Fat Chance

The photos displayed here are my original work unless otherwise noted. Please preserve links to the originals or provide appropriate source credit if you reblog my photos or copy them for personal use. I'll be grateful. May I hear from you? Send comment by email to [email protected].

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Monsoon sky.

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White-winged dove / paloma alas blancas (Zenaida asiatica) at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

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Spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) at San Pedro House.

Etymology note: Undecimpunctata is literally eleven-spotted, referring to the black markings on the beetle's elytra. You can count 'em if you can get these guys to slow down. They're all there.

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Blue grosbeak / picogordo azul (Passerina caerulea) at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

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On the pull.

Male Arizona blonde tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes), on the trail at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona. This was the largest tarantula I've seen here, with a body length of almost 4 cm (1.5 inches) and a 12 cm leg span. Once the annual monsoon arrives males begin rambling in search of sedentary females.

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Puddle season.

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"She'd need a compass, because what if she wandered off in the fog or was ostracised by the group? As a kid, she'd always assumed that a compass somehow pointed where you needed to go but life was more complicated than that. A high-tech slice of plastic, marked with impenetrable scales and signs, it seemed inconceivable that this device could help her find her way, but imagine the embarrassment of being rescued without one. Carrying a compass on a walk was a way of saying, "Look, I'm trying, all right? I'm doing my best.'"

From You Are Here by David Nichols, 2024.

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A clouded crimson owlet moth (Schinia gaurae) visiting velvetweed (Oenothera curtiflora) – a host plant for the moth's caterpillars. At San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

A convoluted etymology note: Clouded crimsons are members of the Noctuidae moth family. The name is derived from the little owl of Europe, Asia, and North Africa (Athene noctua), which is the owl associated with the Greek goddess Athena, the patroness deity of the city-state of Athens. The city's emblem was the little owl, and to strengthen the symbolic connection, Athena is typically represented wearing a Corinthian helmet with an owl perched on top. ("Good lord," you are asking, "what does this have to do with moths?") In turn, the moth family of over 30,000 identified species are called owlet moths after Athena's little owl, because of their nocturnal habits and their large owl-like eyes. There are archetypes and primordial patterns of thought and shared experience coded and embedded in the names of the simplest and most commonplace things we encounter. Think of that the next time you brush away a moth that is fluttering around your phone when you are scrolling in the dark.

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Leafhopper assassin bug (Zelus renardii) at the Sierra Vista Community Garden.

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Mudcracks.

In Garden Wash near San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

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Kingbird. Daybreak.

Cassin's kingbird / tirano chibiú (Tyrannus vociferans) at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

This bird currently has a human name, and not a bird name. Five American birds are named for Pennsylvania lithographer and ornithologist John Cassin, including T. vociferans. As curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences he was sent specimens of western birds for taxonomic classification, though he likely never saw any of the birds that are named for him in the wild. He died in 1869 of arsenic poisoning from handling preserved birds.

The American Ornithological Society is (presumably) still planning to re-designate birds that are stuck with names honoring historical figures, though their procrastination and dithering have gone on far too long. Proposed common names for this bird include white-cheeked kingbird, and vociferous kingbird, which is my preference. If you ever encounter this bird in the desert grasslands of Arizona its raucous calls are memorably impressive.

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Baby rock squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus) nibbling mesquite beans, and nuzzling mom. At San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.

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Where I walked.