Familiar

This morning I biked down to the desert again, not to catch a sunrise but to see different things. I've become accustomed to the sights and sounds around the station, so its nice to get out to somewhere new. Still, in the desert there are some familiar things, just taken out of context.

The cardinals are down in the desert in the mornings and are always perched high in the trees and calling

I laughed when I saw this sign. Not quite Canadian, but I'll take it.

Hope you all have a good day, it will be more vegetation transects for me today. However, this evening I am going to attempt to capture the full moon rise etc. and next week I plan on going to Winn Falls, so look forward to some photos there!

Random Photos

Hello everyone,

On our day off, yesterday, we spent most of the day doing vegetation transects, and there is an end in sight. We are almost done the nesting sites, but for comparison purposes, we have to do non-nest sites. goodie. So, yet again, I had very little time for photos. I do however have some random photos from various days that will keep you entertained while Im doing nothing very exciting at all. Enjoy

Native Grasses

A yet to be identified butterfly

A type of wild poppy

An image from a map of the different rock types in the Chiricahua mountains

Another day

Hello all,

I apologize for my less than exciting posts of late. Its been mostly work and more work these past few days. For all of this week, we're trying to get the majority of the vegetation transects done, so that I dont have to spend every spare minute measuring trees. Hopefully after that I will be making more trips out on the trails and I will have more interesting photos to share with you. In the meantime, Ill share with you some black and white photos. Its not often that I like b&w more than colour photos, but sometimes it just suits the picture.

Like Ansel Adams, but not quite as good :)

A lazy afternoon

Tavern pt 2

Hi everyone,

Its been a few days of vegetation surveys and pool painting, not really exciting nor photogenic. But the pool is almost done. And the veg surveys, well...Christmas maybe? Anyway, the Danes are leaving this week so we went out for one last time at the Rodeo Tavern in New Mexico. The crowd was somewhat different this time, lots of people, loud etc. We ended off the night at a bonfire at a staff members house, but being the DD made it less eventful. I thought I would share with you a photo I snuck of someone at the tavern yestday. He was so stereotypical it almost seemed too unreal to beleive. Kept going on about how them damned liberals was what was wrong with this country and they should all be shot! Dangit.

Yep, those are shotgun shells on his belt. And though its not in the picture, you can beleive he had a mighty pair of spurs too.

Lizard poses

Hello everyone,

I had only a short time to get out and get some photos today, as I had dishes in the morning and at lunch. At least the cook, Robert, who is in from Wednesday until Sunday keeps me entertained. Thats about the only fun part of doing dishes. The afternoon was occupied with vegetation surveys. But, I did finally get some decent shots of lizards. Lizards, I have found, are difficult to photograph as they are always sunning themselves in direct light, which makes photos ugly and cold looking. But this one, a Yarrow's spiny lizard was kind enough to pause for me. These lizards are everywhere, you always hear them running away through the underbrush wherever you walk.

Tomorrow may also be a late posting, as its more pool painting. The folks that have so kindly funded the pool reconstruction will be arriving next week, so we want it to look pretty! All volunteers will be on deck with rollers and brushes. I will try and post later on tomorrow evening.

Silver Peak pt. 2

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the delayed post, I spent the entire morning painting the pool, its being replastered.

So, Silver Peak. We started up the mountain around 6am. I have become used to the thinner air up here, yet Im certainly not used to hiking up mountains. Still, the path wasnt too rugged, only steep and the guy I was hiking with is a birder so we were often able to take a few breaks and look at the scenery. Unfortunately it was a bit of a hazy day, so the pictures are not as clear as I would have liked. This is the other side of the valley (with the road running up to the station). We're probably at less than 5800 ft here and have been hiking for less than a hour

After about an hour and a half, its still desert-like. At this point, we were heading around the eastern side of the mountain. I like this picture, as it shows pretty much what the land and vegation looks like around here.

The rock can be very difficult to walk on at times. Sometimes its round and boulder like, other times its shale, like in this photo. It covers the path and cracks like porcelain when walked on. This photo doesnt do it justice, when the sun shines on the rock it looks bright purple.

