Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 23hWell. Hello. (Is that a debut at #7 on the NYT bestseller list? Why yes, yes it is!) 72138775
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026Ooh! Native Plant Guy spotted a Giant Red Velvet Mite in the yard! *adds to yard list* They’re harmless, and show up after rain. 184036
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026Hot damn! Green-tailed Towhee in the garden! 1664823
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026Wait, hang on! We have a late addition! The Maximilian sunflower @janelindskold.bsky.social gave me is going NUTS! We planted at the wrong time, barely watered, and were never sure if it was gonna pull through, but you can’t keep a good sunflower down. 73063
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026Bro? Bro, again, DESERT. Are you lost, bro? (No, he’s not. Fungus gets everywhere, it just takes a special breed out here.) 42191
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026But the weirdest—the absolute WEIRDEST—thing the rains brought? THIS IS A DESERT HOLY CRAP! 62321
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026The rains also brought the Rocky mountain zinnias back out. These grow wild all over the property. They’re a low plant that is so goddamn cheerful they practically play the kazoo. 22306
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026Our massive rains of the last week or so have kicked the Apache plume back into bloom. He has some tiny bug friends in there. 22141
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026I am accompanied while I type by Wilson’s Warblers, who have stopped here on migration and not left for two weeks. 53149
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026This bed is also doing well. The spineless prickly pear basically quadrupled in size this year, and the yucca next to the wall is almost up to my waist. 32100
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026One of the low beds. It just all came together better than either Native Plant Guy or I expected. 32742
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026I just need you all to admire how goddamn glaucous this Yucca probably-pallida is. 32320
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026This gorgeous little blue guy is West Texas Grass Sage, Salvia reptans. It forms an airy clump for much of the year, then flowers into this. 32854
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026Hmm, I seem to be doing a #bloomscroll instead of working. Oh well. The Ultra Violet Salvia greggi is living up to its name here. 52965
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 28/09/2026They particularly love the edges of pavers or the concrete walk. 12320
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 27/09/2026…and it’s even better when I take the photo off the macro setting! 24142
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 27/09/2026Dammit, the Moon is doing a spectacular thing and as usual, it will not fit in my camera at all. 251375110
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 08/09/2026KEVIN: Got it. Please pick which door to go to. And so, at high speed, we ran our new friend to the back and released him. I am about 99% sure it was a milk snake. 357124
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 08/09/2026Birder friends, I need a sanity check on this one.* It’s a thrasher, it ought to be a curve-billed thrasher—bill is foreshortened—but the more I stare at it, the less I have any idea what a thrasher looks like. *I do not need iNat, GoogleEye or anything else. I can do that all on my own. 162215
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 07/09/2026It’s literally described as exercise by health organizations! The CDC puts it up above weight lifting! 2460
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 07/09/2026Here’s the website, and LO! sceye.com/about-sceye/ 195505
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 07/09/2026AHA!!! KEVIN FOUND IT! It’s a high-altitude balloon that launches carrying scientific equipment! 1884019
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 07/09/2026Cropped closeup, such as it is. It was REALLY shiny. Best guess is drone, obviously, some kind of weather thing, maybe? Anybody got a better ID? I’ll try to draw what it looked like through the bins. 224075
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 07/09/2026Super shiny, shaped like maybe a blimp with a little bit of a fish tail? Dark gray line at the top, silver at the bottom. My guess is weird drone, but it was either not moving or so high up we couldn’t detect the motion. Not knowing the size doesn’t help. Phone photo: 123984
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 06/09/2026Weird Sticks are hung! You’re getting an angled shot because I’ll probably spend the next week making small position adjustments since at least one is crooked but I’m not fixing it tonight. The only problem is that making these is kinda fun, so now I need another space that needs something. 58101650
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 06/09/2026So for the last couple months, on a whim, I have been making Weird Sticks. The extremely high ceilings of our living room would eat any painting smaller than a Volkswagen Bug, so I got the idea that a sufficiency of six foot sticks might fill that space nicely. 55138465
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 20/08/2026Hey #Bugsky! Look what Native Plant Guy found in the garden! I don’t know my local species well enough to know if this is a standard species or if it’s got the pink grasshopper mutation. Input appreciated! 3551544
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026And finally, for you who have lasted this long, here is the garden in the golden hour yesterday evening. It’s filled in a lot in just a year! 1138713
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026And this little weirdo is Netcup Snapdragon Vine. It’s a delicate little scrambler. I planted it under a rose, figuring it probably wanted shaded feet, and it climbed happily all over the rose. It is useful to virtually nothing, hosts nothing, cares about nothing. I admire its lack of fucks. 22385
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026The blanketflowers are blooming! There are a number of members of the Gaillardia genus, and a number of them host very specialized moths that only feed on one single species. 42509
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026Speaking of lack of subtlety, FAMEFLOWER IN THE HOUSE IN YOUR EYEBALLS SCOURING YOUR OPTIC NERVES CLEAN FOR THE GLORY OF THE PHEMERANTHUS GENUS They really are this bright. The camera chokes on them. Great little succulent, indestructible in my yard, sun and dry and dry and dry has not stopped ‘em. 32367
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026The Redbirds In A Tree are doing great in their part shade spot. Endemic to one mountain in New Mexico and introduced by High Country Garden. Hopefully I don’t need to point out that they are not actually birds or trees. 52104
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026Let’s hear it for hairy goldenaster! Also called hairy false goldenaster despite being the same species. I am so tired. 22133
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026It’s a Russian sage! This one came with the house and is approximately the size of a VW bug. Russian sages are not from Russia, and weren’t originally a sage, but in 2017, they were declared a Salvia because the people had had enough of these shenanigans. 32548
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026This is a tansyaster, a tall, rather coarse plant which volunteers readily and makes me sufficiently happy that I rarely remove them unless they’re about to eat another plant. It’s not that closely related to tansy but fortunately for all our sanity, it is an aster. 22270
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026Oh, my desert willow! We were a little worried he’d be too cold here, so we originally planted him on the south side of the wall, which stays warm. Then we learned that spot is an OVEN. Native Plant Guy relocated a tragic, leafless stick inside the wall, without much hope. It’s now waist high. 43006
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026Seriously, check out what it looked like in July. 228911
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026This little beauty is cherry skullcap! One of my very favorite groundcovers. It’s not at its best right now, but the first flush of blooms is WILD. It’s about three inches tall, spreads slowly, and is not on the drip. 11990
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026This is also a penstemon. I think it’s P. fendleri but who knows any more? 21980
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026Soothe your taxonomy addled soul with this lovely Penstemon, a genus that is clearly defined and has no confusing aspects whatsoever. 128510
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026This is my Salvia lavendulifolia, aka Spanish sage, which has been deadheaded in the last few weeks, hence the patchy color. Gets lovely lavender spikes. But shouldn’t Salvia hispanicum be called Spanish sa— THAT IS CHIA. NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM. 12622
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026The Apache plume is flowering! The flowers are so so, but the seedheads are lovely and range from pink to white. It’s a host plant for Neumoegen's buckmoth, which isn’t actually found in New Mexico, but the pollinators like it. 42502
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026Speaking of, here is the exquisitely handsome Prairie Sage, Artemisia ludoviciana. It’s tougher than a tough thing and spreads around if it can. I have never watered it once. 43344
Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2026This, meanwhile, is Salvia azurea, native to New Mexico east. It’s a drought tolerant prairie plant, and has formed a rather airy little clump about four feet high. 13541
