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As I mentioned last post, Mark and I are currently on vacation.  We enjoy traveling to Arizona for a few days each year, and this time we chose the Southwest’s monsoon season for our visit (don’t ask me why…talk about hot!)  The main reason we vacation in Arizona so consistently is to spend time with good friends who live there, but the birding in southeastern Arizona is pretty spectacular as well!  Our friends Tom and Sheri, of Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (check out their website at https://sabo.org/), were facilitating a hummingbird banding program when we arrived, so we headed right over to join them.  We have seen SABO banding hummingbirds many times before, but it never fails to amaze me every time I watch.  Tom captures the tiny birds, and Sheri does the banding – and such delicate work it is!  Below are some photos of hummingbird releases.  The birds are merely (though gently) placed into the open palm of a willing and eager helper (such as Mark and myself), and it is allowed to rest there until it’s ready to fly off on its own.  The species are, from top photo to bottom:  a female Rufous Hummingbird, a female Black-chinned Hummingbird, and a male Anna’s Hummingbird:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a perfect way to start a vacation!

Our first walk during this trip was along the San Pedro River, just outside of Sierra Vista.  There are a number of areas along the river that can be hiked, and all of the trails I’ve taken to date have been lovely.  (I’ve included a link to the BLM’s map of walking trails along the San Pedro River on my Trail Markers tab, under the Trail Maps section, for reference.)  This time we chose to begin from the San Pedro House, a familiar location to both Mark and me.  Unfortunately, the monsoons have been sporadic this year, so although the landscape is greener than at other times of the year, the river we walked along was little more than a trickle.  Even so, the trails in this area of the river bottom are quite beautiful, and very peaceful.  The Friends of the San Pedro River work alongside the BLM to advocate conservation and restoration of this heavily used river.  FSPR also operates the San Pedro House gift shop and facilitates educational programs and walks (PDF of their brochure here).  We generally walk on our own, however, looking and listening for birds, watching for lizards skittering across the path, and generally breathing in the tranquility.  If you should find yourself in the Sierra Vista vicinity, I would highly recommend visiting the San Pedro House and taking a walk along the river.

This year, most likely because of the time of year, high heat, and lack of rainfall, the river was fairly quiet.  We could hear hawks, woodpeckers, and doves through the trees, but the only bird we actually spotted was a Lesser Goldfinch.  The lizards were quite active, however, moving quickly away from us on both sides of the trail – and almost always moving too fast to be photographed!  Butterflies could also be seen from time to time, most of them new to me (if I find out what the butterfly in the photo is, I’ll let you know.)  Near the building that houses the gift shop, there is usually more activity, since there are feeders around the gardens.  We settled in on a bench after our walk to watch White-winged Doves, Blue Grosbeak, Gila Woodpeckers, Inca Doves, and more Lesser Goldfinches, as well as several species of hummingbird.

Of course we are in desert country here, so the trails are usually dusty and/or rocky, and there are a wealth of cacti and other fascinating desert plants  wherever you look.  I do love the desert – as arid and sometimes barren-looking as it might seem, it has an intricate beauty all its own.  Along with my family, I used to travel to Arizona nearly every spring break when I was young, and I have many fond memories of identifying different types of cactus, scanning the roadsides for Roadrunners, and generally enjoying the warmth of the sun!  I don’t recall doing much wandering in my youth, however, and as an adult I find great pleasure in exploring this unique countryside in more depth.  To be honest, I probably knew the names of desert plants much better when I was growing up, but I’ll re-learn them eventually, I’m sure!

For now, I’ll leave you with these last few photos.  We have several more days to spend wandering in this area…we will be walking in the Sulphur Springs Valley and into the canyons of the Huachuca mountains, so there’s definitely more to come.

 

The photos below:

Trees along the river, with the Mule Mountains in the  background;

A lone, exquisite hummingbird feather to finish the day.

See you soon!

Wow! Nearly the entire month of July has gone by without a word from me, I guess I’m really falling down on the job! Actually, my schedule has been unexpectedly hectic – I’ve had very little time to either wander or write, sadly. But Mark and I are on vacation as of this week, so that’s all about to change! For now, I’d like to relay a couple of anecdotes that don’t concern walking, but they are nature-related.

