Animals in the Yard

These cottontail rabbits, and more, join me for breakfast and dinner everyday. They are obviously very intelligent rabbits because they can read the 'Bunny Crossing' sign.  They like raw carrots and they also eat the wild bird seed!

Much smaller than a standard squirrel, the ground squirrel closely resembles a chipmunk in size and color including stripes on it's back. The ground squirrel lacks the facial markings which distinguish them from a chipmunk.

The ground squirrels, as you may have guessed, live in the ground. They will burrow an entrance into the ground and form their living quarters then burrow an exit in the opposite direction, giving them two ways to escape if necessary.

They are very cute but don't be fooled, they can do a lot of damage to a home if the get inside or underneath.

It was just an average afternoon, I was sitting on the deck enjoying the peace and tranquility of the desert when I got company. There are cattle ranches nearby and this is an open range area so the cattle roam freely. They aren't dangerous to humans or animals, eating mainly vegetation.

I have an Acacia tree at the edge of my property that sometimes gets a little unruly and needs to be trimmed. Fortunately there are professional landscapers who do the job for me for free.

The Great Horned Owls make their appearance in late February or early March and stay throughout the summer. They aren't as sociable as most of the other birds and they are, as you know, nocturnal.

You can imagine my surprise and awe when I stepped out of my car with grocery bags in hand and saw this gorgeous owl looking directly at me from a Joshua tree. I immediately dropped my bags to the ground, fumbled for my camera and started snapping, I wanted to get a good picture before he flew away. Turns out he was quite happy to pose for the camera, as I got several good shots.

These two young owls were in a Joshua tree in front of my house.  I think owls like to have their picture taken!

Since 1931 the Cactus Wren has been the state bird of Arizona.  They are all over the place, make a lot of noise and don't let anyone get in their way!  The males are the nest builders, building 4 or 5 nests then living in only one.  The other nests are decoys.  Below is a picture of a Cactus Wren taking a piece of cat food.  He didn't eat it, he flew away with it in his beak then came back for more.  I suppose it was for a nest.  They are easily identified by the white stripe over each eye, both male and female.

Okay, you caught me, this is not a wild animal.  This is my neighbor's cat 'Fluffy' and it seems that he wanted to have his picture taken.  As you can see, he was waiting and watching in stealth mode behind a bush, then he ran out for a full profile action pose. Fluffy never disappoints!