A Morning of Mixed Fortunes

We decided that we weren't up for rushing round chasing birds, we just wanted a quiet, peaceful morning in the park. Kathie knew just the spot - Javalina Picnic Area in Saguaro NP East. I managed to tear my husband away from his computer to go for a hike too so, although I'm not into 'stones at birds', we were definitely 'killing two' in this case :) I waved off my intrepid hiker on his trek and then we settled ourselves in the shade with our tea, bins, cameras, bird books and breakfast.

 
The birds were actually remarkably quiet early on so we sat chatting and watching the antics of a very sweet Antelope Squirrel who was definitely used to getting snacks from people at these tables.

Soon our peace was shattered by my phone, it was my husband calling to see if we could see him up on the ridge. What is it about guys? They need to be seen conquering things? Bless them! Anyway we trained our binoculars along the ridge and finally spotted a tiny figuring toiling away up high. Having satisfied him that we could see him, we turned back to our birds.

First on parade were the comical Gambell's Quail, chattering and fussing away as they pottered down the trail. Unusually they flew up into a small tree and began pecking. We couldn't quite tell if they were eating the leaf buds or little bugs on the leaves but whatever it was they were certainly enjoying it.

They were followed by a very handsome male Cardinal who posed obligingly for us before flying off.

Our little Antelope Squirrel soon came back and we eventually folded and gave her a cashew nut, which seemed to meet with her approval. Look at that beautiful lichen on the rock that she chose as her dining table.

A little black butterfly came in to land and I managed to get a photo of it which is a surprise in itself, usually I get a blurry blob! When I looked closer at the picture I noticed that it wasn't just a black butterfly, it had a yellow head! I found out later by pouring over my books that it is a Golden-headed Scallopwing.

The birds were not being very active but it was a lovely morning to just be outside and enjoy our surroundings.

After another half an hour or so we decided to walk a nearby loop, it was only a mile long and Kathie knew there was a spot where Great-horned Owls were known to nest. How cool would that be if we could spot them?

 

We set out down the trail and were soon spotting birds like this Black-throated Sparrow

And a beautiful pair of Kestrels perched up high atop of Saguaros on either side of the trail

Many of the plants were blooming too which just added to the beautiful morning

Unfortunately at this point things went a little awry when Kathie trod on a stone which moved under her foot and sent her crashing to the ground. I turned round just as she cried out and landed at my feet. I have to say, if this had been me I would have been bawling my eyes out at this point but Kathie was more concerned about her camera - seriously! I suggested we went back to the car but Kathie wasn't about to give up on the day. We sat quietly for a while whilst I tried to patch up her leg and hand that were very badly gashed up. The little band aids really weren't man enough for the job but I did my best. She was soon up and on the go again, ever watchful for more birds. I suspect that adrenaline was keeping her going as this fall would later lay her low for several days. 

We finished the loop, adding several more species to our list, including the nesting Great-horned Owls and then Kathie dropped me back at the picnic area before heading home to clean up her wounds. By now it had started to warm up a little and my little furry friend was stretched out in the shade keeping cool.

As soon as Kathie left, a species that we had been expecting to see put in an appearance. A pair of Canyon Towhee scratching around in the dirt. But they didn't stay long and I barely got one photo off.

Soon a Thrasher appeared to check up on me. I felt as though I should stand to attention and salute or something under that ferocious glare!

Someone else also wanted to see what I was doing and she was prepared to get really 'up close and personal' to check me out.

I don't think I have ever had such a close encounter with a female Cardinal. She seemed just as intrigued by me as I was by her. It was a very magical moment.

Determined not to be outdone, the Antelope Ground Squirrel continued her impossibly cute antics. I was beginning to feel as if I was in the midst of a Disney movie!

 
But all good things must come to an end and soon enough 'the rambling man' appeared hot and thirsty and very happy after a good hike. It was time to bid all the animals goodbye and head back home.

 

We had a lovely morning, apart from Kathie's nasty fall and for those of you who don't follow her blogs (and you really should) she is being very sensible, taking things slowly and making a good recovery. You can't keep a good birder down for long!!

As Busy As A .......................

Well September may have been lousy but we are being blessed with a few beautiful autumn days now that October has arrived. The honey bees from our hives are certainly making the most of the sunshine and gathering the last of the years pollen to tide them through the long, cold months ahead.

THE DESERT IN BLOOM (Part Two)

Well, as promised, here is the other half of my series of flower photos from my recent visit to Anza Borrego. Now I am back in Chicago and we have had gale force winds, torrential rain and thunder storms so the heat of the desert seems very far away indeed.


