There are a few interesting things going on in this video: gular fluttering, nictitating membranes, and head bobbing. Owls and other birds use gular fluttering to stay cool when the temps are high. Owls nictitating membranes (essentially a second eyelid) help protect their eyes when attacking prey. Lastly, head bobbing (motion parallax) helps owls triangulate their sight on a given subject since their eyes are fixed in their skull and cannot move on their own.
Month: May 2024
Puma Concolor
Mountain lion, cougar, or puma, this big cat is pretty stunning in her physique and lifestyle. All muscle and articulate movement when moving through her environment searching for prey and water. This particular cat showed that she also has habits of sorts, like us, in that she pretty much mirrored her visit to the waterhole two days apart. One visit during the day, and one during the night.
A Sonoran Desert Mountain Lion
When the temperatures start to rise as summer comes to the Sonoran Desert, any water source becomes a critical lifeline for all the desert critters. Birds, reptiles, insects, and mammals large and small regularly visit these waterholes. In this case, over the course of a month, a mountain lion stopped by only once on her rounds through her territory. The water at this spot has since dried up, so hopefully there are more water sources to be found deeper in the canyon.
Common sonoran desert mammals
Javelinas, raccoons, ringtails, coatis, gray foxes, coyotes, bobcats, black bears, and mountain lions are regular, year around residents of the Sonoran desert region. The animals in the following video were captured on my trail cams in my yard and in Sky Island mountain ranges in SE Arizona.
A thirsty mountain lion
As the days get hotter and water sources begin to dry up a small pool of water can attract big wildlife. In this case a magnificent mountain lion stopped by for a long drink.
Black bears out and about
My trail cams have started catching black bears again. The first one this year was on April 4th at the bear wallow. In the following videos a bear marks a tree and another enjoys a wallow at the secret spring.
My Earth 