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Melissa Crytzer Fry

@crytzerfry.bsky.social

1.8K followers 390 following 1.2K posts

Writer, citizen scientist, conservationist, naturalist. Sharing a love of nature & the Sonoran Desert thru photos, camera traps. Married to an awesome man. Board Chair, Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance. Fighting to save the Galiuros from copper mining.

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · Aug 4

Fighting to save H20 & wildlife in AZ’s Sky Islands (my home). On June 30, BLM approved 67 exploratory drill sites for Canadian Faraday Copper.

Please help! By Aug. 18, 2025, email state and Safford BLM offices. Find easy copy/paste suggestions here: tinyurl.com/3ene6wa6.

What's at stake:

Collage includes images of an ornate tree lizard (turquoise belly); a ringtail (of the raccoon family with a striped tail, but looking like a small cat); the Copper Creek Valley filled with mature cottonwoods, saguaro and ocotillo; a mountain lion walking through lush grass at Copper Creek; a red-tailed hawk landing on a saguaro; a night-blooming cereus; a Lucy's warbler eating from burst, bright-red saguaro fruit; a young hooded skunk, tail erect; and the life-sustaining Copper Creek drainage basin of green foliage among an otherwise brown setting.

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 55m

Yes! A rarity these days.

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

😁😆😂

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

SWOON. You captured their colors like I've never seen them! WOO HOO.

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

Fantastic. Do you participate in the monitoring program, too?

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

Um, YEEESS! You needed to use some exclamation points, Holly!

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

Yes, Holly! We'd been seeing decreasing numbers for the past 4 years, and this year has seen an increase for sure. Yours are nectar-eating bats, too? How fun to have seen so many in Madera Canyon!

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

This was rather fantastic today! Our wash was a'flowin' and our driveway a'disappearin'. 😆 #ArizonaWeather 1.18" and more to come, I think!

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

Oh - like me!

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

Oh my. How lovely. Thank you so much for sharing. What fun to see them out and about in daylight!

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

It is SO lovely, isn't it?

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2h

It's just the way the camera recorded them!

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 10h

Me, too. You get a sense for how much 'energy' is flapping about when the video is sped up!~

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 10h

Thank you!

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 13h

The video of our gray #fox friend -- and lots of nectar-eating #bats. Caught on #cameratrap

[Wait for the end - 20x speed up to see ALL the bats]

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 23h

Thanks, Marina.

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 23h

It is REALLY impressive, isn't it?

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 1d

Squeezy and Squiggy sitting' in a tree... K-I-S-S-I-N-G...

Yes, our little boy has a thing for Squiggy the rock #squirrel. It's #Caturday!

My male cat, Squeezy, is looking toward me, his shoulder to the sliding glass door, where a rock squirrel, Squiggy, is standing erect with paws in front of her belly.

Squiggy is a girthy girl. She sits on two feet on the step, giving us the side eye.

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, he surpassed my girl's weight already. He's VERY long and muscular.

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2d

He's getting SO big. Prepping him for a 'real' camping trip and going to try the harness again. I have NOT been diligent with it, so starting from scratch. he's already 8.6 lbs (and he's only 7.5 mos old)

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 2d

So much fun to have our gray #fox visitor again! Second video (not posted) shows him at our watering station with a gazillion nectar-eating bats flying around him.

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 3d

Yay. I'm pretty stoked.

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 3d

Visitors to the pond cam! Juvenile and adult #TurkeyVulture caught on #cameratrap (The adult cracks me up, looking like a water feature).

Two turkey vultures at the shallow pond, next to the bowl. Foreground bird has a gray/black head, indicating it is a younger vulture. Red-headed adult is bending down to drink, and water is shooting out of its beak like a water fountain!

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Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks, Saunie. This is really exciting and such a lovely gift.

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks, Marina.

Melissa Crytzer Fry @crytzerfry.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks, Pamela.