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Pleistocene megafauna revisited, and a couple of varieties of festoonage

In an earlier post, I recalled an uncomfortable encounter with a bison on Catalina Island.  For the past few days, we were in Yellowstone (no internet anywhere in the Park!), and our interactions with large mammals were definitely calmer and thankfully more removed.  Here is one, placidly grazing by a park roadside.  He’s been head-butting vegetation in order to beautify himself for the bisonettes, and is admirable in his festoonage, which includes a small pine bough.  I’m unable to report if its piny freshness improved upon his bovine musk.

One of the things about Yellowstone is the range of scale of amazement in the park.  There is really really big amazing stuff, like bison, the Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Grand Geyser, and the size of the volcanic crater at the center of the park itself.  But there is also amazing tiny stuff everywhere, too.  Here are some branches that have fallen into hot water, and become festooned with minerals. There are even tinier things — so inconspicuous as to be hard to see unless you know to look for them — in the form of the crazy-hardy and diverse thermophilic organisms that live in the scalding chemical brews of the hot water in the park.

(Bison in the Hayden Valley; branches at Mammoth Hot Springs; Morning Glory Pool, Upper Geyser Basin.  All photos A.Shock)

Posted by Allison on Sep 1st 2009 | Filed in close in,field trips,natural history | Comments Off on Pleistocene megafauna revisited, and a couple of varieties of festoonage

Howdy from Sierra Vista, Arizona

Gaze upon Sierra Vista, in south eastern Arizona, where the beautiful Huachuca Mountains beetle over the fast food restaurants and motels of the busy town.  Not visible in this shot, but also beetling, is the everpresent and mysterious white surveillance blimp.  One day, I will find out about the white blimp.  Maybe today.

The natural beauty of the region is not far away; below is a view of the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains just north of Sierra Vista.  The landscape here is transitional between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, and is high enough to be more grassland and thornscrub than desert.  But this trail in Kartchner Caverns State Park has ocotillo, agave (in bloom) and barrel cactus, and a mix of desert and arid scrubland birds, like Curve-billed thrasher, Greater roadrunner and Varied bunting.  (Not that I’m seeing many birds — inexplicably, I forgot my binox!  I guess I’ll have to be an artist this weekend, and not a birder…)  The landscape is lush and green, even in a moderate monsoon year.  Most of the rainfall of the entire year falls during the summer monsoon season.

Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival is in full swing and Three Star Owl is in the thick of things. Yesterday was the first day of the Art Fair and Nature Exposition, and lots of people came for the vendors and artists as well as the birds.  Purchases were made: owls, javelinas, black-headed grosbeaks, and gila monsters found nice new homes.  Peek into the Saguaro Room at the Windemere Hotel, and the first thing you see is the Three Star Owl booth.  (Really, why is it always so hard to get a good booth shot?  In person, the set-up looks quite nice.)  My only sorrow is that the hotel hasn’t turned on the twinkle lights buried in the tulle swagging overhead, left over from somebody’s wedding party.

(All photos A.Shock)

Posted by Allison on Aug 7th 2009 | Filed in art/clay,birding,Events,field trips,increments,natural history,three star owl | Comments Off on Howdy from Sierra Vista, Arizona

Green relief for the hot desert eye

Here’s some eye refreshment for those of us in the hot desert to contemplate: a view of a moist, mossy and cool rainforest from Aotearoa (New Zealand).  Here there be Kiwi birds, and Kakariki, and Mohua.

Native bush at Makarora: temperate rain forest

Native bush at Makarora: temperate rain forest

It always amazes me how effective a bit of shade is for cooling, visually and physically, even in the most searing summer heat.  Our desert trees may not be hundreds of feet high, or hung with mosses and orchids, but on days like today I’m very grateful for our gnarly mesquites, and light-mantled palo verdes, and other arid land stalwarts.

