Melissa Crytzer Fry

a covey of qual walk around the shallow pond.

I predict a very high-quantity #quail chick season. Last year, we had ZERO, but with rain comes lots of seed/food. I think we'll be in for a bumper crop of puff-balls. #cameratrap

Thanks, Marina.

Thank you. She's a beauty!

I'm thinking we won't disappoint this year!

So much tastier!

Laughed pretty hard at that.

This is INCREDIBLE! Love it.

It's already baby season in the #SonoranDesert. This is a canyon #towhee being fed by mama. Volume up!

Always cracks me up when baby #birds can clearly eat on their own, but let mama do it for them.

A mama owl sits non her eggs, back in a shallow erosional hole in the side of a cliff (which is, interestingly, is owl-shaped!) She's the same color as the dirt, and only the sun hitting her feathers alerted me to her being inside.

Hello, there beautiful mama great-horned #owl in the rock cliff. I'd NEVER have seen her if not for the sun illuminating her feathers. She's sitting on eggs! (taken with zoom!)

Owl's clover looks like a pinkish-magenta feather duster popping out of the soil.

Lupine is always so gorgeous with its delicate purple-blue flowers jutting off a tall stalk.

Some gorgeous purple owl's #clover and #lupine. Desert #wildflowers.

We've gotten them on our cams only twice at our place, and only within the past 5 years. VERY amazing it stayed put! I'm sure you were zoomed, though.

My rescue kitty main squeeze, Squeezy, sits on the dining room chair, looking all grown up, despite only just turning one.

It's #Caturday. Squeezy's evening chic pose.

How fun. Was that close to your house?

Phew! Yay.

How fast do collared peccaries move? Pretty dang fast. When they want to. On #cameratrap, our favorite: #TeamJavelina.

You feeling better?

Passengers sit in a small plane with headsets on.

Aerial view of desert Canyon lined with gorgeous cottonwoods.

View from window with a little bit of plane wing in upper right. Unending views of Sky Islands mountains. And GREEN this year!!!

This is what #AravaipaCanyon looks like from the air (pic 2). Took a group on overflights with the nonprofit, EcoFlight, yesterday to see this gorgeous area.

I think you may be right. I love the rock wrens that come down during winter, and love our cactus wrens, but that stair-step trill of a canyon wren... HEART MELTING!

Tiny fish flutter in the water at the emergence of spring. their shadows are more visible than they are!

Aravaipa Canyon includes incredible cliff rock walls, cottonwoods, and year-long water. A true gem of the desert.

This rock wren sat atop a dead tree limb and sang its heart out. Here, its beak is fully open as it serenades us.

We were treated to three does frolicking along the creekside. This yearling took a sip of water, but a branch above it hit its backside, spooking it into the air. Got quite the little performance!

More wonders of #AravaipaCanyon. Assuming these itty bitties are among the 7 threatened/endangered #fish species in this Outstanding Arizona Waterway (yes, that's an official designation given to only a few areas in AZ). My favorite: canyon #wren. Also a white-tail #deer!

These muddy javelina, standing in the pond, look more like bears with thier matted fur.

Mud bath! #TeamJavelina

Views of rock faces, cottonwood trees and running water in Aravaipa Creek.

Someone left a naturally formed rock that is in the shape of a heart in the canyon. It rests against a rock wall.

Spent an incredible day #hiking Aravaipa Canyon, one of Arizona's true wonders, yesterday. This is the OTHER place we are working to save from copper #mining in the lower San Pedro watershed.

This ♥️ rock (left in the canyon) completely encapsulates how I feel about this area.

My now one-year-old, 11 lb "kitten" lies on his back in a beanbag. He's curled up a little, with his white belly patch showing, and back foot in a little curl, too. His lidded eyes show contentment.

That's a whole lot of cute, squeezable Squeezy right there. #Caturday

A bobkitten walks to left of frame in a mountainous slope.

Holy kitten-face of cuteness. Love this little mountain #bobcat on #cameratrap.

Well, that's what it's all about.

In this trail-cam photo, a western screech owl perches on a fallen tree limb, looking straight at the camera with glowing eyes.

Hello, there, little western screech #owl in the vibrant Galiuro Mountains.

Heartbroken that you're being disturbed by 24/7 foreign mining that is also guzzling water from the arid desert's aquifers.

A bobcat, in black-and-white, poses with two front feet flat on the ground, and two back legs on different rocks. The left back leg is all stretched out.

More #bobcat goodness. "You put your left leg in, you put your left leg out, and you shake it all about." #cameratrap

SO awesome.

I didn't know you were over here - but, admittedly, I'm so busy fighting for my desert, I rarely have time to interact much. I hope you're well!

A tiny bee alights on the middle of a yellow-petaled poppy with an orange center. Tiny, tiny, tiny little 'other' bugs are all over the petals.

This skull on the ground has vegetation growing through the eye sockets and nose cavity.

This little butterfly is on the trunk of a very old saguaro. The orange coloration on both wings nearly forms a circle.

Cholla cacti are known for their barbed appendages, but when the trunks die, they create a beautiful, fibrous tapestry with little ovals running up and down the turnks.

When you stop and look closely, you'll make so many wondrous discoveries! 1) Mexican #poppy, tiny #bee & even tinier insects 2) deer? skull 3) Red Admiral #butterfly 4) #cholla skeleton

Ha ha. Well, then I'm game!