To begin, this year we’ve finally (after years of trying) been successful at growing a healthy patch of swamp milkweed. I’m not sure why it’s been such a struggle – it’s possible we were trying to grow the wrong types of milkweed for our growing conditions (we have a very shady lot with heavy clay soil). At any rate, the swamp milkweed seems to have taken hold at last, and we’ve been overjoyed to find that Monarch butterflies have already been frequent visitors. Upon finding our first Monarch caterpillar we decided to raise them indoors. I’d done a little research, and found that their chances of surviving the metamorphosis to butterfly are only about 10% in the wild, but a helping hand from us can increase that to 80%! Considering the precipitous decline in Monarch populations in recent years, deciding to raise them ourselves was pretty much a no-brainer. If you have the resources to do it yourself, I highly recommend it, it’s a fascinating and rewarding process! A little online research will give you all the info you need in terms of learning what tools to have on hand, the time spans from egg to caterpillar, caterpillar to chrysalis, and chrysalis to butterfly, etc. But two things to be prepared for: first, you’ll need to make sure you have plenty of milkweed for the caterpillars! I was told they do nothing but eat and poop, and that is no exaggeration! It’s amazing how quickly they grow, how fast they mow through the milkweed, and how much excrement they leave! You’ll want to also be prepared to clean the habitat every day – it’s the best practice, in light of their rapid rate of growth. But overall it isn’t difficult, and the end result is the joy of releasing a beautiful Monarch butterfly into the world! This photo is our very first butterfly, a healthy male we released into the sunshine on a light breeze just this morning. We have an additional five chrysalises and two more little caterpillars at this point in time, so this is only the start!

As I mentioned above, plenty of milkweed is necessary for raising Monarch caterpillars, as that is the only food they will eat. I realized very quickly that the few milkweed plants growing in our backyard would not be enough for the ever-hungry little ones in our habitat, so I visited a nearby garden center. They had several varieties of the plant I needed, so I bought three more to supplement the ones we already had, and placed the flat of plants on my passenger seat for the 20 minute ride home. I was driving happily along, singing to the radio, when I noticed a slight movement out of the corner of my

eye. I glanced toward the plants beside me and found that a tiny Gray Tree Frog had hopped out of the plants (where it had been perfectly concealed) and onto my dashboard! Luckily for us both, I was nearly home by then, and was able to catch it before it moved to somewhere out of sight – or out of reach. I placed it gently on a shrub near our pond, where it graciously posed for a photo before disappearing into the greenery. It’s now living, hopefully quite happily, in our backyard…and I’m thinking that must make a very nice change from a busy garden center!

I am fortunate to be working part-time at a nature center, and we do take children out for short walks during summer camps. One day last week we were walking in the prairie when one of the naturalists found this beautiful Garden Spider – what a striking creature! Notice the intricacies of the web, including the lightning bolt pattern beneath her. Nature is a never-ending source of fascination!

Butterflies and frogs and spiders, fireflies, rabbits, deer, and a steady stream of birds. These have all been frequent visitors to our yard so far this summer, which has been a godsend to me, considering I haven’t been able to get out to wander lately. I am looking forward to several posts in the near future, however, to relate our vacation escapades to you! Until then, here are a couple of wildflower photos to set the stage…

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, life is getting in the way of my wanderings, so this week I’ve decided instead to wander down memory lane. Today I’m remembering a 2015 trip that Mark and I took to Ecuador to visit my father and step-mother. We met up with them in Mindo (a couple of hours by car to the northwest of Quito), and stayed in a wonderful place just outside of town, the Yellow House Lodge. Situated in a valley surrounded by the Andes mountains and mile upon mile of cloud forest, Mindo is not only breathtakingly beautiful, it’s also well known worldwide as one of the best places, anywhere, for birding (with over 500 species of birds) – especially if you enjoy hummingbirds!  While there we also saw toucans, macaws, motmots, vultures, warblers… too many species to list here. We stayed for a couple of days and did do some exploring, but two days wasn’t nearly enough time!

We had a hearty, unique, and delicious breakfast before our hike (they make their own jams using wonderful local fruits that we never see here in the US). The meal was served on the covered deck of the main house, overlooking the valley. Along the length of the deck, hanging from the eaves, were about a dozen hummingbird feeders. I lost track of how many species we spotted, but it was around 14 or 15, I believe. In the bushes below the deck we were able to spot numerous hummers at rest, as well as the distinctive Bananaquits, with their white eyebrow and bright yellow breast, which also shared the same feeders.

