Watching Wildlife Up Close at the Huntington Botanical Garden

Cut-paper art illustration from A Day and Night in the Desert

In my book, A Day and Night in the Desert, I illustrated a scene with a barrel cactus, a desert dwelling squirrel and a red-tailed hawk flying overhead. A sidebar reads: Antelope ground squirrels often climb barrel cacti to eat the fruit. No one knows how they keep from getting stuck on the cacti’s sharp spines.

Squirrel plucking ripe fruit from a barrel cactus

On my recent visit to the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, California, I had the chance to observe this unusual behavior in real life. The cactus and succulent section of the garden has a large display of barrel cacti, and they were plump from recent rains and covered with ripe fruit. I watched a squirrel nimbly hopping up the cacti to harvest the fruit. The squirrel (a common grey squirrel) seemed to be able to balance on the spines and had no trouble reaching the fruit.
On the same page spread the main text of the book reads: A red-tailed hawk circles the sky. It is looking for something to eat. The squirrel sees the hawk and dashes to safety inside its burrow.
Rather amazingly, I got to witness this part of my story too. As my friend and I walked through the garden we had seen several red-tailed hawks soaring in the sky and perching in the trees overhead. Suddenly, one swooped down beside us and just ahead attacked an unsuspecting squirrel. We could hear the thud of the impact and the squirrel squealing. Luckily, it managed to escape.

When I research the information for my books I use all available sources including other books, the internet and talking with experts. But when I can see my subject with my own eyes it becomes part of my experience. In my books I hope to convey the same wonder of discovery.

WATCHING DESERT WILDLIFE, Now Available as a Kindle Book

WATCHING DESERT WILDLIFE is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. It was originally published by Carolrhoda Books in 1994 and is out of print. The cover has been redesigned and the text and photos inside the book have been updated. WATCHING DESERT WILDLIFE is illustrated with photos taken by my husband, Arthur Arnold, taken on many visits to the deserts of California and Arizona as well as to the high deserts in the Great Basin, where we had the opportunity to observe the richness of desert life up close. I am happy to have WATCHING DESERT WILDLIFE now available to new readers as an e-book. You can read it with a Kindle app on various devices (I use my iPad) or on your computer.

After a sudden spring rain, the flowers of a giant saguaro cactus bloom. Beneath the hot sun, a lizard flicks its tail and dashes for the shade of an overhanging ledge. Although the desert may seem to be a barren and lifeless place, it is full of plants and animals that have adapted to its harsh environment. In this updated edition of Watching Desert Wildlife, readers go on a guided tour of desert life and explore the fascinating ways in which plant and animals have come to survive in some of North America's driest and hottest places.

Coloring Page: Desert 6:00 AM

Tap-tap, tap-tap! Tap-tap, tap-tap!
It is an early spring morning in the Sonoran desert. A Gila woodpecker drills a hole in a saguaro cactus. The tall plant will be a good place to build a nest. On the ground below, a coyote looks for a place to rest.
You can read more about plants and animals that live in the Sonoran Desert in my new book A Day and Night in the Desert. Find out which animals are awake during the day, and which animals are awake at night.

Click HERE to go to download the picture as a coloring page.