Queen of the Night

Last night we went to “Bloom Night” at nearby Tohono Chul Park. This event is held every year to celebrate the once-yearly, one-night-only bloom of the Night-blooming Cereus, an otherwise unprepossessing cactus.

I will have more posts about our adventures at Tohono Chul. According to the Curator of Plants, plants have a “chemical intelligence” that allows them to communicate with each other. There are several hundred cereus in the park, and they need to bloom in unison so they can be cross-fertilized by the sphinx moth, their only pollinator. Not all the cereus bloom on the same night, but most do; others will bloom, also in unison, on one or two more nights during the monsoon.

They start blooming at sunset and continue into the night. After an hour or so they emit a heavy, almost cloying scent. When it’s not blooming, the cereus looks like a weed:

Please check out the Tohono O’odham legend of the cereus, which the curator read to us. The very touching story, “The Legend of Old White-Haired Woman,”  is about two-thirds down the page: http://www.tohonochulpark.org/Art/NBC.html

My scummy pond

My pond gets overrun with string algae, and there’s not much I can do about it. It’s worst in the early summer when the sun shines all the time.

The algae look as if they’d be slimy to the touch, but they are not; they are soft and fibrous. The only way to get rid of them is to remove them manually. Every morning I spend a few minutes raking the pond.

Smart birds!

I have a cardinal feeder that is weighted so that only birds of a certain weight—cardinals and pyrrhuloxias—can feed from the perch.  The bird lands and the perch drops to just the right height, opening the feeding window. Heavier birds like doves cause the perch to drop too far, while lighter birds like finches and sparrows can’t get the perch to move at all.

The other day I saw that a pair of house finches had figured it out. Somehow they learned that if BOTH got on the perch at the same time it would drop to just the right height. It was a little awkward, and required some fluttering of wings to maintain balance, but they repeatedly mounted the perch, taking turns feeding.

 

House finches (above); pyrrhuloxia on feeder (below)

Gorgeous Desert

It’s getting hot early, and soon all the vibrant colors will be gone. So here are a few looks at what I’ve been seeing lately.

Above is the palo verde in our front yard; below is a view of the neighborhood from our back yard.

I realize that saguaro looks as if it could use some Viagra. And finally, a white-wing dove on a saguaro at sunrise.

Major Bird News

Well,  the big thing is that the baby quail have started appearing. I have one family of five or six, in which the chicks are all kindergarten or first grade, just starting to get their mohawks. Another family only has one chick, a little bitty thing that looks as if it hatched maybe a couple of days ago. I wonder what happened to the rest of the eggs?

I haven’t seen the mockingbird again, but yesterday morning I had a beautiful orange male Bullock’s oriole (it had a mask like The Lone Ranger) and  parent and chick curved-bill thrashers have been on the porch and at the quail block. The adults have amber-colored eyes, while the babies have grey eyes. They are almost the same size, but the chicks are fluffier and constantly begging for food.

I have not seen the hawk ONCE since we put up the shade over the quail block.

MOUNTAIN LION!!!

…or maybe not. We got home from errands this morning to find a flyer in our mailbox:

MOUNTAIN LION SIGHTING ON CAMINO PADRE

• 26 lb dog killed on Thurs Apr 30th
• Sighting Sat morning while walking
• Officer from Game and Fish came out and found coyote, Javelina and Bobcat tracks.

There was also a photo of a mountain lion (like the one above, from the AZ Game and Fish Dept.) and contact info.

I was really excited at first, but then I started thinking. A 26 lb dog is not all that big, and I’m pretty sure that one or two coyotes could kill one. The officers from Game and Fish found coyote, javelina, and bobcat tracks—which makes sense because those animals are very common around here. But no mountain lion tracks.

I think someone saw a large bobcat and let her or his imagination run away. But… it’s possible. Mountain lions have been spotted in this neighborhood in recent years. Our street, Camino de los Padres, is only about 1/2 mile long, so maybe if there is one around I’ll get to see it. Hopefully from a safe distance.

What Else Is Blooming

Mexican Bird of Paradise

      

Orange Bells (related to Yellow Bells and to Cape Honeysuckle)

 

Pink-flowers bush (I don’t know its name but it is in the back yard.)

Hanging geranium.

