San Gabriel Mountains

We're working up in the Angeles National Forest these days. ANF is comprised of the San Gabriel Mountains, a fault-lifted zone just north of the San Fernando Valley (the Valley Girls valley just north of Las Angeles). Being in the mountains is nice this time of year... but don't be too jealous. These mountains are steep, covered mostly with chaparral, and rather hot and dry.

There are still some nice critters and plants to be found, however, and we're doing our best to discover them.

This is a sagebrush lizard, which is uncommon. The male has the bright red under his chin, either to attract females or to threaten other males (or maybe me?). Who knows?

The plants aren't doing so well this year, as I've mentioned (drought year), but we've found one particular species that's just booming: the Mt. Gleason paintbrush (Castilleja gleasonii). Yes, the paintbrush, everyone's favorite, known for its brilliant red blooms and long-lasting flowering duration. This species is doing particularly well because its getting a little help from its "friends". You see, the paintbrush is a hemiparasite, which means that it derives part of its nutrients from its chlorophyllus leaves, and part of its nutrients from another plant (to which its attaches by the roots). This plant is a Forest Service Special Status and California Rare plant, which makes it especially exciting to find so many of them.

Here's a view of some of the earliest-bloomers - the chamise shrubs within the chaparral. The white dot in the background (on top of the far ridgeline) is the Wilson's Observatory. Its a landmark for the San Fernando Valley, something they can see on those (occassional) clear days. Speaking of clear skies, we had some clear ones when we were working up there, and got some views of Los Angeles at night. It was strange to be camping, and to have city lights so bright along the horizon. They just went on and on and on...

Cactus Flowers, Pt 4

We've still got cacti flowering in our yard! As the flowering season wears down, we're getting some of our more-varied cactus flowers (ie, not just "prickly pear" types of cactus). Now the "pencil chollas", and some of the more-mesic associated cacti are flowering.

This is a diamond cholla. Isn't it cool? The larger flower is very unusual. Its called a "cristate" form, which is actually a fusion of a couple of normal flowers.

The smaller flower is what it should look like - round and like a rose.

This is a mamillaria cactus. It is one of the cacti associated with mesic habitats, and is often found growing in bedrock shelves along small desert washes (which are often dry most of the year, yet still more-wet than other desert habitats). They are tiny and cute-as-buttons. They are often difficult to see because they are so tiny and white; but these bright pink flowers really bring them out.

This is one of my favorites. Also associated with desert washes, but these grow on the secondary floodplain, just above the stream channel. They are called Devil's club cacti... which leads to the question, "why are so many things in the desert named after the Devil and why are there no Fairies-and-Puppies cacti around?"


Cane cactus

Barrel cactus










And finally... some pencil chollas for you. These seem to be very tastey cacti. They are constantly being eaten by our tortoises, the ground squirrels, and rabbits.

Our Babies Are Growing... Legs!!

Life in the pond is going well. When we first met our little western toads (Bufo boreas), they were just mere masses of egg strings.

Then the hatching...

And now - metamorphosis!!!!

All of the eggs appeared to have been laid within a single 24 hour period, however, we've noticed that the tadpoles appear to mature at very different rates. Must be some evolutionary adaptation thing...


Here's one of our little critters, complete with back legs. (The focus is a little blurry because the camera seems to insist on focusing on the water surface... argh!)


The next step... front legs and development of air-breathing lungs! Here's a freshly-metamorphed toady, ready to face the big, big world. Pretty cute, huh? We've got these little hoppers all over our pond area now. Its so much fun to watch them roam the mud flats, eating insects I can barely even see.


