Gila Woodpecker on saguaro

[ellarien]

IMG_0933
Originally uploaded by ellarien.

We hit 100 today, with single-digit humidity -- hot and dry enough to sting . Phoenix got 110!

Comments

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I love your desert photos. But ooh yikes, that's hot weather.

[ellarien]

Thanks! I'm glad I don't live in Phoenix, for sure. We just get month-long runs of 100+ degree days; they get that with 110+ sometimes, whereas we usually only get a few of those days a year. (Tucson is a little higher, and not quite so much of an urban heat island.)

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Right now a desert seems quite attractive. I don't reckon to suffer from hayfever, but there is just so much pollen in the air at the moment from the trees behind the house, that it's irritating my sinuses and making my eyes feel hot and sticky.

But I know that I'd get tired of that heat after 3 days max!

[ellarien]

Oddly enough, just about everyone I know here has allergies -- I never really had them before I moved here, and now I'm sniffly between February and June at least. The dryness and accompanying dust probably don't help, and neither do all the non-native plants and grasses that have come with development. It does seem to be tailing off a bit now that most of the flowering season is winding down.

[pxcampbell.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's punching through the 100's these days up here.

But it's not too terribly bad. I was outside doing yard work. The flies were a lot more bothersome than the heat.

[ellarien]

This kind of dry heat is more or less bearable, as long as one remembers to drink enough fluids. Which I am bad at, because my middle-aged British instinct is to reach for the kettle when I'm thirsty, not the fridge.