Visit to the Desert Museum

I'm trying to figure out if I'm losing my will to blog.  Or perhaps it's the past six consecutive weeks or so of sicknesses that have plagued our family (including but not limited to croup, pink eye, ear infections, and fevers).

Moviong on....Last week Tucson celebrated what they call "Rodeo Days".  Schools here don't take President's Day off as a holiday in February.  Instead we get two days off for Rodeo Days.  It doesn't feel at all like we live in some cowboy town, so this Rodeo Days business always perplexes me.  Whatever.

Well, Dan surprised me by taking Thursday off.  It was his off Friday as well so we all had a four-day weekend.  It was great!  We decided to visit the Sonora Desert Museum, a place I had yet to go.  It's not much like a museum, but more like a zoo for animals that live here in our desert.  It was a fine time, the kids loved it, and the weather was perfect.

I've decided recently that birds of prey are becoming some of my favorite animals.  We often see several different kinds in our neighborhood.  Here is a barn owl, a species which is found all over the U.S.

 

Here is a Harris' Hawk.

This is a kestrel, the smallest of the birds of prey.

This is a Ferruginous Hawk, the largest in North America.

Cute kids viewing and learning.

Other animals: frogs.

A road runner.

A Gila monster.

A Western diamondback rattlesnake.

A prarie dog.

A Mexican gray wolf.

Some shots of our flora and fauna.

  

Emily found this perfectly heart-shaped cladode of a prickly pear cactus we parked by.