Sun City West

My in-laws home where we stayed is in Sun City West, a 55+ community outside of Phoenix. The neighborhood that they live in has a strong sense of community and caring for one another. The vast majority are retirees, many from cold climate winters, some of them seasonal visitors, others permanent. It's clean and quiet. There are shopping malls, golf courses and healthecare centers located every few miles- or at least it seemed that way. Being a ginormous senior city, there were no schools, no kids on bikes, no parks. Very strange feeling. Since we were there during spring break there were other visiting families with kids, but no neighborhood kids. Fun place to visit...

There were however lots of Gambel's quails pictured above. These are odd birds usually seen on the ground or on roofs. They can run like the dickens and seemed able to flip that little plume about at will. I was surprised to learn that they are native birds. This guy squawked on the brick wall right outside of our bedroom window EVERY morning at about 0530 AM! A life bird! Whoo-whoo! By 0530 on the second day I wanted them to dry up and blow away...

Another life bird in the in-laws' backyard, the white-winged dove. This species is non-native, introduced in the 50's when captive birds were released in Florida. This bird sings "who cooks for you" but in a dove voice.

Correction: White Winged Doves are NOT an introduced species. They are a native species and migrate south to Mexico during winter.

Can anyone out there id this cactus for me? I was told that the blossoms last only part of a day and that the entire blooming season is only a few days.
It was gorgeous- no scent that I could tell though.
Here's another lifer that I spied in their backyard- the Abert's towhee. He's not much to look at but every one of them that I saw was so dang secretive and hinky. I was thrilled to get this picture though I know it's not a great one.


Around home here the trees are really popping. Male red-winged blackbirds have been here for several days but thins morning the ladies arrived. Two days ago there were hundreds of juncos but today there are none. Happy trails juncos! This morning also brought the first white-crowned, white- throated and song sparrows. Meal worms and Zick-dough are going like hot-cakes. Cardinals, robins and chickadees are flying around with nesting materials. The wind is gusting from the south but we're expecting thunderstorms tonight. I heard that means we could have a good fall-out of spring migraters! Spring is vibrating here in Minnesota!!!