the wandering chick
...Oro Valley
here and there
Oro Valley is a community 12 miles or so north of Tucson that lies at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is filled with hiking, biking and equestrian possibilities as well as home to the Biosphere II.
A snow-capped peak of the Catalina Mountain Range
The entrance to the sweet Honeybee Canyon Park
Santa Catalina Catholic Church and its Stations of the Cross Memorial Garden
A war memorial on the church grounds
The memorial garden hosts the Stations of the Cross, a peaceful garden backdropped by the Catalina Mountains
A black-crowned night heron graces the Sun City golf course .
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Pima Canyon is a roughly 10-mile hiking and horse trail located just south of Oro Valley.
Any number of things such as drought or disease can cause mutations in saguaros, sometimes called crested saguaros.
Does anyone else see Deputy Dawg in this saguaro, or is it just me?
Residents of the Rancho Vistoso community in Oro Valley are quite familiar with wildlife in their neighborhood. Here, a young javelina roams the street with ease. To the right is a great-horned owl nesting in a neighborhood tree.
What was once an abandoned golf course in the Rancho Vistoso community is being rejuvenated into a nature preserve. In 2019, community residents rejected the idea of turning the 200 acres into a new home development and formed "Preserve Vistoso" for the purpose of maintaining a habitat for wildlife as well as providing a recreational area for the community.
In a matter of weeks, nearly $2 million dollars was raised by the neighborhood non-profit, and with the cooperation of town officials and more than 400 donors, the planning stage has begun.
Below are images of the land in its "pre-nature preserve" state.
A major clean-up will be the beginning effort as a recent windstorm brought in mounds of tumbleweed that have covered much of the landscape.
The Santa Catalina Mountains provide a stunning backdrop for the upcoming nature preserve.
Petroglyphs discovered along the trail
This barely-surviving saguaro either is diseased, or has been hit by too many golf balls.
It's good to know the wildlife on this former golf course will continue to thrive in their natural habitat.
It's possible that this sweet bird is a type of thrasher. If anyone knows differently, I can make a correction.
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