Well, lots of lightning and thunder, but only 1/4 inch of rain from our first Monsoon storm yesterday.  Today, the clouds came in real black, with distant thunder, but it just passed by us with a little bit of spit and that's all we got.  I've taken the volunteer position of "Keeper of the Green" in downtown Portal.  That is simply a task of watering Shaughnessy Park, in front of the Post Office and Library.  There are three pine trees, each with a story behind it's planting, and the gal that previously tended to them has passed the torch to me, and the next generation of Portalites.   It's just 100 yards from our house, so I can walk down and drag the hose across the parking lot and leave it run very slowly overnight, then go coil up the hose in the morning and I leave the hose in a pan of water in the birding area next to the library so the wildlife can get a drink when they're thirsty.  I'm giving the area a good drink this weekend and with the monsoon rains, I shouldn't have to worry about it again until fall, unless the rains don't materialize.
It's pleasantly cool this evening with clouds and a nice breeze, so even though we didn't get much rain, we are still feeling the benefit of the cooler temps.
Last night while taking down the bird feeders, I noticed eye-shine on the oranges we have out for the birds and as I got closer I could see it was a large Black Witch Moth.  Very cool.  6 inch wingspan on these dark moths make them look like a bat when they are perched or flying.  His long proboscis (tongue) was deep in the meat of the orange to get the juice.  We never know what we're going to see when we go out our door here in Portal.  Just one of the many reasons we love it here.

It's been hot here in southern Arizona.  We spent nearly a week in Tucson with record highs of 109-ish.  Enjoyed visits with Melody and the boys and are happy to be back in beautiful Portal.  It's quiet, people-wise here this time of year, but wildlife abounds!  The baby Great Horned Owls have fledged.  A Western Screech Owl nestling is still perched in the nest cavity of a Sycamore tree next to the Portal Store and the Elf Owls are busy feeding young.  We are seeing lots of other fledglings too, Bridled Titmice, Cardinals, House Finches, Blue Grosbeaks, Ladder-Backed Woodpeckers, Acorn Woodpeckers, Lesser Goldfinches.......too many to list.
We watched a Bronzed Cowbird displaying for females on several occasions, but so far as we can tell the females are not impressed, even though I was!  He finishes off his display by levitating straight up into the air about 3 feet above the female, then slowly drops back to the ground and stares at her with his red eyes and best Darth Vader impression.
The usual skunks, foxes, raccoons and deer show up in the yard regularly and a black bear visited once, but we bring in all the feeders at night, so there is nothing for him to score here except the fruit on our trees.
Speaking of our fruit trees, I just harvested peaches from our peach tree!  They are small, but very sweet!  YUMMMMMM!  The birds, chipmunks, squirrels and deer have beat me to most of the peaches, but I got a good handful in two days of decent fruit, so I'm okay with sharing.  We have Apples, Pears, Peaches, Pomegranates, Persimmons & Pistachio......Don't know if we'll get to enjoy any of the other fruit before the bear returns, but I hope so!
The monsoon has threatened a bit, but hasn't really gotten started here yet.  We anxiously await a good monsoon rain and hope we get several over the next 3 months.

Being a birding community, it just seems so natural to have a Great Horned Owl family as neighbors.  We've been watching this pair since February and through May there has been a nightly gathering of birders from around the world hoping for a glimpse of Mama Owl feeding or tending to her owlets.  The first nestling came out of the nest cavity branching on May 12th and 9 days later I was lucky to capture on video, the father bringing a mouse, handing (well, beaking) it off to the Mama and she in turn fed it to the branching nestling.  We thought there must be another nestling that hadn't branched yet and sure enough, after this one fledged, the second nestling emerged for a nightly show for the birding public.  Locals as well as folks from Germany, Canada, Great Britain and states across our country gathered for the nightly show.   It was 9 days Being a birding community, it just seems so natural to have a Great Horned Owl family as neighbors.  We've been watching this pair since February and through May there has been a nightly gathering of birders from around the world hoping for a glimpse of Mama Owl feeding or tending to her owlets.  The first nestling came out of the nest cavity branching on May 12th and 9 days later I was lucky to capture on video, the father bringing a mouse, handing (well, beaking) it off to the Mama and she in turn fed it to the branching nestling.  We thought there must be another nestling that hadn't branched yet and sure enough, after the first one fledged, the second nestling emerged for a nightly show for the birding public.  Locals as well as folks from Germany, Canada, Great Britain and states across our country gathered for the nightly show.   On Saturday, it was 9 days since first peaking out of the nest cavity,  for nestling #2, & Sunday, Mama wasn't in her normal day perch where she kept an eye on the nest, so we figured owlet #2 had flown Saturday night and sure enough, as we looked for it, a mobbing by the annoying acorn woodpeckers alerted us to the adults and we soon spotted the newly fledged owlet #2 on a branch of a dead sycamore on the creeks edge, near the nest tree.  Since Mama has moved her day perch location, we doubt there is a third nestling, but we'll continue watching for a few more days just to make sure there isn't a third nestling waiting his time in the limelight.
to see the video, cut & paste this link: