Pickin' Peas, Southwest Style

We've been enjoying some delicious yard-grown food - peas from the native blue palo verde trees (Parkinsonia floridum). 'Palo verde' means 'green stick' in Spanish, which refers to the fact that the young trunks and branches of palo verde trees are green with chlorophyll. This is a desert specialization amongst many plants to save water. In the desert, the theme is: If you can live without much water (and without losing water), you too, can have a go at it!

Many plants achieve this by downsizing and/or eliminating their leaves (leaves are the location of the most water loss - transpiration - in plants). The photo on the right is a Mexican palo verde (Parkinsonia aculeata), which has highly-reduced leaves. I can only see a couple in this picture. The long green parts are the leaf stalks, NOT leaves. This adaptation creates a problem - leaves are usually where the woody plants house their chlorophyll, the "energy factory" of plants (and why we eat them, too). To solve this energy issue, plants which minimize their leaves (like palo verdes) retain chlorophyll in their branches and trunks (like 'herbaceous' plants, which usually live only a year or two). Palo verdes do not create trunks with dark, corky bark as quickly as other trees. They do, eventually, form non-chlorophyllous bark; but after several years of growth.

In California, we can't grow as many palo verde species as our Arizona friends, and, as native endemics, they only occur in the Sonoran Desert, in the southeast corner of the state. The trees in our yard were nursery purchases and we water them (infrequently).

The palo verde has evolved in the lineage of the Legume family, a group of plants renowned for their edibility and nutritional content. A near relative of the palo verde, the mesquite, is famous for its many uses.

Although I found this listing of the uses of the blue palo verde by native tribes (fyi, the peas of the Mexican palo verde do NOT taste very good... too bitter), the common-knowledge of their edibility amongst naturalists is not widespread. I did find a nice blog entry about palo verde peas here. We believe this is because the seeds are mostly (easily) edible only during the very short time period when they are green on the tree, like the picture to the left. In my experience, this lasts a couple weeks during early/mid June. Pods that are getting to be too old are shown in the picture to the right. If you aren't poking around the desert during the specific weeks the peas are ripe - and its HOT at that time! - then you'll miss them...

... unless, like us, you've planted them in your yard (and water them)!

Legumes are also well know for being a popular host plant for bees. We have many different
natives, of varying sizes, who flock to our palo verdes during the several weeks (in May) that they are in bloom.


In the end, I'd say I harvested over 10 cups (~2500 ml) of peas from the 10 trees in our yard! That's post-shucking! The picture to the right is the post-picking, pre-shucking shot of many of the pods I gathered. The next step was removing the peas from the pods (the pods are bitter and fibrous. Not tasty at all). Most of the peas have been frozen. I'll add a few to different dishes - beans, eggs, soup, veggie steams, etc. We've got some that are fresh in the fridge, and I'm adding them to salads, or just snacking on them raw. Yum!!!

Quail Diaries: This Year, Its Super Dad!

Welcome back to our ongoing stories of the California Quail (Callipepla californica) who live in our neighborhood! Last year, we got to meet Super Mom. Well, there's a new Super in the yard, and that is: Super Dad! One of the first families to hatch-out this year was a huge group of (we think we counted) 20 chicks. A week or so after we first spotted them, I began to notice that I didn't see an adult female.

Our first question was, "Did a predator (such as a neighbor's cat or dog, a Cooper's hawk, or even a bobcat) get her?"

That seemed unlikely because the babies were still all present and unharmed (as far as we could count - its not easy to get an accurate count! The quail babies move en masse, with a sort of "flow" that makes it hard to discern one baby from the other). Usually, a predator would target the babies, which are easier prey. This did not make the "predator theory" very plausible.

We decided that she must have become gravid again, and went to lay more eggs (with another male). We have many male quail in the yard, fighting daily over the females, so this explanation made the most sense.

Overall, Super Dad has done a GREAT job! He keeps the babies moving through the yard, a behavior that most likely prevents predators from reliably finding where the vulnerable babies may be. The babies themselves have adapted well, and form a tight-knit group that follows Dad when on the move, and lays together in a cohesive unit when he's allowing them to rest. The picture on the right is Super Dad assembling the babies in a safe group near the edge of tree cover, but still in the warm sun. As you can see in the photo to the left, the babies are quite content to just lay down, preen themselves, and wait for the next command to move.

And I'll leave you with my final picture: here he is!! Super Dad!!!

With the babes content in the sun, Dad gets the good perch, calls out some territorial "chucks" and watches over his chicks. What a guy! To hear examples of his territorial call, click on this link, and scroll down to the "male aggressive call". This is also the sound the males make when the fight over the females during mating season.