I guess it might be appropriate to also show you a picture of our little pond. Vegetation from left to right: The light green shrub is coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis). We like this shrub a lot because it blooms in the fall, and so helps to provide year-round nectar for our local insects. Its a huge favorite of the butterflies, and we get an especially large number of Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui). The low green veg in the middle is Torrey rush (Juncus torreyi). The tall green veg is cattail (Typha latifolia). The cattail just appeared once the pond area became regularly innundated (all other plants were brought in as seeds or in containers). The large skeleton in front of the cattails are good 'ol sunflowers (Helianthus annua). The sunflowers started as seeds we would spread, but now they re-seed themselves each year. We enjoy the sunflowers because the birds appreciate them so much. We've had flocks of goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) come through and feed off of them in the fall. In the back, behind the bridge (the shiney white thingey) is deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens). It started as just a couple bunches, but the stuff has become a monster and is sprouting up all over our stream bed. Its all we can do to dig them up and replant them in more-desired locations.
And finally... I'll leave you with a second toad video, "Tadpoles in a Pond, II". You may notice that there is a tadpole in there with back legs. Very exciting stuff!!

A Little Lizard Told Me...

...summer has arrived!

And with it, the emergence of our favorite lizards/iguanas, the desert iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis). These critters don't even emerge from hibernation until temperatures reach the mid-90's. According to my Peterson Field Guide, the desert iguana has a normal activity range at 107 F, and a max voluntary tolerance of 115 F. They are native to our area, and occur naturally in our yard. There used to be many more iguanas in our neighborhood, but development of new homes and removal of native shrubs has diminished the local populations. We don't think that peoples' pets disrupt the iguanas since their active temperature is so high, most domestic animals are seeking shade by that time of day.

To help themselves deal with the heat (because 115 air temperature is often over 125 F surface soil temp out here in the desert), the lizards will climb up into shrubs. This also helps them to get to their food, as desert iguanas are herbivores and eat leaves and flowers.

This, however does not stop them from enjoying a tasty meal worm or two. I buy meal worms from our local pet store and, once the temp gets good and hot, go outside in search of iguanas to feed. They recognize me now, and even run up to me the very first time I see them each summer, remembering tasty meals from the previous year.

In this photo, you can see me with 4 iguanas.








Here the hubby is feeding one particularly enthusiastic male that I have named Stumpy Joe. This is another photo of that same male with a juvenile iguana in the back.
You'll notice that this male doesn't have all his back toes. Normally, lizards have very elongated toes on their back feet. Either he lost them fighting with other males or evading some sort of predator (such as a road runner gopher snake or coachwhip snake).

This is a very pregnant female. She's loaded up with eggs, which she'll be laying any day now... leading to more and more iguanas in our yard. Yay!

Lastly, we have one of my favorites, an iguana I named Half-tail Willie. You can see that he lost his tail and has grown it back. In this photo you can also see his very long toes. You can also see the ridge of keeled scales down his back, an identifying mark for desert iguanas.

Quail Diaries: Our Little Chickens

The quail babies are here!! This is one of my favorite times of the year! Our neighborhood has roaming coveys (aka, groups) of California quail (Callipepla californica) that wander among the yards and vacant lots. The desert area is normally inhabited by the Gambel's quail (Callipepla gambelii), but we believe that our locality near the Sierra Nevada mountains, the eastern edge of the CA quail's range, provided a corridor for these quail to come down into our valley and settle within the residential area.

Since more houses have been built, its been a little difficult for the quail; but they seem to be adjusting and we've noticed that they are definitely better at managing fences. In past years, they would run run back and forth and back and forth at the base of the fence (quail avoid flying whenever possible, so as not to bring attention to themselves). They now seem to understand that flight is necessary and not so dangerous out here in the 'burbs. That's a good thing, because the hubby and I were wracked with angst when watching the little guys freak out at our fences (and we've got lots of fencing in our yard - to keep out rabbits, dogs, and cats).

To attract the quail into our yard, we throw out a lot of seed and also create various quail safety-zones (lots of shrubs, patches of cactus, and cover shelters made of tangles of branches - this structure especially helps to protect the quail from predatory hawks, such as Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperi), a winter visitor to our valley.