Then, strangely, at about 7000 ft, you round the corner (Northern side) of the mountain and enter a drainage area, filled with Douglas fir trees. It does not look much different than northern ontario. Stranger still you enter a very shaded area with tall grasses and steep slopes. Moss grows over all the trees in this area.

At this point, which was about the 4th hour of hiking, we were already pretty tired. Its all switchbacks all the way up. So heads were down, no conversation just hiking up up. This is a view from about 7800ft towards New mexico between two large rocks

But after hiking up 3000 ft for 4.5 hours, we were rewarded. You get up to a point where there are steps leading straight up rock, you have to use your hands while climbing up these.

A marker of the official elevation, 8020ft.

Sadly, these photos dont do the view justice. Its pretty incredible up there. This is the view towards New Mexico

The view North

I climbed up on what appeared to be a well. There used to be a firestation up at the top, and a foundation and this well is all that remains.

I of course have many other photos of the view, but I can't post them all here. We sat up at the top and ate our lunch, and then started the long trek back down. I can't decide whether it was harder going back down than going up. Your knees start to ache from trying to stop yourself from falling down the mountain. Eventually we ended up trotting/jogging down the mountain, and we made it back down in less than 2 hours. In the end, it was a trip well worth doing, a totally amazing view and one of the more difficult hikes in the area. Ill leave you with my favorite photo of the day. Thanks for reading everyone!!

I Survived

Just a quick post, as I am going to bed very shortly. I made it back from Silver Peak, it was great and I have some great photos to share with you, but Im totally exhausted so I will write more tomorrow. Here is one of my favorite photos from the day.

Silver Peak

To all my loyal fans,

Tomorrow morning (Wed) bright and early I will be hiking up to Silver Peak. Its about a 4.5 mile climb that will take us about 7 hours there and back (according to the various assessments of my athletic ability provided by the folks at the station). I likely wont be able to post tomorrow, but look forward to the view from 8000 ft on Thursday.

Sunrise

Goodmorning everyone,

This morning I got up at 4am to bike down to the desert for the sunrise at 5:15. It was a bit wild going down the mountain in the dark, I had my headlamp, but cottontail rabbits tend to jump out onto the road. No rabbits were harmed however. The sunset wasnt as brilliant as I had hoped, but its a start

Hope everyone has a great day

Feeding and flyiing

Apologies for not posting something earlier today. I may have mentioned, but we have a large number of hummingbird nesting sites to measure. We're doing vegetation transects, which is basically counting and measuring the number of trees and shrubs within an 8m radius circle. Sounds exciting doesn't it? So, thats what I did all afternoon, rather than taking photos. I will however, post two photos I took yesterday. I worked on hummingbird banding again yesterday morning, and I thought I would include a picture of a Magnificent Hummingbird male being fed before release. Because banding is often stressful for the little guys, and their energy demands are so high, banders make sure to feed them before they let them go. By the way, that white around their eyes is not actually their eyeball, only a marking. It does make them look like they are wigging out however.

The second photo I am including is just pretty, with no description. A dragonfly.

Bird pestering

Hi everyone,

Just a quick little post again today, its a busy morning here. The Danes are studying the Whiskered Screech Owl, and yesterday when we went for a little walk they found a male sitting in a tree near one of their study nests. I hope to get another shot of him later, apprently they will sleep on the same branch every day if they are not too freaked out by your presence

I also came upon a Plumbeous vireo's nest, and I managed to get a shot of the female sitting on the nest before she flew away...

..and cursed at me from a distance

The Feeders

Good morning everyone,

So, between the large thunder and lightning storms last night, and my new roomate who snores like a yak, I have had little sleep. I am therefore in no condition to provide commentary on anything otherwise its liable to get silly. So, instead, I think I will post several photos of some hummingbird feeder activity, yesterday after the rain they were out in large numbers.

A male Bluethroated hummingbird

Hummingbird vs Wasp

A male Magnificent Hummingbird

No one there.....

Looks good this way...Just minding my business... oops, clumsy me, must have dropped something down there....

and we're golden.
Hope everyone has a great day

Blacktailed rattlesnake

Hello all,

Just a quick little post of a Blacktailed rattlesnake that Payanna found while we were on a walk this morning. This one was over a metre long, and about 3-4 inches in diameter. We never heard its rattle however as it seemed more interested in crawling into a hole than confronting us.

Just a wee one

Today, my day off, Payanna and I went hiking off of South fork (the valley next to the one the station is in). We headed through forest trails crossing over streams several times. Its amazing how much the vegetation changes in these areas, as well as when you move to higher elevations; you start to see more maples and oaks and when you get higher, fewer things that I can identify. The rock changes as well, becoming more red as you head up the mountain. We hiked for 2 hours up, and came to a beautiful spot on top of the peak. It was amazingly windy up there, and it helped cool us off from climbing.


We also came upon our first rattle snake, a Rock Rattlesnake. It was just a tiny guy, only about the length of your forearm. And its wee little rattle sounded like a salt shaker. It was doing its best to sound scary, but it got little squeels of affection from us instead. Oh well, in time young rattlesnake, in time.

I found one!

Hello all,

It was yet another busy day of washing dishes and digging rocks; there are certainly plenty of both around here. But I will share something a little more exciting with you, which was my discovery the other day when I was in the desert. The Danes (as the girls are called) came down to the desert with me, and they were lifting up rocks looking for spiders and scorpions. But there is a little known habitat where scorpions can be found: under discarded illegal immigrant backpacks. I would never have seen it had it not moved. But here it is, my first scorpion finding!! Its a Bark Scorpion, and it apparently packs quite a punch despite being the length of the tip of my thumb to the first knuckle.

Notice its tail is only slightly raised, meaning it was still a fair ways from kicking my ass.

Border Crossing

Yet again, I was able to get down to the desert yesterday and tromp around for an hour. Many of the cactuses are flowering right now and there are lots of small and colourful wild flowers. Its strange however when you are wandering through the wilderness and come upon this: a pair of pants, a shirt, underwear, a backpack, 2 shaving razors and some shampoo. I half expected to find bones next.

Apparently, over 25, 000 people from Mexico cross this border every month. The border patrol is constantly driving past the station, and often will drive slowly past researchers as they are working the forests, leaning out their car windows and squinting to see what colour we are. Makes me glad Im pale, I cant imagine being a legal immigrant and having to deal with border patrol asking for your passport all the time. You will often come accross old camps with clothing and whatnot in the wilderness. Apparently the people are packed so tightly into trucks that they cannot take anything with them, so often spare clothes and backpacks are left behind.

Of course dealing with border patrol can lead to some funny stories of misunderstandings as well. Harold, the hummingbird guy was telling me a story of an ornithology field trip he was co-directing that ran into trouble with border patrol. Many birders drive around in large white vans, packed tightly in with their gear etc and tour the landscape looking for birds. Apparently in an area near here, to their surprise they came across a large wetland as they were driving towards the Mexican border. Unbeknownst to them, this wetland was only about 100m from a manned border crossing. Now finding a wetland in AZ means you will get to see an entirely new set of birds, pure joy for a birder!! The driver of the van in his excitement slams on the brakes and all 12 people get out of the van and start sprinting. What does border patrol think when 12 people get out of a van and start running hell bent for the fields? So in their cars they hop, lights flashing, guns in hand, and they start rounding up the ornithologists. The leader of the tour being the fastest runner, was so engrossed with getting out his scope and binoculars the fate of his students went unnoticed until another leader managed to explain that he had to go rescue everyone!! Of course, being a birder he was pretty stubborn about returning, who knows, he may see a Kingfisher! All turned out well however, and it makes for a good campfire story :)

Flowers for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Ma!

Im sending you some digital desert flowers. It is spring here (despite feeling like summer to me), so there are many cactuses and flowers blooming right now.

Hope everyone has a great day!