This spiky little plant is the Bristly Calico or Bristly Gilia Langloisia setosissima a member of the phlox family it is a very low growing plant. I like the fact that although the delicate flowers are such a beautiful delicate lilac colour, there is something slightly sinister about those leaves - touch me at your peril!



I think this is the Smoke Tree Psorothamnus spinosus there were very few flowers on this plant as we were still a little early in the flowering season for this particular plant. It is called a Smoke Tree because it drops its leaves very early, as you can see! It has spiny stems which are covered in fine grey hairs and when not in flower, the plant has a slightly ethereal, hazy/smoky look, from a distance. When this plant sheds its seeds the coating on the seed must be scratched in order for water to enter the seed and initiate germination, this usually happens as the seed is tumbled along in the gravel of a sandy wash.



There are several flowers that look very similar to this one but as far as I can tell, this is the White Tackstem or White Cupfruit Calycoseris wrightii it was very profuse in rocky areas and an indicator that there had indeed been good rains because this species does not flourish in drier years. I was particularly taken with the little yellow 'eye' in the centre of each bloom of this species.


I am wimping out on this again because species of Globemallow Sphaeralcea are notoriously difficult to identify without closely studying the fruit segments. However this beautiful blossom was so outstanding in the harsh environment of the desert I was determined to include it anyway! If you happen to carry a hand magnifier with you, which I don't, apparently the stem and leaves are covered in star shaped hairs.



The Desert Rock Nettle or Desert Stingbush Eucnide urens is another deceptively delicate looking flower, although its name should be warning enough. So many of these plants grow in such inhospitable habitats that in order not to be eaten by a hungry herbivore they have adapted to make themselves as unpalatable as possible. This plant has fine stinging hairs all over the leaves and stems, so, you can look, but you really shouldn't touch!


The Desert Rock-Pea or Desert Deerweed Lotus rigidus spends a large part of the year leafless and looking as if it is dead but with the onset of winter rains it undergoes a transformation and bursts forth with masses of red and yellow pea like flowers.


This is yet another plant that has developed irritating hairs in order to deter potential browsers. The Checker Fiddleneck or Devil's Lettuce Amsinckia tessellata has coiling flower clusters and each blossom opens as the flower head uncoils. If at all possible you should avoid brushing against this plant as the long white hairs will stick with you!


The Desert Chicory Rafinesquia neomexicana has an unusual flower structure, what appears to be one flower is actually made up of numerous flowers. The flower is strap shaped with five teeth at the end which is the result of the union of five petals which you can see quite clearly on the photo above, even though I took it after the light had gone in the evening! As you can also see from this picture, the Desert Chicory is often found growing up through other shrubs.



Although this is not the most spectacular of blossoms I wanted to include it just because its structure was so different from most of the other flowers we saw. This is the Burro-Weed Ambrosia dumosa which is in the sunflower family. All the members of this particular group have very inconspicuous flowers, usually with the male and female flowers on separate heads.



The Blue Palo Verde Cercidium floridum was not really living up to its name when we saw it. Palo Verde translates as Green Tree but, as you can see, it was in fact a riot of yellow when we were there! It does have small leaves, briefly, early in the year which it soon drops. Researchers have discovered that unusually, up to fourty percent of the trees annual photosynthesis occurs in the bark.


The Desert Pincushion or Fremont Pincushion Chaenactis fremontii has beautifully intricate blossoms with enlarged outer florets. The leaves are quite fleshy although that is not easy to see in this picture. This is another member of the sunflower family.



This one is, as promised, for Doug. The Beavertail Cactus Opuntia basilaris is one of his favorites. During our trip we had seen a number of Beavertails with one or two flowers just beginning to come out. On our final day we were in an area called Coyote Canyon and we seemed to hit the mother lode on flowering Beavertails! This plants tiny little spines, known as 'glochids' are very painful if they get lodged in your skin and, because of their minute size, very difficult to remove. I am reliably told that tape is the best way to pull them out - OUCH!!

And while we are on the subject of prickly characters..............I just had to include this lovely picture of a Teddy-Bear Cholla Opuntia bigelovii that my husband took. And you can figure out for yourself whether I am referring to my husband as prickly or a Teddy-Bear!!!

And if you are still with me. well done, you have made it through all my desert flowers, or at least all the ones I am going to post. Thank you for sticking with me.

Photo Credits - CJT & Dominick V

THE DESERT IN BLOOM (Part One)

When we arrived in the desert we were told that the week before they had had severe wind storms which had 'blown all the flowers away.' Well if this is how it looks after all the flowers have blown away, I can't imagine what it looked like before! The sides of the mountains are washed in yellow and everywhere we go we discover new flowers.