It is not easy to get photos of the quail. They are very timid and panicky birds. That's one of the reasons we call them "our little chickens". The other reason is their scratch-and-peck way of eating seeds. Here's a picture of a quail "feeding frenzy" last October. Fall is a great time for quail because they band up together in large groups. Last fall we were getting over 100 birds in our yard each day! As you can see, another difficulty in photographing the birds is their tendency to stay in shady spots. They do this both to avoid the heat of the desert and also to remain in relative darkness, under cover of branches; again, to avoid predator detection. Quail also have an amazing ability shown by all wild birds - a great awareness of when they are being observed, especially through a camera lens. Its pretty incredible. They are now finally becoming less fearful of when I look at them through binoculars, but the photo lens is still too much for them. I believe I was able to take this photo because there were many quail present and they were becoming habitualized to feeding in our yard. I also had the camera on a tripod and fully zoomed-in. In addition, this photo was taken before their major predator, the Cooper's hawk, had migrated down into our valley from its summer range up in the mountain forests. The quail are still rather fearless at this time of year...

This is a male California quail, strutting his stuff. See the black plume feathers on the top of his head?







Here is a female. There was a lot of competition amongst the birds for this perch.








In early spring, the covey breaks up as the males and females begin to pair up, defend territories, and create their nest. In the 6 years that multiple quail pairs have nested in our yard, we've only found a single nest. They are very secretive!!

We were unsure if we would see any babies this year, since its a pretty rough drought year; but I'm sure that the watering we do in our yard and spreading of bird seed has helped. As a result, about 2 weeks ago, we got our first glimpse of the proud parents and their babies. Happy day!

Getting photos of adult quail is hard enough. Taking a picture of mom and her babies is nearly impossible!!! I tell ya, they can see into our house, in our dark living room, and recognize a camera lens. The moment they see it, they herd the little babies into the nearest shrub. I think these parents were just so hungry, they didn't notice me at first. Soon after I took this picture, though, mom saw me and the babies were led into a shrub... You can see in this photo that there are two females. We were lucky enough to have two pairs successfully breed this year. As quail often do, these two pairs are raising the babies communally. Cornell University says that there is a higher life expectancy in adults who raise their chicks communally.

I was able to count 11 babies in the above photo. The chicks are very difficult to see because of their cryptic coloring. Here's the best photo of a baby quail I will ever be able to take. This is because, unfortunately, the little guy got stuck in one of the holes in a cinder block in our yard. The hubby found it and rescued it. I snapped a quick photo before we placed it under one of the quails' favorite shrubs and hoped and hoped that the momma would bring her babies by soon so that this little fellow could rejoin its family. By the way, I went out and filled the holes in the block with soil. One less hazard in our yard!


And I'll leave you with this picture of my cat, Zeebo, happily quail-watching along with us. You can just barely see a male quail on the edge of our porch, taunting the poor kitty.

Hummingbird Video

I've got another low-res video for everyone! This is one I made last year. Its of a Costa's hummingbird (Calypte costae) female feeding on our desert penstomen (Penstomen pseudospectabilis). The Costa's are our resident hummingbirds and are a great entertainment for us. The males have shiney purple gorgets and bold attitudes. My friend Laura can attest to that. During one of her visits she was wearing a red coat, and our male hummer wouldn't leave her alone whenever she was outside. He would hover just a couple feet from her and watch her every move!

In this video, as low quality and fuzzy as it is (the original is so much better... YouTube really loses out on the resolution), you can see that the hummingbird has a very big belly. That's because this female is ready to lay her eggs. I would see her visit these penstomens every day to feed. The following day that I took this video, she was about half that size! She must have laid her eggs that day, which can explain her need for so much feeding!

As an intro to the movie, I'll also leave you with this photo of one of our African spur-thighed tortoise (Geochelone sulcata) babies sitting under the penstomens. As you can see in the photo, her name is Buffy. And yes, that IS from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

For your viewing pleasure, Costa's Hummingbird:

Cactus Flowers, Pt 3

We've been grounded recently while our field vehicle gets $700 of work done to it. Sounds rough, but its better than getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere in scorching heat!! We pay a bit to keep our car running smooth; but the cost is worth the peace of mind.

Although it would be nice to be out working, it is also pretty nice to be here at the house and enjoying the multitudes of blooming cacti. I should mention now that all the cactus flower photos you've been seeing are from cacti in our yard. We've got tons of 'em!! (and I mean that weight quite literally!) When out in the field we'll collect a pad or two and plant them in the yard. Or cactus enthusiast friends and cactus researcher friends will give us some samples. The hubby even got one variety from our town dump! We affectionately call that one, "trash can cholla".

