All I wanna know is what desert these authors were visiting! True, I'm in a more remote area than ever before. Yet all winter I had wildlife and birds to watch. Now that spring has begun, I see more wildlife in a day than I used to see in weeks.

Yesterday was pretty typical. We started the day with Scaled Quail greeting the morning. White Winged Doves sang chorus. A group of varied sparrows twittered background riffs. A Desert Cottontail below the feeder picked up the birds scatterings. If you look outside after dark, you'll find Kangaroo Rats and Grasshopper Mice doing that chore. We had a few errands to run in early afternoon. A bull snake was coiled on the road down to check on the cattle. As we headed to town we passed an Ornate Box Turtle crossing the road. When we backed up, opened the car door and said "hi" to him, he disproved that whole 'slow as a tortoise' thing by turning and tearing off into the brush. Desert Squirrels dash across the road through Ashcan Canyon. On the way back, a Checkered Garter snake was stretched out on the bridge to get warm.

Back home, I was lucky enough to see a ground squirrel dashing around in the scrub behind the goat pen. They are so quick and alert that I never see one well enough for a sure I.D. - and the same is true for the little lizards that dart away into the mesquite long before I am near them. On our way to work at night we see a group of mule deer, all in their shiny new spring coats looking sleek and fat.

Lifeless? Not this desert!

Good birding