Scenes from the Ranch

 I saw this strangely-colored tree as I was coming out of my driveway. It took me a minute to remember that the weed guy was spraying Russian olives today. Russian olives are a nasty invader that can turn a meadow into a thorn forest in just a few years. They grow really fast and are aggressive. This one isn't more than two or three years old, but it's already fairly tall.

 Normally the leaves are olive green in color. The bluish hue make them seem like fantasyland.

Down the road I noticed big birds out in the meadow. I zoomed in to find the group of sandhill cranes that likes to summer at the ranch. During the spring and fall we see a lot more as they head north and then return on their migration, but a few have decided that this little part of the Great Basin is just right for their summer vacation.

One was really intent on grooming itself.

Meet Desert Boy's newest pet: a roly poly. He was so excited about finding it under some rocks. He collected it and some dirt and gravel and wanted to take it home. I didn't exactly agree, but found it in the van. I said it wasn't going in the house, but he could keep it in his tree house. Desert Boy wanted to know when he could move into his tree house. What would you have answered?

Before I knew it, Desert Boy had taken a bottle out of recycling and had decided that would be the new home for his roly poly.

(If you're wondering what I answered about the tree house living, I told him he could live there when he turned 18. That's the same answer I gave him when he asked about skydiving.)

The roly poly's name is Dirt. By the way, the name for his slightly deformed crawdad (probably due to too many catch-and-releases) was Snapper. It's probably good I record all these, because when he tells me later that I should let him have another pet, I can show him the list of all his pets.

I'm wondering how long Dirt will live in his new bottle in the tree house. Any guesses?

Brewer's Sparrow

 I did a breeding bird survey last week in mountain shrub habitat, and the most dominant bird was this nondescript Brewer's Sparrow (Spizella breweri). The males like to go to the top of shrubs and sing and sing and sing. They have a distinctive song, with a downward trill. They are loud, and sometimes it's hard to block out that song to listen for other bird species!

 This Brewer's Sparrow didn't mind hanging out near me. It was on top of a rose bush surrounded by a lot of sagebrush. In fact, Brewer's Sparrows are often found in sagebrush, eating insects and later in the summer, seeds.

It was a fun morning listening to these guys and quite a few other birds. I don't get to actually see many of the birds I hear, so it's a treat to see one, much less be able to photograph one! (This is the only bird I photographed that morning.)

This week, if the wind calms down, I hope to get in a bird survey in pinyon-juniper habitat. A few of the birds overlap, but quite a few don't.

A Trip to the Beach

The other day I had the urge to go see some birds. I figured the beach would be a great place to go. Of course, the nearest beach isn't what most people might envision. We'll get to that in a moment.

Hundreds of mallards like hanging out near this beach, but they took off as I approached.

The Canada geese were quick to follow. It didn't help that I had Henry with me and he likes to chase birds.

I also had the kids with me, but they were content to start the hike to the beach with a snack. Desert Boy had packed everything in a big ziploc bag.

The geese on the other side of the pond were still hanging out.

Then it was time to hike. Desert Girl had some difficulty navigating the willows.

She made it, though.

That's when I noticed she still had a juice pouch in her hand. No wonder it was so hard to get over the branches.

Desert Boy was looking forward to this adventure with a lot of enthusiasm.

We were almost to the beach!

Can you see what's coming?

Desert Girl wanted to get to the other side.

Oops, maybe not this time.

Time to try again. Obviously Henry wasn't so shy about getting wet.

Those black boots were just the right footwear for this day.

If Desert Boy was on the other side, Desert Girl had to go too.

Henry was in heaven.

He did a lot of running.

Meanwhile Desert Girl was showing me her muddy hands. She seemed a little perturbed.

But then she went back to playing on the beach. Apparently a little mud was okay.

But a little more mud was worrisome.

Or maybe not.

What's better than a late afternoon on a muddy beach? Alas, it couldn't go on forever...

Eventually that mud got a little too cold.

Well, at least we had some time at the beach! Some day maybe we'll try for a different kind of beach!

Great Backyard Bird Count Starts Today

Some friends reminded me that the Great Backyard Bird Count starts today. Fortunately it's a four-day event, so there's still plenty more time to be looking for birds. This is a great citizen scientist project, because you can do it right in your backyard. Or you can go on a special outing (read--good excuse to get out of the house!) to go find some birds.

Then you submit them on the GBBC website and scientists will look for trends. What birds are where and how does that differ from other years? Are certain species more predominant (like those blasted Eurasian collared doves that have nearly overtaken the mourning doves around here?)? What differences are there between cities, suburbs, and rural areas?

Despite the cold weather, there are birds nearly everywhere. Today I've seen mountain bluebirds (like the one in the photo above). I love the vibrant blue of their feathers. I've also seen a couple northern flickers, the most plentiful woodpecker around here, and with a conspicuous white rump easy to identify as it flies in its undulating pattern. I've seen dark-eyed juncos flitting in the trees and showing their tails with the white on the edges. A golden eagle was on the pole on the way to work. They are so much bigger than the other raptors around here (other than bald eagles) that it's easy to identify them.

