Coati - Camera Critter

Here are pictures of the coati we saw on our walk in Sabino Canyon on Monday. From a distance it looked like a monkey of some sort in the tree. The long tail is used for balancing, but it is non-prehensile.
We did the best we could photographing the animal with the bright sun behind it. We watched it for about a half hour. It seemed comfortable being observed by people standing on the paved road.
White-nosed Coatis belong to the raccoon family. The park ranger said this was probably an adult male because it was large and alone. Female and juvenile coatis are usually found in groups of 4 to 25.
We didn't hear any sounds coming from the coati. But they are known to communicate with chirps, snorts and grunts.


The long, slightly upturned snout is flexible, and can be rotated 60 degrees in any direction. Their ankles can rotate beyond 180 degrees.


It was eating these tiny orange berries from the Netleaf Hackberry tree.
Coatis live in wooded areas from southern Arizona and New Mexico, through Mexico and Costa Rica to Columbia.


Here's a short coati video without sound:


This is my first time participating in the Camera Critters meme for people who love animals. For more pictures of critters, please visit Camera Critters.

October Walk

Chris and I went for a walk in the canyon yesterday morning as it had just rained the night before.
Because of the rain, the accordion-like pleats of the saguaros had expanded, making the cacti look a little plumper than usual.
The leaves of the cottonwood trees along the creek were just starting to turn golden.

We saw a jack rabbit, a Harris's antelope squirrel and some of the usual birds like this cactus wren.

Even though the rain seemed to have cooled off the heat wave, not many visitors were in the park.
The recent rain wasn't enough for the creek to resume flowing.
We only saw pools of standing water here and there.
We didn't encounter any reptiles in the four hours we were at the canyon.
But there were a lot of these dark orange butterflies.
And, at the first bridge past mile two, there was a surprise up in a tree, that drew a small audience...
A coati! This was the first time Chris or I have seen one at the canyon. Coatis belong to the raccoon family. They're also known as Coatimundis, Brazilian aardvarks, hog-nosed coons, and snookum bears.
I'll put up more pictures of the coati in another post here.

Thimble Peak

Thimble Peak (on the left) stands between Sabino Canyon and Bear Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. I've noticed that viewed from the track, the space between Thimble Peak and Blackett's Ridge (to its right) echos the inverted shape of Thimble Peak, more or less, depending on where I stand.

The first image is from the sunrise skywatch post on my Desert Colors blog. The second picture was taken twelve hours later. The cloud formation looks like a ghost of Thimble Peak.

I found some more pictures of Thimble Peak that I took earlier this year in various lighting and weather.

I'm fascinated by the colors of Thimble Peak and the negative space next to it. I plan snap a picture each time I go to the track over the next few months and post some of the results.