Under a full Moon

Ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) watercolor, available

When you spend as many summer nights as I out in the canyons of Arizona and Mexico, you will sometimes hear rustling in the trees above, bumping noises on a roof or little chittering voices. Little faces with dark eyes under big ears peer at you from behind branches. They jump and climb with ease, trailing a long, luxurious tail, banded in black-and white. But since it's usually dark when ringtails show themselves, I never caught more than a glimpse.
At Carr house in the Huachucas we saw a regular visitor high on the roof, slipping in and out of the beam of our flash lights. Similar fleeting impressions were left by a couple of them very high up in a tree during a black lighting session in Ida Canyon further south. At my friend Pat Sullivan's and Lisa Lee's house I wanted to check the black light at the bug room one more time before sun rise and found myself face to face with the resident Ringtail who had had the same idea. We both jumped and he retreated.  Once I slept under the stars at the Madrone Ranger station in the Rincons - when I got up a Ringtail had just tucked himself into a crucked branch above my head to spend the day. Most encounters where ghostly and swift. No photos.
But during our August trip to the Sierra Juriquipa in Sonora Mexico one of our group, Steve Minter, wasn't giving up so easily. At nightfall, he saw a little guy watching him from a tree branch, so Steve climbed after the ringtail, up into the tree, camera and all. One name for Ringtails is Miner's  Cat, but in fact, the little racoon relatives are better acrobats than even cats. So why did it not run?  Steve was wearing a bright headlight - so maybe it was the 'deer in the headlights' effect or maybe the ringtail knew that the thinner branches would not support even the most daring human - anyway, the miner's cat stayed put and Steve got a number of nice photographs. This painting was inspired by them.

Ringtails are omnivores that feed on everything from bird eggs to berries, lizards and bugs. They like rocky areas with crevices  and cavities for their dens and they tend to live close to water. I keep thinking of them as typical southwestern animals, but they can be found from southwestern Oregon, south through California, southern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, Baja California and northern Mexico. I have sometimes seen a couple of them together, but those may have been litter mates or a female with a sub-adult kid. Normally ringtails live solitary in small territories. 

She loves me, she loves me not ...

'She loves me, she loves me not'   Peachfaced Lovebird Watercolor, October 2017

Finally back at the easel - no actually, I just made some room for my stretched paper next to my computer. Watercolors need to lie rather flat if you want to use any wet-in-wet technique.

The little gregarious parrots in the genus Agapornis were brought over from Africa for the pet trade. Escaped or released by unconscientious breeders, they found backyards and parks in the Phoenix area quite hospitable. Humans like them because they are pretty and their antics are entertaining. So the Love Birds find feeders and bird baths filled.  As cavity breeders, they appreciate the work of Gila Woodpeckers and Gilded Flickers. A peachy head poking out of a Saguaro cavity delights many valley (Phoenix) photographers. As a biologist I cringe, though. There is no telling yet what the impact of this invasive species will be. Can they adapt to real desert conditions and seriously compete with native Saguaro breeders? I got the impression that house sparrows (from Europe) manage to do so to a degree, while the European Starlings seem to stay around urban and agricultural neighborhoods and golf courses. This does not mean they are not depriving our endemic birds of prime 'oasis' living space. So far, the Peach-faces seem to stick to the Phoenix area and some backyard bird watchers in Tucson are clamoring to see them here. Tucson, with its proximity to the southeastern sky islands could be the jump-off point for the birds to colonize the sky islands. To me, a night mare.  So I love them (in Africa) and love them not (in Arizona).