Images on the Nature Vista site

Thank you for visiting the Nature Vista web site. I thought it might be helpful to explain the context of certain images found on this site.

On this site there are several images of bobcats labeled as being taken in Tucson, Arizona. These images are of wild bobcats and were taken on the patio at my house, which has a bird bath (seen in some of the images) that provides a local watering hole for a variety of the fauna that live in the area or are passing through. In the images, there is fencing in the background of the photos. The large, black fence surrounds my patio and pool area and is to keep people (specifically children) out and not keep animals in. There are openings in the fence that allow fauna of all sizes access to and from the bird bath.

The bobcats in the photos have walked through these fence openings as seen in the following photo.

Some images show a smaller meshed fencing. This is designed to keep small animals (e.g., rabbits) out of the area and not to keep them in. The bobcats in the images were not caged by any of these fences and stayed only a short time to quench their thirst before moving on to do the things that bobcats do.

On the Nature Vista site, you will see many images that are labeled as being at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The Desert Museum is more than what one might typically think of as a museum.

To quote, in part, one of their recent publications (Sonorensis, 2019): … “we are a zoo, a botanical garden, natural history museum, art institute and aquarium. Each of these labels carries with it the awesome responsibility of helping to preserve nature’s treasures for future generations” …

As a part of their activities, the Desert Museum’s Art Institute offers workshops and classes, some of which are photography oriented. I have had the good fortune to be able to attend several of these. Some of these classes, in addition to providing instruction on photography, offer the participant the opportunity to get close to some of the wildlife residents of the museum. These have provided the opportunity to create the close-up images of rattlesnakes, the porcupine and some of the raptors seen on this web site as well as other fauna not included. Some of the raptor images and those of the felines (mountain lion and ocelot) were taken at the areas of the Desert Museum open to the general population.

Most recently, I attended the museum’s Avian Adventure, which provided the opportunity to get within arm’s reach of a Great Horned Owl and to have an Eurasian Eagle Owl land on my arm (see the photo on the About pages).

On the Nature Vista site, you will also see some Flora images listed as taken at the Desert Museum. The museum’s grounds provide the opportunity to experience a wide variety of the flora found in the Sonora desert. The Flora images were taken in areas open to the general public.

I encourage anyone living in or visiting the Tucson area that is interested in experiencing the beauty of the Sonora Desert to visit the Museum. I also encourage anyone interested in a closer experience with some of the Museum’s wild residents to consider the Art Institute’s photography workshops and classes or the Museum’s Avian Adventure.

I have not received any compensation or consideration from the Desert Museum or anyone for the comments made in this post.

Again, thank you for visiting the Nature Vista web site. I hope you find it of interest and will check back periodically to see what new images (and words) I post.