Sunday, May 07, 2006

Predator spring

No that's not a movie, that's my backyard. Tucson is deep in a drought and my yard isn't full of quail families and baby cactus wrens checking for yummy bugs this year.

Around December, a pair of Cooper's Hawks moved in and made a charnel of the earth under one of our mesquite trees. Squab legs & carcasses and woodpecker feathers now decorate my yard. Animals are vulnerable this year because the desert is so parched that you can hear it crackle. Now cats or bobcats and snakes have moved in and I am finding pieces of ground squirrel amongst my roses. A few weeks ago we hosted a king snake, and last night we saw our first baby rattlesnake. And not one family of quail.

We're all praying for rain.

No comments: