Our Desert Adventure - Sonoran Desert critters.

Trish and I recently enjoyed a week exploring and hiking in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. Here are a few photos of some really cool animals that are well adapted to desert life.

First photo, the greater roadrunner. We only saw one of these, and this was the best photo I could get... because these birds apparently do not like to stand still! They are always darting this way and that, looking for prey animals (scorpions, lizards, insects, frogs, and even snakes).

Roadrunners (in the cuckoo family) tend to not fly. And why should they? They hunt on the ground, and they can run at 15 to 20 miles per hour (24-32 km/h). The long tail helps balance them when they run.

Sometimes, roadrunners will team up to kill and eat fairly large rattlesnakes. Two or more of the birds will relentlessly peck at the snake's head until it dies, then the birds consume the snake by tearing off bite-sized chunks.

Well adapted to desert environments, Roadrunners do not have to drink water. They get all the water they need from the bodies of the animals they eat.

Meep-meep. Actually, the roadrunner's real call is more of a woot-woot-woot instead of the meep-meep sound we all know from the cartoon.

The second photo is another iconic desert bird, the Gambel's quail. These chunky birds are fairly common, and they run around in groups (called coveys), constantly making a loud and very distinctive call that sounds like "ka-KAA-ka-ka." I got to where I recognized the call and then I would try to spot the covey somewhere on the ground.

Gambel's quail chicks eat mostly insects, and they transition to eating seeds and leaves as they mature. Like with the roadrunner, these birds get their water from the food they eat.

When it is almost time for the eggs to hatch, the young actively call to each other from inside the eggs. At the right time, the mother calls to the unhatched chicks, triggering them all to hatch simultaneously. Cool, huh?

Third photo, a curve-billed thrasher (on a buckhorn cholla cactus). These birds often nest and feed in cactus plants. The long, curved bill helps them pluck insects from the cactus without harming themselves on the spines. The long beak also protects them as they subdue potentially harmful prey like scorpions.

Fourth photo, a ladder-backed woodpecker (also on a buckhorn cholla). Another bird that likes to live and feed in cactus plants. In fact, they used to be called the cactus woodpecker.

Fifth photo, a side-blotched lizard. These lizards are unique because the males have a weird form of polymorphism—there are three different distinct throat colors in the males, and all three have different methods of getting mates. The orange-throated males are the largest and most dominant, and they keep a harem of females in a large territory. The blue-throated males are smaller, and they defend a much smaller territory with only one female. The yellow-throated males are "sneakers." They don't have a territory at all. Instead, they have coloration that mimics a sexually mature female, and they sneak around and use their disguise to approach and mate with unguarded females in the territories of orange throated males.

Pretty amazing, right?

Sixth photo, possibly a southwestern fence lizard. Arizona has a variety of similar lizards, so this is my best guess.

Photos - by Stan C. Smith