Life Imitates Kitsch

Space Shuttle Endeavor

Like mating dragonflies, space shuttle Endeavor sailed over Tucson riding a 747 this morning on its way to its final resting place in Los Angeles. The fly over honored our former Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, and her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, who was commander on the Endeavor's last mission in May 2011.

I am disappointed that there was no advance publicity about this once-in-a-lifetime event. Hence, all I got was this sorry photo with my phone.

Short Sale Pain May Hurt More in 2013

Unless Congress acts quickly, people who lose their homes in short sales may be hit with a tax bill for the "income" they received in the form of forgiven debt.

Tarantula: Five on the Left and Three on the Right

I encountered this unusual tarantula while hiking in Madera Canyon over the weekend. It was about the size of my hand and fingers. It seems to have lost its right front leg and pedipalp, but it can still get around okay. When it moults, it will grow new appendages. It may have even eaten its appendages if a predator didn't make off with them.

I was not concerned that I could get hurt by making this video, but I should have been. Tarantulas can throw hairs at their attackers, and the hairs can create an irritating rash. They can even cause permanent eye damage.

By the way, Madera Canyon is only an hour south of Tucson in the Santa Rita Mountains. It is 3,000 feet higher and at least 20 degrees cooler than Tucson. Birds I saw there: Broad-Billed, Rufous and Black-Chinned Hummingbirds, Acorn Woodpeckers, Green-Backed and Black-Backed Lesser Goldfinches, Mexican Jays and a Bullock's Oriole.

Like the Views from Desert's Edge? Buy My Neighbor's House

I have spent many hours watching and listening to the wildlife in the back yard of my home, Desert's Edge. Many of the photos in the Urban Wildlife section of my blog were taken there. If you would like to share my extreme good luck in owning a home on the edge of the desert, here's your big chance. My neighbors have hired me to sell their wonderful home.

Let's start with the back yard, which is adjacent to 65 acres of common area owned by the home owner's association. Before you say "Yuck! Homeowner's association!" let me tell you that the dues are $41.50 per YEAR, which mainly pays the taxes and insurance on the common area.

The owners have created a wildlife viewing paradise, with a porch that extends 55 feet, all the way across the back of the house. They built this porch strong enough to support a deck, from which you would be able to see the city lights, and four mountain ranges. On the roof is the solar water heater panel.

The inside of the home is also a delight. Bright and well-maintained, it has four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

The floor plan is here.
The kitchen and living room floors are polished saltillo, and the rest of the floors were recently tiled with a decorative saltillo-look-alike ceramic. Close to Tumamoc Hill and only 10 minutes to downtown.

Solid masonry construction and all work done by professionals with building permits. If you know another neighborhood where you can own this kind of view for this kind of price, please let me know about it, because I've never seen it.

Sold for $145,000 in December 2012.

Two Turtle Doves

Yesterday morning I was delighted to find a Ringed Turtle Dove strolling around my back yard. The doves we usually see in Tucson are Mourning Doves and White Winged Doves. Both of our common doves have black cheek stripes and blue eye rings and are darker gray than the Ringed Turtle Dove. The black collar and lack of cheek stripes are the most diagnostic features of the Ringed Turtle Dove.

This is only the second time I have seen a Turtle Dove. They were domesticated in Los Angeles from an African dove species. The ones we see are escaped or released pets or their descendants.

The really weird thing is that my fabulous client, David Kuster, emailed me a photo he took of a Ringed Turtle Dove in his yard just a hour after I took my photo! David's dove has a darker neck ring. Maybe it's more mature than mine? Anyway, I thought that was remarkable because David had never before emailed me a photo of anything.

Update: Just got this from another fabulous client, Jonathan Horst.

Hope you're getting rain tonight; sprinkling here.

I think the bird you saw is a Eurasian Collared Dove - their range is spreading pretty quickly and they're getting more common each year in Tucson (the first I saw was four years ago; now they're all over my back yard). Might be a Ringed Turtle Dove, but that'd be a super-rarity. And apparently they're generally difficult to tell apart (song is easiest) though this page is helpful : http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/EucdovRitdovID.htm
I could be wrong though, maybe it's a Turtle Dove...if so, rare bird indeed.
Jonathan's an ecologist, so he knows what he's talking about.

I sent photos to the Rare Bird Alert at the Tucson Audubon Society.  I received this very informative email from Andrew Core:

Thanks for the pictures. Ringed Turtle-Doves are occasionally released into the wild and have on a few occasions bred in Arizona, but they don't show any signs of becoming established; their numbers are continually replenished by more releases.
However, the two pictures show what I think is the closely related Eurasian Collared-Dove. Only a view of the underside of the tail would be conclusive, but Eurasian Collared-Doves are generally darker and a little larger than Ringed. Eurasian Collared-Doves have a very interesting history in the United States. You can read more about them here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eurasian_Collared-Dove/id

Okay, so not as rare as I thought, but Turtle Doves just the same.

July Residential Sales Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has published the residential sales statistics for July. The news remains encouraging for sellers, and may motivate some buyers to get off the fence.

Average sale price was $181,978, which is a 4.11% increase in only one month, and a 5.1% increase from a year ago. Even more shocking, the average sale price was 21% higher than when it hit bottom in September 2011. Average sale price is now slightly higher than it was in January 2004, just before the bubble started to inflate. Historically, prices peak in July, and if past trends are any indication of future performance, prices will now go into a slide until next February. Probably nothing dramatic or destabilizing, just the normal annual cycle.

The median sale price, the price at which half the sales were higher and half were lower, remained steady at $140,000 for the third month in a row.

Number of units sold (demand) typically peaks in June, and this year was no different. With 1,137 units sold in July, we saw a decrease of 10.4% from June, but demand was still 1.16% higher than a year ago.

Active listings (supply) was virtually the same in July (3,477) compared to June (3,474), but was down 36% from last July. The limited choice of houses for sale has created bidding wars that will continue to prop up sale prices in the under $150,000 market.

We now have a three month supply of listings. This time last year, we had a 4.81 month supply.

Foreclosures accounted for 26% of the sales in July, and 17% of the sales were short sales.