THE WONDERS OF THE SONORAN DESERT
....by E. Levi Brake
I've been back down here in Ajo for a few weeks now and have been truly enjoying the warm weather. It was getting just a tad too chilly for my old bones up there in Prescott Valley, at about the same elevation as you are in Albuquerque. The morning temperatures were down awfully close to the 30s and I suspect, very similar to what you're having in your neck of the woods. But it's easy to tell that winter's on the way here In Ajo. The daily highs are in the low to mid-90s and the nights are down in the 60s.
The first morning I was here I went out into the arroyo to scatter some feed for the quail and there was not a bird to be seen anywhere. They must have found the feed during the day though, because the next morning just before full daylight I went out and I could hear them chattering away in the brush. Not two minutes after I came back in there were at least 30 of them partaking of their "manna" and they've been back every morning since. I haven't yet seen many doves but they'll figure it out soon. There were the usual several cottontails competing with the quail for the feed.
I've been serenaded every evening by a coyote singing his yip-yipping song from across the arroyo. He (or she) always sounds like he's just outside my window. We'll have a bobcat patrolling the arroyo when the rabbits start reproducing fast enough. Old bobcat will stay in the arroyo long enough to make sure he's got the rabbit population reduced to where he thinks it should be and then he'll leave for a while and come back later to resume his patrol. Once in a while during the winter we'll see a wily fox hanging around, but not often.
The amount, and the variety of wildlife in this part of the Sonoran Desert always causes me to marvel at the diversity of Mother Nature. Some of the best and sleekest-looking deer I've ever seen somehow live and do well in this old desert.
The javelina that normally live out away from town learned over time that they can also do quite well in town, so we just have to put up with them. They are the ugliest, most foul-smelling and pestiferous creatures I have ever known. They so resemble a domestic pig that local folks typically refer to them as such even though they're not even distantly related. In fact, they are a peccary.
They are almost blind but have an extremely sensitive sense of smell. They are tusked and will defend their young vigorously if they feel threatened. The males have a musk gland that can produce the worst smell I've ever experienced. Their flesh is edible, but just barely, so most people that hunt them during the season do it just for sport. Years ago when I lived in Superior, AZ, there was an old Mexican lady who could make a pretty tasty red chili using javelina meat, but she is the only person I've know who could.
Of course there are the snakes, and the one most talked about is the diamondback rattler. Although there are many different kinds of snakes here I think the rattler is the only poisonous one, but I could be wrong. Many varieties of lizards exist in the desert, some of which can be up to four feet in length.
Not being an expert I won't even try to list the hundreds of varieties of plant life. Just about everything that grows has thorns or some other means to protect itself not just from humans, but from other animals which would feed on it. The most conspicuous plants are the cacti, chief among which is the tall, stately saguaro. The skeleton of an old saguaro has been standing behind my place for an untold number of years but this year I see it has been knocked down, likely from javelina which seemed to enjoy scratching their hides by rubbing against it.
The common trees are mesquite, palo verde, ironwood, and cat claw and they grow mostly in and around the washes. During the summer monsoon season these washes, or arroyos, will sometimes run bank to bank with water, but only for a short time and then they revert to their more natural dry state.
There are a number of old abandoned mines out in the desert, none of which ever produced much except blood, sweat and tears. The exception is the big open-pit copper mine operated here for many years by Phelps-Dodge Mining Co. Nearly all the old mining folks are either dead or have moved away by now and most of the current residents are either retired, working in one of the local stores, or providing services for the townspeople. This is a quiet, laid-back lifestyle and I suppose that's why I like it.
---30---
FOR MIL'S
By E. Levi Brake, CHS '51
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