About Tucson's Arizona-sonora Desert Museum

~ Poppies and Lupine on the King Canyon Trail ~

Just opposite the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum is the trailhead for the King Canyon Trail. It's one of Tucson's easiest hikes, as the first mile of the upper trail follows an old mining road. The desert wildflowers can be seen in abundance right now.

Who can identify this one? I don't know what it is.

I've lived in the desert for the past 14 years, and every year brings a new discovery. I haven't been able to identify this plant. It has a reclining growth pattern, and the flower is about 1 1/4" across.

(Maybe you know what it is; please help me identify it.)

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I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Arizona Mortgage Lender

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What you're looking at is part of the Riparian Corridor at Tucson's Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I was here to learn about bats~the world's only flying mammals. (Flying squirrels can't really fly; they're just real good at gliding.)

Think of it [the water] as a runway for for airplanes to do "touch-and-go" landings, only in this case, the airplanes are bats skimming the surface of the water to take a drink.

I didn't photograph a bat tonight, but that turtle was very obliging as he made his way across the pond.

A scientist was capturing the echo-location calls of bats as they flew by, downloading them to her computer, and playing them for us at a frequency humans can hear.

She fascinated us with her explanation of the nature and sophistication of the "radar" that bats use to "see" the world around them.

Come visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

"Close to home, far from ordinary!"

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I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson Mortgage Lender.

NMLS #223495

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE llc ~ Correspondent Mortgage Bank
Offices (AZ) Mesa, Tucson, Nogales, and Albuquerque, NM.