Southwest Wings!

mountain short horned lizard

It's here!  Our local annual nature festival, Southwest Wings is going on over at Cochise College this week.  There are many free talks on biology (individual families and species). botany, archeology, entomology, birding, watershed studies, etc.  There are also exhibits and displays, and some live animals and buggy critters.  We look forward to the festival each year.

rattlesnake head

Yesterday we attended a talk by Vincent Pinto called "Stingers, Thorns and Fangs", regarding all of the poky, sharp, poisonous and venomous things in our corner here in southeastern Arizona.  (many regard Cochise County as the most venomous county in North America!)  It is good to be educated about what is dangerous, what is not, what is safe to touch, what is not, what natural remedies can be found to help, and what to do for first aid.

desert hairy scorpion

It was an excellent presentation, followed by a field trip with Vincent to go find some plants, bugs, and animals out in the desert afterwords. (we didn't go on this part)
If you ever have the opportunity to attend of of Vincent's talks, I'd highly recommend it.

We also attended a talk/film showing of Charles Melton's documentary of hummingbirds of the Americas.  It was good information on different hummingbird species, their behaviors, special adaptations,and their habitats.

Also at the festival was Arizona Hummingbird Disaster Relief, which was distributing free hummingbird feeders and nectar for folks to hang up at their residences.  Because the Monument Fire of our area, (and other wildfires that occurred in Arizona earlier this summer) much of the habitats for animals (including our migrating and resident hummingbirds) have been burnt, and therefore, unavailable for at least this season.  (and for perhaps several seasons to come).

 
We put our feeder on the front porch, and it is being visited already this morning.  (-:

Today: watershed and mammal talks!