Because the variety of hummingbird species were so numerous, so spectacular, and so unusual to us northerners, I’m including a few photos here for your viewing pleasure (from top to bottom: Andean Emerald, White-necked Jacobin, and although not yet positively ID’d, the last could be a Western Emerald): 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walk I’m recalling today was directly up the mountainside from our B&B. Wandering up the steep track, we encountered vistas, plants, birds, and other animals which of course were completely new to us. I wouldn’t have been surprised if our eyes looked like saucers in our faces, we were so determined not to miss anything! We spotted wild cuy (guinea pigs), which are eaten in Ecuador and other South American countries (we didn’t try any). I also nearly stepped on the little fuzzy tarantula pictured here, but saw him just in time to step aside.

The entire walk was lush, as you would expect in a cloud forest, and the dense foliage masked most of the bird and animal life we could hear all around us. Although a small portion of the Yellow House Lodge’s lands are used for cattle grazing, the owners are very conscious of their impact on the environment. If I’m remembering correctly, they owned well over 400 acres, and nearly all of it has been kept (and is intended to stay) wild.

Occasionally we were given a fleeting glimpse, beyond the heavy curtains of greenery, of the valley stretching away below us. It was a spectacular walk, and I recall it so vividly…the warmth of the day, the views all around us, the tree roots crossing the path as we were climbing, the many unusual flowers and other plants waving at us as we passed by. And the sounds…oh the sounds! I will never forget the riot of wild voices surrounding us that day! As I said, two days was not enough time, not nearly enough time, to spend in such a rich and varied landscape. One day we will go back! Well, I will go back – Mark isn’t as fond of travel as I am, so I might have to find a friend to accompany me!

Later that trip I also wandered along the beaches of the Pacific ocean, then travelled on to the Galapagos Islands…but those are stories for another day. So, on that lovely and evocative note, I’ll say chao!  Until next time.

With all the rain lately, I’ve been a bit of a homebody with little motivation to do much outside, including getting out on the trails, I’m sad to say. But we did get out yesterday, and it was a great day for wandering! For some reason, I’ve had a hankering to visit Wood Lake recently. Wood Lake is a relatively small city park – well, a suburban park in Richfield, actually, but it’s quite beautiful. The central feature, as one might expect, is Wood Lake, but the lake is surrounded by narrow swaths of lush woodland to the east and west, and a prairie to the south.

We opted for an evening walk, getting there around 7:30. The woods were deep green, peaceful and cool, with sunlight slanting through branches at a long angle across the path. When the trail opened up to the lake, we were treated to serene views, with very little breeze to ruffle the surface of the water. Wild life was all around us, busy with day-end tasks. Taking little notice of us, we observed Red-winged Blackbirds, Muskrats, a Green Heron, Canada Geese, Mallards, Wood Ducks, and a pair of Trumpeter Swans in the distance, just going about their business. There was also a Great Egret doing some leisurely fishing not far from the boardwalk. We were quiet and moved slowly, but it definitely wasn’t paying any attention to us.

American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds were especially oblivious to our presence, focused as they were at keeping members of their own species out of their individual territories! Muskrats were busy just about everywhere we looked, trailing long ripples behind them on the still waters.

We were fortunate enough to find a couple of Red-winged Blackbird nests, tucked deep into reeds and often difficult to see. In one nest, which was fairly close to the boardwalk, we could see, even from a distance of about 15 feet, a tiny bit of pink at nest-edge. When later I blew up the photo on my laptop, two nestlings (pictured here) were easy to make out. These were the only avian youngsters we spotted during the walk, but this was certainly a fun sighting!

Meandering through the prairie was nice, and we lingered for a short time, but I am more in love with the forest here, and the lake is very active. Overall our time spent in the prairie was short. As we were about to walk back into the woods, the sun was starting to set and cast a warm glow on the trees dividing prairie from woodland. The sight of the path disappearing between those forest guardians brought Middle Earth to mind…who knows what adventures might await us?

The woods were still alive with birdsong as we made our way back toward the nature center, and the activities of Wood Lake’s wild residents were still in fairly high gear as the sun was slipping over the horizon. But there were a few that had dialed back a notch or two, like this female Mallard, napping right in the middle of the trail (her mate was lying in the grass beside the path, just out of sight). Luckily we were at a “Y” and opted to take the other path so as not to disturb her.

