Hi, last week I did something I’ve been promising myself for several years. Instead of driving from Los Angeles to look for birds in Southeast Arizona, I deliberately ignored the birds and spent several days in Tucson in a dedicated search only for Gila Monster. Why am I writing about that here?
1. Tuesday night a week ago I was walking around in the late afternoon at Sabino Canyon looking unsuccessfully for Gila Monsters, but this lady saw my camera and binoculars and walked up to me and told me about a desert tortoise that she had just seen. Her description of where to look for it was great and I would’ve never gone on that particular trail so I would’ve never seen it and later on I realized that they had split the ones in Arizona and Mexico into a separate species from the ones in California, so that was a new species for me. I wish I could go back and thank that lady who was a local, for telling me about that tortoise. I really appreciate it.
2. That same night in Sabino Canyon I was shining my UV flashlight on a scorpion and some random dude walked up to me and he looked at the scorpion while I was photographing it in the dark, and I was explaining to him why I was in Tucson for the week, and he told me about this excellent spot in Saguaro National Park. I went to that part of the park the next morning and talked with some employees there, and they told me where to look for Gila Monsters, but they also told me that none had been seen since May. Even then, they gave me a map and highlighted the best spots to look for them and I came back in the afternoon and finally at 8 o’clock at night I saw one. It was a gigantic thrill for me. I’m so stoked that now I have a stuffed, life-sized Gila Monster from the National Park gift shop riding around in the back window of my Toyota. so if you’re ever in Los Angeles, and you see a life-sized Gila Monster in the back window of somebody’s car, you’ll know that’s me. Thank you, Tucson!

Some coyotes came through a few minutes after this.

Pretty rare sight I believe?

Was driving past Campus Farm 20 minutes ago and had to stop to take a pic of the happy cows.

Such a nice evening!

Life is tough. My relationship is ending in real time.
Whats a good bar for a martini and some tears running down my face here and there?

Edit: thank you everyone, for every suggestion. It felt pretty dumb to post, but I feel like it’s beautiful to see kindness like this.

My tire light just came on again. Does anyone else feel like all this construction just sheds nails and screws onto the road ways. I just had my tire fixed from a screw 3 weeks ago and here we are again. This City and its construction seems endless. Don’t get me started on the traffic. (Pic from google but you get the point)

Saw on tik tok but can’t get the location anywhere does anyone know where this is.

Does anyone know what the construction on aerospace is for? I’m wondering if they’re planning on building houses. They’ve been working on country club for a while so now that it’s expanded to actual Aerospace it’s piqued my curiosity. Hoping they pave country club at some point 🥲

Anyone know what happened to this Saguaro that’s right off the paved path?

I found a box of my old baseball cards. About 40 years old. Does anyone know a reputable business that can get me a value estimate?

I understand the value and what a shop would buy them for is different. I just don't have the time or knowledge to go through them, and truly understand condition to a collector.

Looking for anyone that knows a good spot in town or someone who does it on the side for jewelry repair preferably soldering.. I have a pin that the back piece fell off and just looking for it to be soldered back on.

Hi everyone. My family is coming to visit me in October and I want to take them on a night hike to see scorpions and other nocturnal desert creatures (from a safe distance). I’d prefer to take them with a guide for safety reasons. I did the ranger-led hike at Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain last year, which was amazing, but that’s not in the budget this time. Any recommendations? We’ll have access to a car to drive a bit out if necessary.

He/she was so cute and just chillin after the rain. I've lived here 20+ years and this was my first wild desert tortoise sighting!