The most obvious flowers are the dramatic Red Ocotillo Fouquieria splendens. On previous visits these plants had looked like bundles of bare woody stems but this time the stems are covered in leaves and at the top of each stem are heads of numerous tubular flowers which the hummingbirds just can't get enough of.

Another plant that seems to be everywhere is the Creosote Plant Larrea tridentata. The flowers are just drawing to an end and the strange little fuzzy fruits are just starting to appear on many of the bushes. Several of the plants also have the distinctive round growths caused by the creosote gall midge.



A personal favorite, the Barrel Cactus Ferocactus acanthodes is just starting to bud and only a few, in the sunniest spots, are actually beginning to open up. I didn't risk getting a pierced nose by getting too close to the flowers but I imagine that they don't smell too good because we never see any bees near the open blooms but we do see lots of flies!



The Arizona Lupine Lupinus arizonicus is everywhere to the point that I kept putting off taking a picture of it and now I discover that I don't have a particularly good one! This plant has to take the prize for being the most organised! Each individual blossom has a little creamy/yellow spot on the upper petal (barely visible in this picture-sorry) and when the flower has been pollinated the spot turns red, thus acting as a deterrent to further insects and also encouraging the insect to pollinate another blossom.

The first flower I found was beside the road at a viewing point we stopped at, on our way down into the Borrego Valley. It's leaves look exactly like a type of holly and it is covered in clusters of tiny round yellow flowers. This is the Mahonia Berberis haematocarpa. It produces purplish/red berries which the Native Americans used to make a dark purple dye and the wood produces a deep yellow dye.

The Hummingbird Bush or Chuparosa Justicia californica is very prolific. Chuparosa translates from Spanish as 'the sucking rose!' This odd name comes from the hummingbirds who are frequently found 'sucking' at the nectar in the long red blossoms. Many times when we sat near one of these bushes we would be 'buzzed' by a highly territorial hummingbird who clearly thought we were there to steal its nectar!



Rather like the Ocotillo, the Desert Senna or Spiny Senna Senna armata spends most of the year looking like a tangled mass of dead twigs but at this time of year, this member of the Bean Family is smothered in beautiful yellow blossoms. These will soon be followed by yellow spongy pods about an inch and a half long.




The delicate purplish/blue flowers of the Wild Heliotrope Phacelia distans are also very much in evidence in many of the canyons and washes right now. It is also known as the Blue-eyed Scorpion Weed because the blossoms are on a coiled structure which is similar in shape to the tail of a scorpion!



This unusual little flower caught my eye because of its strange flower structure. It was growing on a very rocky path we were hiking along on Borrego Mountain, in full sun on an otherwise very barren area and again. I had to marvel at the resilience of these desert plants. This is the Pima Ratany or Purple Heather Krameria erecta. These plants are partly parasitic and connect their roots to other plants around them, which would explain the somewhat grizzled state of the few Creosote Bushes in the immediate area! Small native bees collect saturated fats from the petals to feed to their larvae.



I think this beautiful flower is a Brown-eyed Primrose Camissonia claviformis. The flower structure looks identical but all the illustrations I can find for it show clusters of these delicate little flowers and this one was definitely not in a cluster, as you can see. However this plant is a particular favorite of the White-lined Sphinx Moth Hyles lineata caterpillar



and we certainly saw plenty of those so maybe the rest of the plant had succumbed to the voracious appetite of these caterpillars!



This bristly little character has a variety of common names like Panamint Cats Eye or Forget-me-not Cryptantha spp, although it doesn't bear much resemblance to the English forget-me-not that I know! It is a member of the Borage family and I can certainly see the resemblance there, not least with those fuzzy leaves and stems. There are eight species that occur in the desert and apparently they are notoriously difficult to identify so as the fruit is supposed to be the only sure way of identifying each species and I didn't see any fruit, I am not going to attempt to say which one it is! That is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!



Despite its name, the Sand Verbena Abronia villosa is not a true Verbena but actually belongs to the Four O'clock family. This low growing plant appears in sandy washes after the rains have passed. We were exploring Coyote Canyon and were walking up a sand wash and this stunning flower was growing all over the place. Its blossoms can range from white to a deep pink but all the ones in the area we saw them were this wonderful purple. This flower has a rich fragrance which was very apparent from the numbers of bees that were buzzing around them.

OK enough flowers for today, believe it or not that is only half way! And that doesn't count all the species that I either couldn't get a picture of or couldn't identify! Hang in there - there will be more soon.

Photo Credits - CJT