(Photo A.Shock)

Posted by Allison on Aug 4th 2009 | Filed in field trips,natural history | Comments Off on Green relief for the hot desert eye

Lord of the Fly(catchers)

Late each spring, later than most other neotropical migrants, the Brown-crested flycatchers (Myiarchus tyrannulus) return to our neighborhood (and other places in southern Arizona) from their wintering grounds in Mexico.

They are relatively large tyrant flycatchers, about the size of the more familiar Cardinal, but unlike Cardinals they’re not usually seen on or even terribly close to the ground.  They are Birds of Trees, and favor woodland and riparian areas, as well as the occasional suburban or park setting.  They need trees with trunks large enough to contain generously sized holes, because they’re cavity nesters.  A saguaro will do (a “Crest” once checked out a woodpecker hole in our now defunct saguaro, but didn’t select it), or a cottonwood, or any other tree a good-sized woodpecker like a flicker has excavated a hole in already.  We’ve got Gilded flickers and Gila woodpeckers around, so there are holes big enough for the Brown-cresteds to raise a brood in.  Excellently, the BCFL is one of the few native cavity-nesting passerines able to out-compete Starlings for nest-holes.

As flycatchers, they are also Birds of Air, and feed almost entirely on insects which they catch on the wing.  They’re distinctively vocal, and it’s often easier to detect them by sound than by sight, as they give vigorous rolling brrrts and wheeps from the tops of trees.  In addition, they seem to be the earliest singers of the morning, starting before sunrise with a gentle repetitive song that differs in note and pattern from their daytime vocalizations, but is similar in tone.  Many people find it easier to identify them by sound: Brown-crested flycatchers have a look-alike smaller Myiarchus “cousin” the Ash-throated flycatcher, which is more widespread in arid regions of the southwest but utters different sounds.

Though they arrive late in spring, they also leave earlier than most migrants, and around the middle of August, I find myself listening each morning for the early song of the Brown-crested flycatcher, wondering when they’ll all have flown.

(Sketch book watercolor, A.Shock)

Posted by Allison on Jul 23rd 2009 | Filed in art/clay,birds,drawn in,field trips,natural history,yard list | Comments Off on Lord of the Fly(catchers)

Springtime do-over in Sedona (with Bonus Wild Hen nidification)

We missed some of Spring in the desert this year, so last weekend we went in search of it under the Mogollon Rim: Sunday found us hiking along the West Fork of Oak Creek in Sedona.  It’s one of the more popular trails in that popular area, and at times it’s mobbed by clusters of sweaty Phoenicians looking for a quick cool-off up in the oak pine red rock country.  But the weather in the desert has been cooler than seasonal, and although we certainly weren’t alone on the path, the trail wasn’t as crowded as we feared.

The day couldn’t have been more beautiful — Oak Creek Canyon at that point is a mile high (literally) so it’s still spring up there, with lots of showy color.  Both Scarlet and Yellow Monkey Flower (Mimulus cardinalis and guttatus), Golden columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha), and Western spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis) were at their peak. Columbian monkshood (Aconitum columbianum) and Deers-ears (Frasera speciosa) were just beginning, as were the False Solomon’s seal (Smilacina sp).  Butterflies abounded — both on flowers and on ammonia-rich heron-wash smears on the gravelly banks — and the air was lively with swallowtails, skippers and sulphurs, and others I don’t know.

The local birds were lively and showy too, the males singing and holding territory: Lazuli bunting (Passerina amoena), Black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus), Western tanagers (Piranga ludoviciana), and Red-faced warblers (Cardenlina rubifrons) were among the colorful singers, while Cordilleran flycatchers (Empidonax occidentalis), House wrens (Troglodytes aedon), Plumbeous vireo (Vireo plumbeus) and the ethereal-voiced Hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) were vocal but plainer of plumage.

Now, I admire a little brown bird as much as anyone — the House wren is a delight to watch, singing so hard its little barred tail vibrates — but it’s tough to not be swept away by the sight of tiny woodland jewels like Red-faced warblers, who were numerous and singing, or the Painted redstart (Myioborus pictus) who was foraging quietly and intently as if he had nestlings and a mate to feed.