And last, but not least:

 

Purple prickly pear (at the neighbors’ house)

Miscellaneous bird notes

QUAIL. Last night I sat on the porch and counted quails into the dorm tree. I counted eight, but at least two sneaked in from the side. These days the birds I see, including these, are mostly paired up. So I guess they haven’t started their broods yet. I’m assuming they would sleep on the nest.

ROADRUNNER.  We see roadrunners pretty often on our walks around the neighborhood. The other morning, while walking alone, I encountered a very young roadrunner at the intersection of two small streets. It was comparatively small, but otherwise looked like the one in this picture, a stock photo from www.fotosearch.com. I don’t think it had encountered a human before. It started running down the street ahead of me, frequently looking over its shoulder. Whenever it seemed to think I was gaining, it speeded up. We went about a block that way. Finally it figured out that it could peel off into a driveway.

BEAUTIFUL MOCKINGBIRD! I had one in my garden this morning. It was repeatedly shaking its feathers, and it took me a moment to realize that it was a juvenile, calling to be fed (I couldn’t hear it through the closed glass door). Mockingbirds are my favorite birds (along with hummers), and I keep hoping that one or two will set up housekeeping in our yard. Maybe this guy will when he grows up. This mockingbird is from my old yard:

ORIOLES. This morning I also had a pair of orioles in my garden using the pond. I don’t know what kind they were. I believe one was a juvenile, and my best guess is Bullock’s Oriole, or possibly Scott’s Oriole. The other, which I only glimpsed for a second, was a female, maybe the mother.

Hawk shield and Buddha

We put a hawk shield up a few days ago. It consists of a small frame with a roof of shadecloth. The quail block is underneath it. We were worried that the birds would no longer use the quail block, but they apparently love the shade.

I haven’t seen the hawk since we put the shield up, but that may be a coincidence. When startled, the birds all explode out from underneath the shelter. I am holding my breath to see what happens when the baby quail start arriving.

In the corner of the shelter, by the porch, I have placed a garden Buddha. Below are the view from my desk and a closeup of the Buddha.

 

Got lemons?

After giving away literally dozens of lemons from our two lemon trees (one, the dorm tree, is a Meyer lemon tree), and after removing untold more dozens of lemons that had fallen on the ground, and after having used a few dozen ourselves, we turned the trees (and a small orange tree) over to a harvester from The Community Food Bank. It took him about five hours, but he told us he took away nearly 350 pounds of fruit!

The tiny orange fruit remaining on the tree are NOT kumquats. I think they are ornamental oranges. They are too bitter to eat. They are actually on a second tree that is intertwined with the Meyer Lemon tree.

Sabino 2

Sabino has changed a lot since I moved back here twenty years ago. So many big old trees are gone, but this is how nature designs it.

The damage from the floods has been pretty much repaired, but if you look closely you can see where the huge rockslides occurred,

and there are a number of places where the rock face has been bolted down, like this (next to the water):

Still, of course, a glorious and beautiful place.

What’s blooming

These are some of the flowers that are blooming around our house these days:

Salvia

Brittle bush

Yellow bells

Roses

Bougainvillea

A bunch of other things are also blooming, including the citrus trees, the pomegranate tree, aloes, ocotillo, and several things that I don’t know the names of. The best are the citrus trees because they smell so beautiful.

Quail explosion!

Yesterday morning a large number of quail were feeding at the quail block when they suddenly exploded, flying off in all directions. A moment later the hawk landed on the back fence, then took off after a slow-to-get-going quail. I ran outside, and saw the hawk flying alone,  so hopefully the quail got away.

We are going to put in a shade cloth canopy—a kind of carport for the quail over the quail block in the corner by the porch. I’m hoping it will somewhat hide the quail from the hawk and also provide shade for the chicks, once they start coming. We’re going to do it now, to see if the quail will still feed or if they will feel too hemmed in.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the quail explosion, and I believe that they all suddenly  fly off in different directions to startle and momentarily confuse whatever predator is after them. They might not be able to do that from a shelter.

Sabino 1

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I visited Sabino. We took the tram up to the top and walked down. These are some of the birds we saw: Canyon Wren, Verdin, Hutton’s Vireo, and Cardinal. A lovely male cardinal posed at the side of the road, near the top. I’m showing him here because they never come to my garden anymore, for some sad reason. Though I do get plenty of pyrrhuloxias:

These birds are very closely related, as you can see. I can’t always tell the young apart until their color starts to come in.

