Fall has arrived! Can you feel it in the air? The mornings are cooler, festivals are happening, Halloween displays are up in stores, and pumpkin spice is on the menu. As time draws us closer to Halloween night, magic and mystery grows restless. But haunting does not only lurk at night. The daylight hours hold black shadows that fly through the...
Let’s get this straight, you saw the photo that goes along with this article and you still decided to read it? Kudos to you! You are one tough cookie! If you have not already had the pleasure, let me introduce you to a creature of many names; sun spider, camel spider and wind scorpion. Whatever your preferred name is, I think that we can all...
The monsters are out! Getting to see a Gila monster in the wild is quite a rare experience. But this time of year, spring through monsoons, your chance goes up! Their activity outside their burrow increases as they hunt for food and search for a mate. Our Gila monsters are the largest lizards that live in North America. They’re almost two feet in...
By Alisha Brewer If I asked you to close your eyes and picture a cardinal, could you do it? Now, if I asked you to describe a cardinal using one and only one word, what would it be? “Red”, right? We Tucsonans love our cardinals! That deep red color makes them easily distinguishable as they dart across the desert sky. We put a bird feeder outside...
By Alisha Brewer It’s that time of year again when the warm sunshine beckons us outside. While we spend more time outdoors, it becomes more likely that we will run into some of the creatures that share our home. Spring is the perfect time for snakes. They love the weather as much as we do. For some, just the thought of a snake can send them into a...
By Alisha Brewer Sprawling green fields teeming with four leaf clovers are not something that Vail residents are accustomed to. And with leprechauns being so darn tricky to catch, how are we supposed to find our good luck this St. Patrick’s Day? Thankfully, we have our own symbol of luck here in southern Arizona, our amazing hummingbirds...
By Alisha Brewer Love is in the air, quite literally. February marks the start of breeding season for our striped skunks, the most common type of skunk that lives here in Tucson. Hold onto your noses folks because it’s about to get stinky! We have four skunk species that live with us here in Tucson; hog-nosed, hooded, spotted and striped. The...
By Alisha Brewer It is here. A fresh start. A new beginning. The opening of a new year. Welcome 2022! The craziest thing happened to me the other day- I saw a picture of an animal that I could not identify. The Tucson Wildlife Center shared a picture captioned “patient of the week”, and there he was. It took a moment for my eyes to figure out...
By Alisha Brewer A cool Friday morning is a great excuse for some fresh brewed coffee, so off to the Vail Coffee Stop we went. (Have you tried it yet? It’s the little coffee truck in between the tracks and it is awesome!) On the way home, hot mochas in hand, my husband had to slam on the brakes to avoid a mule deer that jumped in front of the car...
By Alisha Brewer Thanksgiving always brings me a sense of peace. Maybe it’s the warm smell of turkey and butter buns cooking in the oven, maybe it’s the chatter of family and friends or the hum of football in the background. For me thanksgiving is the last opportunity to take in a breath of calm and quiet before the rush of December. My one...