To the right is a page of the day’s birdlist, sketchily illustrated on the fly with really tiny thumbnails of a couple of the brighter species.  (I’ve been honing down a back-packing sized watercolor kit, and it’s coming along well, although I haven’t yet gotten the paints pared down to an Altoids-tin, since Jerry’s Artarama is still out of empty half-pans). The bird-list is small-scale, too — in a Moleskine journal just 3.5×5.5″.

The Broad-tailed hummingbirds (Selasphorus platycercus) were zizzing around fussily, sometimes more easily heard than seen, but we lucked into looking up at just the right time to see this Hen settle onto her nest on a bough directly over the trail.  Check out her clever lichen-camo, and how it blends right down into the lichen-covered Big-toothed maple branch!

The Phoenix-Sedona round trip with an eight-mile hike in the middle makes for one long day, but even so we came back refreshed and renewed, glad to have a cooler option when the desert is too hot to hike.  Graduated seasons are one of the nicest things about living in a state with delightfully drastic topography.

(Photos from top to bottom: red rock overhang, West Fork of Oak Creek, A.Shock; Spiderwort being pollinated by Eurobee, E.Shock; Golden columbine dragon-heads, A.Shock; illustrated bird-list, A.Shock; Broad-tailed hummer hen on nest, E.Shock)

Posted by Allison on Jun 9th 2009 | Filed in art/clay,birding,birds,botany,drawn in,field trips,natural history,nidification | Comments Off on Springtime do-over in Sedona (with Bonus Wild Hen nidification)

The (retail) plundering of the continents…

…results in Kiwi-“flavoured” tea-towels.

Some people search out exotic specialties and luxuries when they travel, studying the ethnographic crafts and traditional handworks unique to the region.  I admire this, but don’t seem to be able to accomplish it for my own trips.  I want small, light, unbreakable, useful, evocative, and cheap I mean AFFORDABLE.  So, I often come back with tea-towels.

Here’s the lot from the recent NZ jaunt, heavily skewed toward the delightful kiwi bird, whose image is favored by native Kiwis and tourists alike.*

Note that the Kiwi-images go from pared down black-and-red graphics to clunky four-color screens, woven jaquard to printed; all delightful.  Favorite?  Hmmm… hard to choose: is it the iconographically egalitarian one with many of the delights of NZ (geysers, plants, Maori artefacts, and of course Kiwi birds)?  Or perhaps the educational design which, although fact-filled conflates the concept of species and Breed, calling itself “Breeds of Kiwi”, as if Kiwi birds, like sheep and cattle, were engineered in size and type by and for us humans? Or, the patchwork Kiwi, or the Kiwi and cabbage trees?  Hard to say which is most satisfying, the most Kiwiish.

Added to the aesthetic pleasure of these simple souvenirs is the memory they evoke of the Kiwi obsession with clean “benches” (= kitchen counters) — as the ever-present (and evidently necessary) signs in the communal motor park kitchens reminded us everywhere.

Bottom line?  Every time I dry dishes at home, I will recall the joys of “wiping the bench” after not only our own dinner preps, but also that of 7 or 9 footloose Continental twenty-somethings who just finished fixing their Spaghettis before us….  Ahhh, the Campervan Life…

*Philosophical postscript: I wonder, do the Kiwi people tire of Kiwi bird imagery the way Southwesterners get weary of cheesy rip-off Kokopellis, or coyotes with bandanas?  Maybe not.  Personally, I never tire of chile pepper renditions, especially those with sombreros on their “heads”… (Those must be some tiny hats!)

Lexical postscript: the plural of Kiwi (the bird) is Kiwi.  The plural of Kiwi (a person) is Kiwis.

Commercial postscript: Many (if not all) of these tea towels are the work of the Derek Corporation, whose motto is: “Representing New Zealandness.”  I am not making that up, it’s their perfect and proud motto.  Check out their souvenir line here.

