There is no doubt in my mind that we live in the desert. Many of you see green in a lot of my pics with our Sonoran desert and you may think that unusual for deserts. Well it is. The Sonoran desert is considered the greenest desert of the world. If you've been here, you know it is very brown and dry at times. But what makes the Sonoran desert unusual is that we get regular rain(monsoon), sometimes on a daily basis, during our summer months. Today check out what happens when storms happen on Part 2 of this monsoon series.
This monsoonal weather pattern can cause chaos around here:) We still have those hot hot temps which spark the moisture in the atmosphere and BOOM!!! Some of the best lightning shows begin.
Shorebirds from Mexico and California are thrown off course and end up around our watering holes in Tucson. During the time of this shoot, it was reported that several Brown Pelicans were spotted at several of our parks. So I jumped in my car to get these fun shots.
About three large blocks away, I found the Brown Pelican immediately. Even better were the sightings of the Cormorants(both Double Crested and Neotropic!). Oh it was hot, moist and very tropical this day, but I didn't have to walk very far to find this guy:)
So you may ask, "What happens when these ocean birds end up in the desert?" Sometimes, several have to be rescued right away as they are in poor condition, but during this last storm, 6 were healthy happy and feeding on the fish from our "lakes". These guys are rounded up and then taken over to San Diego where they are released back into the wild.
Brown Pelicans are interesting birds but I liked these shots the most because they show something different. Pelicans do a lot of funny things with their beaks. Observing this particular behavior, I would imagine that this guy was cooling himself off:)
I also found out that a group of Pelicans are called a Pod. Fun! The bonus of finding a Pelican also means that there will probably be some colorful characters around the area as well....like the 3 stooges above. The Cormorants kept the area interesting. Sometimes the Pelican would smack them on the head and they didn't seem to mind:) More tomorrow...
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| Living in their rightful airspace of Mexico. |
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