My beautiful garden

This picture is from the southwest looking northeast, rather than my usual view from the south. Everything is really starting to shape up. The pomegranate tree is all leafy, and has a couple of buds (the rabbits ate one). The yellow bells will bloom soon. In a couple of weeks or so it will be too hot for the beautiful petunias, and I’ll think about replacing them with zinnias.

Quail update

  Spring is definitely in the air. On our morning walks, and also by the pond, I’m seeing more and more quail in pairs or even singles, though there are still large groups, mostly at the quail block.  This morning I saw a group of maybe two dozen, with two males standing guard at opposite ends of the fence. Then later, saw a male and a female patrolling the brick wall above our rose garden. I think they were looking for a good nesting site.

Quails continue to roost in the dorm tree. I haven’t made a count in quite a while, but the other night I saw several heading for the tree over a half-hour period, when I happened to glance out. They get up in the morning somewhat after sunrise. Once I happened to watch as 8 to 12 flew OUT of the tree together.

I discovered that I can watch quail fly into the tree from inside the room behind the dorm tree. The picture is poor, but you can get an idea. The odd thing is that even though I can see them fly into the tree, as soon as they settle down they become invisible.

Packrats Galore

Well, Mr. Packrat just left with three or four of our rats…. Because we live in the desert, we get a lot of them around the house. They leave their droppings everywhere and their nests are very messy, crammed with debris and food. Sticks and chewed-up cactus pads along with cactus and other fruits are usually the first sign of their presence. Or, as Mr. Packrat puts it, first they move in the furniture and groceries.

Mr. Packrat traps them in humane traps, then gases them in bunches (not totally humane, as they are territorial, but better than poison or some other kinds of traps). The bodies are then given to wildlife rehabbers to feed their injured raptors.

 

These three pictures show 1) a small rat trapped behind the dorm tree. You can see some of the furniture and groceries outside the cage. 2) four rats awaiting execution—this shows the variation in size. 3) a big rat trapped in my planter on the back porch. He accidentally escaped during transfer to the holding cage, so will have to be re-trapped tonight.

Mr. Packrat showed me a picture of a beautiful albino packrat they trapped a few weeks ago. They tried to find someone who wanted it, but nobody did, so they are going to let it go.

AUDREY TOO

Another of the amazing things at the Butterfly Exhibit was the small collection of carnivorous plants. If you have never seen “Little Shop of Horrors,” the reference in this title will escape you. It refers to “Audrey,” the carnivorous plant taken care of by the nebbishy protagonist of the musical. Audrey turns out to be an alien from outer space, waiting to take over the world. Anyway, a couple of the plants in the exhibit reminded me a lot of Audrey, both the movie version and the one I’ve seen on stage.

My hawk-feeding station

  I considered calling this post “Death from Above,” which is just as accurate. This morning I was at the computer before dawn. When it was still quite dark out, I could see some birds and rabbits at the quail block. Then, suddenly, a huge shape dropped from the sky—the hawk! It grabbed one of the birds and had a fierce struggle with it against the chain-link fence, while everyone else scattered. It was too dark to see much of what was going on, or what sort of bird it was, but from the size it had to be a quail or dove. Once the bird was quiet, the hawk continued to dismember it on the ground in the corner of the pond area. I later looked at the feathers, and saw no ruddy or black ones, so I suspect it was a dove.

An hour or so later, when it was light, the hawk returned (or a different one), scattering all the birds and rabbits, and sat on the fence looking around. Except one rabbit had not gotten away in time. It just sat where it was, completely motionless except for its twitching nose. Something spooked the rabbit and it ran off, followed by the hawk. But the rabbit evidently escaped, because the hawk soon returned to the fence, where I took pictures of it. I continue to believe it is a young Cooper’s Hawk. 

Butterfly Sex!

  I’m actually very interested in bug sex. In the summer in the early morning, especially after a rain,  swarms of tiny insects gather in spirals twenty or more feet high to meet and greet—a kind of insect singles dance. As you walk, you can see new insects heading for the  swarm, sometimes from a block or so away. I don’t know what they are, or if they die after having sex, but their singles activities are very visible and to me quite impressive.

