Tucson Wildlife Blog: A rare sighting, and the Great Flood of Tucson

A couple nights after we returned from Valentinaville and driving up our driveway after dinner out there was a big Gila Monster slowly moving across our drive. It's a fairly rare thing to see here, and it was our first time seeing one in Tucson. So pretty! I was so excited and jumped out of the car to snap some pix. I did get a good one...

The next morning on my routine check of the pool for unwanted critters I watched a tiny brown frog doing laps across the pool. I just left it there since I didn't know whether it wanted to stay in the water or go out in the desert. Although the next morning upon my inspection there it was...sitting on the pool thermometer, which for some magical reason was floating on the surface, (usually it is straight down in the water!). It looked so cute I took a pic!

And then a friend of mine sent me this Bobcat pic taken from her backyard. It is such a great photo that I have to include it for your entertainment. Thank you Leslie!

Now for the Great Flood of Tucson 9/8/2014! We had not only the Monsoon seasonal rains, we had a hurricane hurling tons of water on us! 4 inches yesterday in several hours. That is more than we get in an entire Monsoon season. So I was on "Flood Watch" all morning. I stood at the front doorway watching our driveway in front of our garage and front entrance filling up. When it got close I had to do something, and went out in the rain to dig a trench. However, there was no place for it to drain, and I also hit solid rock. Then in the middle of my disaster prevention effort thunder started, and it lasted for --seemed like 5 minutes!--. Well, you know what that means... if you hear thunder you are to take cover...go inside! That's a better idea to avoid a lightening strike, especially since I am in a bright red slicker; possibly a beacon to attract lightning!?!? (last month lightening struck our pool filter and blasted it!) Nothing to mess around with here on THUNDERSTORM PLACE!