Dusk had descended by the time we reached the nature center again. I was hoping to see some fireflies in the gathering dark, but it was only a faint hope. In an area surrounded by city, I imagine mosquito control is a priority, and where mosquitoes are eliminated, so too are most fireflies, sadly. So no, not a single firefly to be seen. But there were quite a few young bunnies darting around near the nature center. I tried to get a quick photo, although there wasn’t much light left… So I’ll leave you today with this rather dark photo of a Cottontail youngster washing it’s face. Until next time!

 

Hello! Well, we completed the last of our avian prairie point counts on Tuesday morning. The last survey took place in a meadow, the acreage of which is fairly close to that of our Sunday, existing prairie survey. Most of the birds we counted were more of the same species we’d found in the other two sites. But we were thrilled to find several individuals (three confirmed, and possibly four) of a state endangered species, the Henslow’s Sparrow. I did get a few photos, but they were from a distance that proved a challenge for my little camera, so I won’t post them here. It was a fun amble, and discovering those Sparrows was quite exciting!

Mark and I also did a little wandering today in a new area, the Wolsfeld Woods SNA (Scientific and Natural Area). It’s not a long trail, at 2.8 miles, comprised of several intersecting loops of primarily old-growth northern hardwood forest. The forest contains Red Oak, Sugar Maple, Basswood, and American Elms; there is also a lovely lake about 34 acres in size, and some prairie and marshland areas. The trail is not really maintained (we actually lost it once), and you are likely to encounter some muddy ruts here and there. But even though the trail undulates consistently, the way is not challenging. Be prepared for mosquitoes and ticks. While we didn’t pick up any hitchhikers, I’m happy to say, it was a muggy day and as we built up a sweat the mosquitoes became progressively troublesome. Aside from that, the forest was delightfully shadowy and cool, with a slight breeze. The SNA borders County Road 6 in Medina/Orono, and we could hear traffic sounds most of the time, but once you get into the forest those noises do soften a bit, and it’s easy to let them fall into the background and focus on birdsong.With such a thick canopy overhead, there isn’t a lot of undergrowth in much of these woods, but every so often we’d find a nice carpet of green – such as this expanse of maple saplings (above).  There were also a wealth of insects here, including many species of dragonflies and damselflies. At one point along the trail we seem to have disrupted a rather large family of long-legged spiders, and watched them scatter in all directions. We quickly moved to the side of the trail and left them in peace – hopefully we didn’t step on many, or any! We also found these tiny butterflies, happily and peacefully feeding away alongside a beetle. Inclusivity is a good thing!Among the shadows and downed trees it was easy to find various species of lichen and fungi, and I took a few pics of several. This one is my favorite, though…I did a little Google search on this SNA after our wanderings, and read that many folks seem to feel that this is not a good place to “get away from it all” as it is heavily used. We only encountered two people (and three dogs) on our walk, so our peaceful experience might have been an anomaly. But we certainly enjoyed it, and regardless of how well used it might be, it is quite a beautiful forest. We definitely recommend it.  I’ve included a couple of guided walks in Wolsfeld Woods on the Walking Events page, under the Trail Markers tab, that might interest you as well!

Until next time… happy wandering!

Well, obviously I’m falling down on the job – I didn’t realize it was National Trails Day until the end of the day yesterday!  Oops!  The only walking I did yesterday was a short 20 minute hike in the rain with a Barred Owl (one of the raptors I care for) on my wrist.  It was a nice walk, but short and uneventful.  For those of you who did get out on the trails yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful adventure and enjoyed your day!

To make up for missing Trails Day just a little, I’ll relay this morning’s continuation of the prairie bird point count.  We are surveying three areas:  an existing prairie, an area currently under prairie restoration, and a meadow.  Friday we surveyed the prairie being restored, and today we walked the existing prairie.  (For those who aren’t into birds, bear with me through this survey, which only has one more point count to go.)

Today we saw and heard pretty much a repeat of the species we saw and heard on Friday, with the addition of a Savannah Sparrow.  We thought we’d heard one on Friday, but couldn’t confirm it…today I got a photo of it.  The photos below are a little sampling of the birds we saw today:

We also found, in the new prairie, an interesting angled and split rock, which I believe is a glacial erratic.  The symmetry of it is just fascinating to me:

Well, that’s it for today.  We are planning to do our final point count sometime this week, and I’ll let you know how it goes!  In the meantime, I hope you have a great week!