Posted by Allison on Jun 4th 2009 | Filed in field trips | Comments Off on The (retail) plundering of the continents…

One of the best things we DIDN’T see in New Zealand…

…was a Ruru, or Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae).

It’s NZ’s only remaining native owl (the Laughing owl was last recorded in 1914), and is fairly common in many habitats, even parks and gardens, but is especially numerous in tracts of native bush.  We heard them several places, mostly in the Kauri Forest while on a night walk looking for Kiwi.  They whinny and whoo and screek, but their main call is, not surprisingly, “More-pore” repeated frequently.  If you live where there are Inca Doves, you know what a Morepork sounds like.  Inca doves’ call is usually transcribed as “whirl-pool” or “no-hope”, but in pitch, frequency, and tone, it’s very much like the owl’s call.  The Māori name, Ruru, is also onomatopoetic, as is the Australian name, (Southern) Boobook.

Ruru is a relatively small (approx 10″ ht), long-tailed owl that takes a range of prey but specializes in nocturnal insects like weta (large crickets — really large crickets!), huhu beetles and moths.

(Photo by Aviceda from Wikimedia Commons)

Posted by Allison on Jun 1st 2009 | Filed in birds,etymology/words,field trips,natural history,owls | Comments Off on One of the best things we DIDN’T see in New Zealand…

Blupeng and the Campervan Life (Four): Breakfast of Seabirds

A typical Campervan breakfast: instant oatmeal, manuka honey, instant cocoa, dried fruit, Sanitarium brand soya milk, and Vita-brits!  No paper plates here: note the nice “china” that’s supplied with the campervan — posh!

Still, some are never satisfied:

“What, no Arrow Squid?”

Posted by Allison on May 27th 2009 | Filed in field trips | Comments Off on Blupeng and the Campervan Life (Four): Breakfast of Seabirds

Postcards from the Bottom Edge

icebergs in Lake Tasman, Mt.Cook/Aoraki National Park

icebergs in Lake Tasman, Mt.Cook/Aoraki National Park

With a couple of exceptions, I haven’t really posted much about something that’s very plentiful in Aotearoa/NZ: amazing landscapes.  Although there’s lots and lots of pasture land, crammed with sheep and cattle and non-native trees and grasses, the islands have a plentiful supply of charming vistas, rugged and awesome terrain, and outright wilderness.  All of which is packed into what seems to people used to the sprawling American West to be on a convenient and compact scale.

Because of the high latitudes, mountains don’t need to be Rocky-Mountain high to be snow-clad, and towards the south, bush-line is usually just over 1000m, or 3400 feet in elevation.  There are places you can be hiking a glacier and look down onto a surfing beach.  The vegetation reflects this variety, and where native growth still exists, it’s exotic and extradordinary: temperate rainforest thick with tree-ferns, sub-tropical bush with cabbage trees, high-latitude Nothofagus forest, low-growing alpine mats.  We even found some stray prickly pear in bloom around the warmer spots in gardens on the volcanic lakes area, and the occasional Agave americana in landscapes.

Periodically I’ll post a sampling of some of the places we saw.  Here’s a few, with their captions beneath each one:

Tiri Tiri Matangi lighthouse, Cabbage trees, and native bush

Tiri Tiri Matangi lighthouse, Cabbage trees, and native bush

Curio Bay fossil forest in tidepools, the Catlins

Curio Bay fossil forest in tidepools, the Catlins

Mitre Peak at sunset, Milford Sound

Mitre Peak at sunset, Milford Sound

treeferns in Tounsen Kauri Preserve

treeferns in Trounson Kauri Park

Kaikoura Mountains and the Pacific Ocean

Kaikoura Mountains and the Pacific Ocean

(all photos A. Shock)

Posted by Allison on May 26th 2009 | Filed in field trips,natural history | Comments Off on Postcards from the Bottom Edge

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