New Year – New Web Site for Desert Rat Studio!

As I said, my job is to take pictures. I am using a Nikon D5200 for most of the pictures, but I also use a Panasonic Lumix and my smart phone depending on what is handy at the moment.

These are some of my favorite pictures from last January.

Cristate Mutation Organ Pipe, Stenocereus thurberi
Cristate Mutation Organ Pipe is developing an interesting shape and texture.

Roadrunner getting ready to jump to his roosting spot for the night.

We have a spot we call “Table Top” where we have a table that we often sit at. This roadrunner chose a tree right behind the table for his roost.  I was sitting at the table when this picture was taken last January. The hard freeze that we had later wiped out the leaf cover for him so he had to find a safer roosting area.

Organ pipe cactus with bivarcating division

Doug likes variety in the plants that he has chosen for his garden. He has tried to get many variations of different cactus. The division shown in this organ pipe cactus is not the usual way the arms are formed. It is one of his favorites.

These next two pictures are both senitas. (Senita means “old one” in Spanish). The first picture is the one that is most common. The tips of the arms have black to white “hairs” at the tips. We also have some senitas that have reddish “hairs”. The senita has a small purple flower.

Pachycereus schottii - obesa major form - senita monstrous cactus

Senita cactus sometimes called Totem Pole

This next senita has the same shape as most but it has the bumps along it’s spine.

This Senita has reptile like bumps along the spine of the cactus;

Doug has ten hummingbird feeders throughout the property. They are very territorial – it seems that each feeder has it’s guard.

Black-chinned Hummingbird outside my kitchen door.

This next cactus is also a senita that has no thorns. It is a good cactus for close to a path!

This is the monstrous form of senita. It has no thorns.

Once in a while Pesky gets caught in a trap. We take it’s picture and let him go. His burrow is within 1/2 mile of desert rat studio.

I didn’t realize that I had so many pictures of senita in this blog.

Pachycereus schottii - obesa major form - senita monstrous cactus

This is one of the branches on this senita monstrous cactus. You can see how smooth the skin is.

Tomorrow I hope to post some of my favorite pictures from last February.