Tadpoles In A Pond

Finally!!! Its here!!!

Yes, the highly anticipated release of my movie, "Tadpoles In A Pond", is now available for viewing on YouTube. Well... the clamor isn't quite so big as Spiderman 3, but my cousin, M, did send me an email in which she mentioned that she was looking forward to seeing my tadpole movie. And, relatively speaking, that qualifies as high anticipation to me!

First, a history of our tadpoles:
It all began innocently enough back in April of 2006. The hubby was digging in our yard (an everyday occurence for us... nothing special there). He as hoping to create a pond along our "stream" - which is essentially a ditch dug through our property that we flood with water from a hose. He accidentally left the hose running through the night, which filled the hole with water. No problem, except that a couple of opportunistic western toads (Bufo boreas) decided to breed. We awoke the next morning with strings of toad eggs scattered throughout the pond.

Here's a photo the string of eggs from this year's toads. There are so many eggs laid by a single pair, they extend throughout our little 10 x 4 ft pond. What a producer that female was!

** Important hint => if you place the cursor over the photo and left-click, you can see a larger version of the picture. This is the case for all the photos in my blog. Sorry, forgot to mention that earlier...

Well, after we found the eggs in the flooded hole last year, as concerned animal lovers, we HAD to keep watering the area and keep the little guys and gals alive. It was an interesting science experiment, and we got a lot of enjoyment out of it (in addition to more toads in our yard, a bunch of dragonfly larvae - many of whom ate most of our tadpoles - and even some mayfly larve. Exciting times!).

By the way... yes, we do live in the desert, but the toads were already there. The hubby had a tiny pond in the yard (3x2 ft black plastic tub type) for about 10+ years and the toads had already appeared for that. We've got cottonwood trees for shade and through the years have planted assorted rushes and reeds. The cattails showed up on their own. All in all, the toads have got a pretty sweet deal in our yard.

After the toads, mayflies and dragonflies all metamorphosed into their terrestrial adult forms, the pond was drained and further excavation (deepening, widening, and lengthening) was conducted over the winter time. This spring, we were ready for toad action. And act they did!!!


Can you see all the egg strings in that second photo?

Two weeks later... we had tadpoles!!!! And therefor, "Tadpoles In A Pond". Now, I admit, the video is oh-so amateur. I moved the camera too quickly. The resolution drops when uploaded onto YouTube; they just look like a bunch of blobs with tails. But, hey, that's sort of what they look like in real life anyway.

So... with no further adoo, I present to you my movie for your immense enjoyment, "Tadpoles in our Pond":


I recommend you browse YouTube further (edited in later: only web virgins haven't surfed YouTube these days! So if you haven't, start with these:) I recommend it, because there are so many other wonderful videos to see, such as Nora, the piano playing cat, or clips of Bill Maher's New Rules (however, I would only recommend the latter for those of you who are left-leaning and not easily offended. If either of these are the case, just stick to watching Nora the cat. Or maybe you can watch a cool real-life version of the Simpson's TV show intro. I like that one, too).

Enjoy!

Poppies for Steven

My friend Steven went to the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve in search of the beautiful California poppy (Escholtzia californica), but, unfortunately for him, there hasn't been much rain out here and the poppy preserve wasn't much to behold...

Well, I was in the same valley recently, but in an area that had gotten just a little more rain, and a result - I got to see some poppies. Its not the same as seeing them in real life... but this will have to suffice for now:

Cactus Flowers pt2

Need I say more?

Saved!!

What a lucky snake! Lucky for one thing that the driver at the wheel loves snakes. For another that the driver was alert to the possibility of snakes sunning themselves on the road and alert enough to swerve just in time to avoid it.

Can you see the tracks of the car which show how narrowly this fellow was missed?!?

And here's a close up of the lucky gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer), most likely unaware that it just stared death in the face. All it cares about now is that it has to stare at my camera...