Phoenix's Peach-Faced Lovebirds

It was just about ten years ago when I first noticed a couple of peach-faced lovebirds sitting on the telephone line in my east-central Phoenix backyard. I thought at that time (these unknown parrots) must have escaped from a neighbors cage and wouldn't make it through the winter.

Also at that time, I didn't know what these type of "parrots" were until I researched them further on the Internet. Other people were beginning to see them in their yards too and shared their sightings.

But, as time went on, I kept noticing more of these lovebirds over the years. I've even seen a flock of them roosting in the trees along the canal located just north of Camelback Rd, between 32nd Street and 40th Street. It looks like they've adjusted well to living around here.

They're beautiful birds, very colorful and lovely to watch, but can be irritably noisy, especially in a big flock. You know, like some women. They don't sing the beautiful songs like my treasured friends, the Mockingbirds. But still nice to have around. You know, like some women. ;-)

Hopefully, they'll soon spread to my new neighborhood in west-central Phoenix.

Keep It Sustainable | YAP!

The Youth Ambassador Program of New Bedford challenges you and me to "Keep it Sustainable." Learn how to live a sustainable lifestyle and lower your carbon footprint while bobbing your head to this catchy hip-hop tune.

Adventure Earth: Sonoran Venom

A three-part quest into the Sonora Desert with Bryan Maltais to find rattlesnakes, the Gila monster, and many other of our native desert dwellers.

Exploring The Curandero Trail

The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the place to learn about Sonoran desert plants and their useful properties - especially on their twice-a-month guided tour interpreting Edible And Medicinal Plants of the Desert the fourth Sunday and again on the second Saturday each month of February, March and April. Visitors can also explore the Curandero Trail on their own.


Jean Groen Plant Walk from San Pedro River Videos on Vimeo.

Related link: Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park

2011: A Record Year For Scorpion Stings

According to the Banner Poison and Drug Information Center in Phoenix, 2011 will set a record level for scorpion stings in one year. In 2010, the center logged 8,718 scorpion exposures.

Doctors at the Banner center say the total for 2011 will be about 10,000 stings throughout Maricopa County. Include the rest of the scorpion stings throughout the state reported by the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center in Tucson, and we're talking some serious numbers.

[originally posted video removed by link]


Source: Phoenix ABC News Channel-15

Happy Holidays - Hummingbird Fever!

While the rest of the country may be experiencing freezing temperatures for the holidays, we here in the Sonoran Desert are enjoying the best part of our year. As Matthew James Price shows, even the migratory hummingbirds enjoy spending the winter months in southern Arizona.

According to the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, though there are a few hummingbirds that stay all year in the warmer parts of our state, most of the hummingbird species that make southern Arizona so special arrive in April or May and leave by early October. You'll find the most spectacular diversity of hummingbirds during the late summer rainy season, when local nesters overlap with Mexican species following the rains northward as well as northern nesters on their way south into Mexico. In a week of birding in southern Arizona between late July and early September, it's possible to find up to 15 species of hummingbirds, more than you'll find in any other part of the United States.


Hummingbird Fever! from Matthew James Price on Vimeo.