I was thrilled to receive a message from Patricia at the Estrella County Park with her thoughts about my question regarding the yellow blooms everywhere in hugely diverse species. Her thinking on my pondering was that yellow was easier for the plant to form (as in it is a faded green). It made sense to me as nature doesn’t seem to be too eager to waste energy anywhere. Maybe there is a lesson there for us.
I think one of the coolest things about nature is that you can never know everything about it; therefore, there is always something to learn. Along those lines, I learned something else interesting this week after viewing the web site of a local photographer, Joe, www.AZjoe.com. There is a lot of very cool stuff at this site, much if not all of it, was acquired in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve where I personally spend as much time as I can eke out. In all of those treks into the Preserve I have never seen the saucy little creature called a velvet mite. And, when you see it by visiting his web page, you are going to wonder how I missed it…..it is bright red like a vermilion flycatcher red and all fuzzy like a pompom with little crablike legs. In fact this little arachnid like critter doesn’t appear to have a lot of predators that are interested in dining on it….must taste nasty! That little mite clearly doesn’t mind announcing itself to the world. Its job in the environment is to among other things eat grasshopper larvae or suck the blood of gnats….I personally find that an endearing asset….how much blood could a gnat have anyway? Now, I am on a mission to learn more about this cool little bug.
And, if you are curious about things you might take this opportunity to find out about our fund raiser this weekend by making your reservations for Wishes for Wildlife. It isn’t too late, and you will be so glad that you joined in on the fun. You will learn from our educational ambassadors; you will get to bid on fabulous auction items; you will dine in dreamy ambiance in the out of doors; you will watch a live bird of prey show; and the best thing you will do is help native wildlife. Come on and join us on Saturday night, April 18th. Check our web site for details. See you there?
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