The Desert: February 2010

In February, my favorite aunt moved back to town and took up residence in her friend's wildlife refuge/home.

I love desert critters.

Desert Critters

S0.. we were on the way to visit my good friend Nancy and her sweet new baby at the Naval hospital this evening when Kelly nonchalantly told me she saw a BOBCAT today. I grew up in this desert and I had NEVER seen a live bobcat.

He was gorgeous! So the lady who runs the bed and breakfast wanted Kelly to watch the bobcat while she called animal control, the Joshua Tree National Park rangers, and whomever else might be willing to come and remove the cat from the property. I knew Kelly would be bobcat food, so I offered to stay in her place while she drove to get Shawn and the kids. It's not every day you see a protected species in the wild. I waited alone with him, about 10 yards away while everyone else was trying to figure out how to get rid of him. He was amazing! He watched my every move but barely twitched his ears. 

Here he is on a lower branch.. unfortunately this was before I got there with my zoom lens...

He's pretty well camoflauged in this one, but you can see his cute stubby tail sticking out on the right and his big kitty-cat face on the left. 

Once the inkeeper saw how fascinated the kids and I were with the animals, she offered to show us the resident Horned Owls. They were amazing too!

This guy below is the baby of the family. 

Last night on the way home from the National Park we spotted four snakes out warming themselves on the road. We kept our distance from this guy...

Well, I kept MY distance while Shawn tried to shoo him off the road with a long stick. He coiled up and rattled at us so we thought it would just be best if we left him to his own devices. 

Lizard

Here's a little lizard caught on the playground at school. It's been awhile since I've tried to catch one. Either they're getting faster or I'm getting slower...

I let both kids hold it before it "accidentally" got away. Oops!