find them all. In fact, at the end of the day as we off I spied an unfounded egg in the shrubbery.