The Landscapes of Pinal County

BY: Neil Weidner

DESTINATION PINAL COUNTY Diverse Scenery and Animal Life Greet Those Who Stop and Look

FROM THE HIGHEST POINT NEAR RICE PEAK on 7,494-foot Oracle Ridge, to the lowest saltbush flats at 1,000 feet elevation, Pinal County in southcentral Arizona contains a wide array of plants, animals and landscapes. The higher northern and eastern border of Pinal County features the Superstition, Dripping Spring, Tortilla and Galiuro mountains, where indigenous juniper, oak, piñon and sumac trees shelter javelinas and deer year-round and provide a winter home for bluebirds and hawks. The Sawtooth, Picacho, Silver Reef and Table Top mountains loom on its southern and western edges, but most of the county is low and flat.

Under the rugged slopes in the arroyos and bajadas of these Southwestern ranges, I have tried in vain to capture mule deer and desert bighorn sheep on film. But patience pays, particularly with photography. For many long, hot hours, sweat soaking my clothes, stinging my eyes and smudging my glasses, I have waited for Gambel's quail to come to water. And if I were lucky, maybe a green-tailed towhee or a cardinal would pose for a portrait.

Other parts of the county have unique features as well. I am always amazed at a rock garden 15 miles east of Florence on the Florence-Kelvin Highway, on the north side of the road, where pine trees grow within a few feet of saguaros and white-tailed deer dart through the nearby ocotillos and cholla cacti. How could they prefer this hot, harsh area to that of the cooler oak and manzanita country? Slicing through the county, beautiful waterways like the San Pedro River and Aravaipa Creek attract mule deer and bobcats. These riparian areas also provide sanctuaries for rare bird species like Mississippi kites, black hawks and the more abundant Gila woodpeckers and Scott's orioles. Huge cottonwood and sycamore trees grow here, and in the fall, their yellow and reddish-brown canopies paint miles of beautiful color. My walks along the creek bottoms enjoying the smells of dried leaves, trickling water and singing birds always stimulate my creativity. The diversity and unexpected aspects of the landscape make Pinal County special for me, and for others who take the time to look. Al

A PORTFOLIO

[PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 24 AND 25] Soft sunlight just touches an imposing saguaro cactus and a granite rock in the desert east of Florence. To order a print of this photograph, see page 1. [TOP] Scott's orioles often nest in yuccas, using the plant's fibers to help create suspended basket-shaped domiciles in which to rear their young.

[RIGHT] The Sacaton Mountains stretch east and west through the southern portion of the Gila River Indian Community north of Casa Grande.

A PORTFOLIO

[FAR LEFT] Table Top Mountain, at 4,373 feet, is one of the tallest peaks within the newly designated Sonoran Desert National Monument southwest of Phoenix. [ABOVE] Buzzing aerial displays during courtship mark the male Anna's hummingbird as one of the most vocal of the species. [LEFT] The delicate magenta flowers of the strawberry hedgehog cactus seem incongruously placed among its spiky armament.

No dummies, These BiG Ostriches

To Make Sure, We Sent a Writer of High Intellect Out to Investigate "IF YOU WANT TO KISS ONE OF THESE OSTRICHES, you do it like this," says D.C. "Rooster" Cogburn, stretching a beefy hand over a tall chain-link fence. He pulls an ostrich forward by its coarse, long neck, quickly folds his hands around its toothless mouth and kisses it on the bill.

Cogburn has more than 1,500 South African black ostriches on his Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch at the base of Picacho Peak some 45 miles northwest of Tucson, and as far as he's concerned, they're just birds of a feather.

"Big dumb turkeys is all they are," he says.

Cogburn, 65, pushes back his straw hat and struts off in his bib overalls, leaving me with some advice: "Talk to my wife. She knows more about these birds than anybody."

First, however, I stop a tourist and ask why she and her family left the nearby Interstate 10 at Exit 219 to visit these big birds.

"We wanted to see how dumb they were," she says.

Which intrigues me no end. Are ostriches really dumb?

The late Ogden Nash, who was known for his humorous verse, once expressed humane relief when he learned that ostriches sit down to lay their eggs. So, it may be true that an ostrich's eye is larger than its brain, but let's not jump to conclusions. At least ostrich hens know instinctively that if they just sit down at the right moment, they can avoid extinction. That's not dumb.

On the contrary, considering that an ostrich egg weighs between 3 and 4 pounds, you can see that sitting down is a brilliant maneuver. An ostrich egg is no trifle. It's so large it can be used for an omelet that would feed 10 normal people or one overweight writer.

Don't like omelets? Try a hard-boiled