The butterflies at the Botanical Garden did not gather in swarms, but there was a lot of butterfly sex going on. Two coupling pairs were pointed out to me by a man who seemed to be sitting and watching for just that activity and no other. One of the above pairs went at it in a kind of “69” position, while the other was more in missionary style.  You might feel sorry for the butterflies being cooped up in the exhibit, but it seems to me they had everything they need.

I have so much to say that I have been paralyzed about saying it. For now, two things: First, it's been a very warm and somewhat wet winter. I have not seen any cardinals in my backyard for a good eight months now. And a young hawk visits my garden a few times every day. More about him anon.

Second, I visited the butterfly exhibit at the Botanical Garden a month ago. It was as stunning this year as last. The picture above is posted by permission of Andrea Webb, a generous photographer I met there. Her website is http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6883435.  She had just taken a stunning photo of one of the most beautiful butterflies on a spray of white flowers. Just as I got there the butterfly took off, and she offered to send me a copy. Much more soon, including BUTTERFLY SEX.

Last night I decided to sit out on the porch and watch the quails roost. Nobody appeared till nearly dark and then all of a sudden at least fourteen showed up! Twelve of them, as near as I could see, roosted in the dorm tree. Two scurried off to the west to roost in parts unknown.

Above is a repeat photo of the dorm tree. It looks pretty big, but twelve quails are a LOT of quails.

Cactus meltdown! I'm very sorry to report that our beautiful, multi-headed golden barrel cactus in the backyard has succumbed to some form of disgusting rot. I have spoken to experts at two different places; one said it was an insect and would spread if I didn't spray insecticide all over the place, while the other said it is the result of a pathogen in the soil that can grow if there is too much moisture. We had so much rain this summer I suspect the pathogen. However, our yard guy dug the cactus up today (while we were away). When we came back, a sickening smell of decay hung over the whole yard. He said the whole cactus was rotten, down to the roots, and filled with a gross yellow fluid that was crawling with white maggots. Yuck!

On the positive side I saw a mockingbird in the yard yesterday morning, and yesterday evening I watched two quails roost in my dorm tree.

DAILY BIRDS
Nothing too exciting or unusual has happened lately. The weather is still very warm for late October (though not unprecedentedly so)--up to ninety most days, then cooling down to the sixties in the morning.

Quail continue to visit my quail block, and the pond area often hosts thrashers, sparrows, house finches, goldfinches, starlings, the occasional cardinal and pyrrhuloxia (their numbers are well down this year), cactus wrens, woodpeckers, hummingbirds (these days mostly Anna's), and I apologize to any bird-group I have forgotten. Every morning a young Cooper's hawk drops by between nine and eleven, usually perches on the fence for a while looking around, sometimes stops and drinks at the pond, and then flies away. The picture above is a male Anna's from my old yard.

This morning I watched a beautiful goldfinch stand on the turtle's head and drink from the stream flowing from its mouth.

PREDATORS!

As we were out walking two days ago two large hawks (I think they were both Cooper's) swooped overhead, and on the way back a young coyote came trotting out of the scrub right in my path. The coyote and I both did a double-take and he or she immediately retreated. I said, little realizing how true this would prove to be, that the theme of the day seemed to be predators.

That night, around seven PM while we were meditating, an unearthly, unbelievably loud howl filled the air. Almost immediately it was joined by at least one other howl, up and down the scale, and less loud but even more chilling, the high-pitched yips of a terrified dog. This continued for nearly a minute and then... complete silence. It sounded as if it were right out our front door. We looked, but saw nothing. And the next day there was no sign that anything had happened.

We hope it was not the neighbor's dog, who is allowed to roam pretty much at will. She is old, and small, and I worry about her, though I've never seen her out at night. We called the neighbors, but have not heard from them.

The picture above is a public-domain coyote from New York that closely resembles the ones we see around here. The website is http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/.

A couple of Cooper's hawks have taken to visiting my pond area in the morning. One is an adult, the other a juvenile, and neither is banded. I do not know their sexes, but they are beautiful, magnificent, fierce birds.

This morning the juvenile landed by the pond and drank so I could get a good look at it. Then it flew up to the fence, posed some more, and flew away.

Every morning now I find piles of feathers--dove or quail (*sob*).

This photo is from a couple of years ago. The hawk in the photo was banded. What gorgeous, dangerous creatures these are!