Meet the Neighbors - The Black-throated Sparrow

One of my favorite new additions to the yard is the black-throated sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata) (BTSP) (it has a lovely song, which you can hear through a link on the Cornell Bird site (linked above), or by clicking here and here. I prefer the second links because they capture more of the lyricism than the Cornell clips. These sparrows in particular are bold, curious, and vocal. They're a great addition to the yard, because they enjoy hanging out "where the action is", usually in a shrub nearby where I'm working in the yard, often making their high-pitched twinkling calls and songs.

Sounds like the sparrows' population is in decline, mostly linked to hotter-burning fires in the Great Basin region and habitat conversion, which is too bad. Here's a nice little essay about the loss of BTSP due to suburbanization.

The BTSP prefers habitats with mature cacti and enough vegetation to provide their seed-based diet (they also eat insects, esp during breeding and nestling season). It was a nice "compliment" to the yard to have the BTSP choose to call it his territory and decide to breed here.

Seems its not as easy as just showing up - in the three years that a BTSP has called the yard his territory (I assume its the same male, but we can never be sure unless we banded him), there have been only 2 years where a mate has shown up and they've bred. In fact, this year, I wasn't even sure if a female sparrow was in the yard (in this species, the male and female have the same plumage, which means that, unless you see two sparrows hanging out togther, you don't know you have more than one). Then, I was looking out the back door, and, lo - I saw it!! The baby black-throated sparrow!! The pic to the left is the first one I was able to snap of the chick. You can see that it still has that big-billed baby look. There is no black throat and the white eyebrow is just begining to form. The chick has the characteristic brown speckling that many baby birds have - great camo in the nest, in shrubs, and on the ground!

The pic on the right was taken just a couple days later. The chick has already developed the characteristic white eyebrows. The black throat won't appear until the winter molt. To the left is one of the babies (there ended up being 2 this year!) begging in a shrub. I heard the typical BTSP chirping; but this time it was particularly high pitched. Chasing down the sound, I found the baby perched within the safety of the many-branched creosote bush shrub, loudly begging for food. It would also flutter its wings rapidly. The pic isn't in focus - my cheap point-and-shoot camera couldn't focus very well with all the random branches. An example of why the baby uses the shrub for cover!

I sure hope this successfull nesting event means more black-throated sparrows in our yard many years into the future!

Quail Diaries: The Return of Lady Coop

She's back!! Yes, making a sooner-than expected visit to our yard was a top predator of our resident California quail (Callipepla californica) covies, a female Coopers hawk (Accipiter cooperii). Usually the coops are found in our town only in the cooler months of late fall, winter, and early spring. Otherwise, they live up in the higher elevations, within deciduous and coniferous forests. We very recently had a rare monsoon rainstorm; which brought a number of the mountain birds down to forage in our yard, including a brightly colored western tanager.

Hawks have what is know as reverse sexual dimorphism, where the female of the species is larger than the male. It is hypothesized that this has been an adaptation associated with diversification of feeding and prey-capturing. Females hunt for larger birds (such as mourning doves and quail) and males hunt for smaller prey (such as sparrows and larger songbirds). This means that it is usually the female coop who is a threat to the quail.

Coops are amazing hunters and are known for their comfort with running on the ground to pursue their prey. Here's another lady, last winter, who had chased some quail into the bushes (to the right). As you can see, she's looking into the bush, ready to chase. Don't worry, our little quail friends were safe!! (This time... actually, in the winter, the coopers hawk will hunt our yard up to 4 times a day!! I suspect its that often when her hunts are unsuccessful...) After I snapped the shot, the hubby (who was waiting for my Go) ran out and chased her away.
The presence of the Lady Coop strongly affects the covey behavior of the quail. Just before her arrival each fall, the quail have massed into one huge covey that wanders the neighborhood, relaxes in the shade, and call to one another across the acres. After a couple days of her incesent chasing, they break down into small, quiet groups that hug the shade, cautiously skurrying from shelter to shelter.
This was the first time that the juvenile quail who were born this season have met their most-feared predator... and they were definitely scared. I knew she was in the yard because I heard the adults make their alarm call for 30 minutes! See, I feel guilty now because I'm trying to learn the quail calls. There are many of them and some sound alike. The alarm call sounds oddly similar to the "lets eat" call... Took me a long time until I realized that something was up in teh yard. I look out the back door, and there she is, Lady Coop, just 20 feet from my face, waiting in a low branch for an unsuspecting victim to come eat the bird seed!!
Luckily, she was only present for a couple days this time. Then the summertime temps returned and Lady Coop must have high-tailed it back to the mountain! I wonder if she is one of our regular winter residents and knew exactly to come to our ash tree? I mean, she was perched 5 feet above the exact spot where we *always* throw out bird seed. How did she know that?
And, as a final parting shot, here's a picture of the super-family I mentioned before... As part of their daily wandering and circling through the yard, they regularly cross our "stream" (we dug the drainage, flood it with a hose, and planted native wetland vegetation). The quail moms especially love to take their chicks through the stream because the tall bunch grasses provide both cover and forage for her babies. Cute!

