Aahh, the Benefits of Exercising...

...in South Fork!

Elegant Trogon male (Photos by Narca)

For one, you may glimpse an Elegant Trogon descending to the creek bottom for a drink. This male was hover-sipping from a rill of water spilling between boulders, just as he would hover before a tree to pluck fruit.

For another, you might find new blooms of Butterfly Milkweed...

Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa

...or of Scarlet Penstemon.

Scarlet Penstemon, P. barbatus

For a third, an Apache Fox Squirrel could scamper across your path. In the US, this mammal lives only in the Chiricahua Mountains.

Apache (or Mexican) Fox Squirrel

A Variegated Fritillary could cross your path...

Variegated Fritillary, Euptoieta claudia

As the poet Rumi wrote, "The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep.... The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep."

Now, that was a good walk, was it not?

Silverleaf

The first hint of something extraordinary is all the activity along the South Fork road, just below the bridge. A dozen Black-headed Grosbeaks forage on the ground and munch breakfast in the branches overhanging the road. Apache Fox Squirrels nestle in the sprays of leaves. Acorn Woodpeckers are very busy, doing what they do best. A big Silverleaf Oak––one of the biggest I've ever seen––has produced a bumper crop of tiny acorns, and word of the feast has spread.

Acorn of Silverleaf Oak (Photos by Narca)

Normally Silverleaves are shrubs or small trees, associated with Madrean Evergreen Woodland. This giant stands about 40 feet high, with its roots well-watered by the nearby spring. (Google tells me that the national champion is 85 feet high, so our South Fork champ is just a teenager!) Like other oaks of arid climes, the leaves are leathery to resist water loss. The name comes from the leaf's silvery, reflective underside.

Underside of Silverleaf Oak leaves

In a good year, many animals thrive on the acorn crop, and last winter's El Niño rains have brought on a true bounty of acorns. I tasted one and it wasn't bitter––the amount of tannin in acorns varies with both species and individuals. Native Americans harvested acorns, prizing the best-tasting (such as Emory Oak), and giving special treatments to those that were bitter from tannin. This particular tree's acorns must be especially good-tasting, to attract so much attention from diners, while the surrounding oaks are ignored, at least for the time being.

Acorn Woodpecker caching food

(Mixed media by Narca)

Acorns alone don't account for the feeding frenzy happening today near the South Fork bridge. There also must be plenty of insects in the vicinity of the spring. Flurries of flycatchers––Brown-crested and Dusky-capped, Sulphur-bellied, Western Wood-Pewees––add to the tumult, while a male Blue-throated Hummingbird squeaks from the top of the Silverleaf and a Painted Redstart tumbles from tree to tree. An Elegant Trogon still maintains his territory near the bridge. Plumbeous Vireos, Bridled Titmice, and Brown Creepers search for food for growing nestlings.

Ahh, South Fork. How good it is to walk here again!

Short-tailed Hawks

Last month saw so few postings because I was deep in a manuscript on the first nest of Short-tailed Hawk found in the western US. In May 2007, Helen and Noel Snyder found the nest high in the Chiricahua Mountains, and several of us took turns spending days in a tower blind, observing the hawks' behavior and detailing their nesting biology. Noel was the paper's senior author, and just yesterday it went into the mail to Western Birds, a fine regional journal focused on field ornithology. Now... freedom!

During my sojourn in the blind, the female Short-tail confronted an Apache Fox Squirrel which was climbing the nest tree. When the squirrel was about 80 feet above the ground, the hawk slammed into it several times, driving it leaping down the tree. Here is a drawing that depicts the rout!

Short-tailed Hawk Defends Her Nest

(Pen and ink by Narca)