Happy Birding! 
Let me know what you see.

Pinyon Jays

 I saw a flock of birds the other day, up near the transition between sagebrush and pinyon/juniper. This meant the flock was pinyon jays, a neat bird. You usually don't see them alone--they like to hang out in big groups. Despite this, very little is known about where they nest. I figured that this would be a good opportunity to try to photograph them, after all, there were a lot.

But when I started following them, they kept flying farther away. I persevered and got a couple okay shots, so you can at least see that they really are pinyon jays!

They are really bright blue, a very pretty color. They hang out in this area year round, and it sure is nice to see their splash of color.

By the way, the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up soon, February 17-20. This is a good excuse to check out what's in your yard.

Desert Flowers and an Unexpected Sight at the End

I'm always looking for new (to me) flowers to put on my A Plant a Day blog. So when I took Desert Boy out to preschool last week, we went for a long walk/jog (a little training for a triathlon I might blog about soon). We had walked much of the same route two weeks earlier, but many of the flowers had changed. That's one of the challenges of finding all the plants in an areas--some aren't particularly visible for more than a week or two every few years.

The pink penstemon above is a common one, a young Palmer's penstemon (Penstemon palmeri), one of only two pink ones in the area. Even though it isn't new to me, I sure enjoy seeing it again!

 I went on a different road and climbed up on this rocky hillside, where I got a nice view of the valley and cloud-shrouded mountains on the other side.

 One of the many flower species on it were these dancing yellows, called nakedstem sunray (Enceliopsis nudicaulis). I enjoyed seeing them--they brightened the desert hillside so much!
They are just little bundles of sunshine.

 I saw this plant as I went skipping down the hill. It looks a bit like out of a Dr. Seuss book, but only a couple weeks earlier, it had nice little flowers on it that you can see on the Shockley's rockcress page.

 This tiny plant, only about 3 inches high, is called browneyes. It blooms more at night than the day, so I was glad it was overcast so I could see more of it blooming.

 I also found lots of Cryptantha, a genus in the Borage Family well represented in this area. From a distance it doesn't look too impressive.

 Close up, I was amazed at how many hairs protect each little white flower.

Our walk continued, with Desert Girl saying hi to the curious cows at the dairy, Henry wanting to chase after stray cats, and then to a fork in the road. I had a little time left before Desert Boy finished preschool, so we took the longer route.

 The playa that is usually dry was full of water, with some shrubs submerged. This wet spring has certainly been a nice change.

The flooded playa seemed a little boring, until I noticed something moving about on the other end:

Birds! An ibis, American avocets, and a couple ducks were probing for food. It was a wonderful treat to get to see them in an unexpected place.

A Walk Down the Channel

A couple weekends ago I walked down the overflow channel above town. During high water, the biggest creek from the nearby mountain range swells with snow melt, spilling over the diversion ditch. This year we have a high snow pack but due to the cold weather, the snow is slow coming off the mountain, and we're just at median stream flow levels. That means once it warms up, we're in for quite a flood.

Right now the water is still fairly clear, not washing down much dirt. Nevertheless, it's gradually rising, enough to inundate this western wallflower.

The top part of the overflow channel was lined with dense-growing willows, making the banks hard to traverse. My trusty dog Henry decided he'd rather ride back to town then go bush-whacking with me. I hoped there weren't any hungry mountain lions hanging out in the thick brush. I usually depend on Henry scaring them away, so I felt like I was really on an adventure without him.

As I got farther downstream, the water dwindled, sinking into the alluvium. The riparian vegetation changed to sagebrush shrubs gradually, although I still found willow thickets. I stopped looking over my shoulder quite so much as I got to more of the sagebrush!

The looming clouds over the mountains threatened more rain. I really enjoy overcast days like this, since we get so few.

Eventually the water dried up, less than one-third the way down the channel. It takes a lot of water to make it all the way down to town. Nevertheless, in the next couple weeks this dry streambed will transform into a raging river. It's exciting, but also scary, especially when you can hear those boulders rolling along the stream bottom due to the power of the water.

Part of my excuse for walking down the channel was to look for flowers. I found a couple I hadn't previously identified, so that was exciting. I also saw a lot of this rush. I have a hard time getting excited about identifying rushes, sedges, and grasses, but they probably make up over one-third of the vegetative species here.

I'd just say that it was a great day to be outside!

Then it got even better when I stumbled upon this patch of Erigeron, or fleabanes. They really lit up the rocky ground.

I didn't see them anywhere else except that one big patch. I think I like surprises like that. When you have to work a little harder to find nature's beauty, you appreciate it more.

I also saw lots of birds and even managed to capture a decent photo of this black-throated sparrow. I'm already ready for the next exploration trip.
Happy trails...