Out Standing in Their Field(s)

Field work, as glorious as it may sound....

Does it sound glorious? (I've always wondered that!)

... isn't always a walk in the park. In fact, that's usually what field work is NOT. I thought I'd share with you a few fun photos taken over the years and over different terrain. One theme I'd like to express - always make the best of everything. And be prepared for the worst!

One of the favorite pastimes of field biologists is the pursuit of a good locality for writing field notes. A well-formed rock outcrop can make my day!! (If you note the wind-swept look of the trees above and the bandanna covering my face, you'll have to pretend to understand what the photo can not show - its really windy there. One of the benefits of laying low is being out of the wind... so a nice seat, low to the ground, is a great find!).

The desert presents its own set of challenges - paramount is the grabbing of any shade to be had. To ignore such an opportunity is to be lazy. And who wants to be lazy when it comes to comfort seeking?

And... lest you think we professionals never slip up... I've got the proof!
Not to worry, we always carry a little shovel (and squares of wood AND metal plates called "Tow In A Box" AND tow straps. Yes, and we have used them all through the years!). This road was just graded, so when we pulled off on the side to check out some stuff... the car didn't have much luck with the soft, moist berm. We got outta that one fast.

Because I get paid to hike doesn't mean I'm always very graceful about it! Sometimes the best way to get down a steep, talus-ey outcrop is to use yer head. Which means using yer @ss!

By the way, the rock-hugging green and red plant behind me is the urn-flowered alum root (Heuchera elegans), a California rare plant. In part, it is because the plant grows in a very limited geographic location. In part - it doesn't get reported often since it grows on steep, talusey slopes - places were most people don't find themselves sliding around on their @sses...

Getting that perfect shot is not a glamorous job at all; but we gotta do what it takes!


(yes, I do realize this pic actually displays my @ss even more prominently than the previous...)



And never miss a photo opportunity with an old, rusted out car!


Well... maybe not EVERY opportunity...


(thanks to my cousin, M, for the photo!)


Bye y'all!

Christian the Lion

I recommend you watch with the sound on. The sappy music absolutely does the image justice!

Well, there's a first time for everything, and here is my first post of an image that is not mine. Of course, I would say that it is very fitting for this honor. Its a wonderful story that has been resurrected through the medium of the internet, YouTube, facebook, blogs, and everything else. I'm happy to have it here too...
This brought tears to my eyes!! If you want to read more about the story of Christian the lion, here's the link that my hubby found. Its a great story: Christian the Lion.

Photos of Wildflowers From Over 2 Months Ago

My, how time flies! And we've been very busy. Lots and lots of work this year. This is good, since its been a pretty decent rain-year, and therefore many native plants have sprouted and flowered. Here are more photos of wildflowers from one of our work sites on the north end of the Antelope Valley (that's the same valley where the famous Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve is located). I took these photos over 2 months ago, and I'm finally finding the time to post them for you. And, rest assured, I have been snapping many more great shots in the mean-time!




We were working in an area that was composed of soils with lots of clays. Many of the California Floristic Region flowers love these soils, such as California Goldfields (Lasthenia californica), the little yellow flowers in the photos here.


Another amazing clay-loving flower that we found was the Mariposa lily (Calochortus kennedyi). Brilliant! Being a bulb, this plant appears to prefer tough-to-dig clay soils so that digging mammals like gophers cannot eat their succulent underground flesh. I tried to take a photo that could impress upon everyone the awesome display that these lilies form. There's a flowering lily about every 10 feet in some areas. Unfortunately, cheap digital cameras just can't capture the subtlety and drama of this flower.

And another clay lover - a little onion, Allium denticulatum. This little onion absolutely covers the ground in some areas. These photos only partially capture the magic of being amongst a field of blooming onions. Oh, and they bloom for a couple weeks, and are gone. Like the goldfields, the mariposa lily, and all other desert annuals. They are but brief visitors to our world!