An Autumn Bouquet

In recent Septembers, as part of our Rodeo-Portal Heritage Days, Elaine Moison and Dave Jasper have guided a field trip into South Fork, to discover and enjoy the wildflowers that flourish at the end of the summer monsoon. This year we found exquisite flowers, in spite of the paucity of the summer rains. And immersion in the grandeur of South Fork, in fine company, always satisfies!

Enjoy the autumn flowers!

Dave shows us grasses. (All photos by Narca)

Elaine's love of plants shines in all she says.

Chiricahua Mountain Columbine, Aquilegia triternata

This beauty quietly graces the shaded canyons of southeastern Arizona and adjacent New Mexico.

Arizona Madrone, Arbutus arizonica

Late-fall berries from this handsome tree are relished by trogons, quetzals, thrushes and sapsuckers. Arizona Madrone is a tree of the Sky Islands of Arizona and New Mexico. The bulk of its range lies in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico.

The graceful Birdbill Dayflower, Commelina dianthifolia

A common native to several Western states and northern Mexico, this lovely herb favors open meadows and forest floors, where it blooms from summer to fall. You can find it all the way from South Fork up to the higher elevations of the Chiricahua Mountains.

Hummingbird Trumpet, Epilobium canum

The name says it all! Native to dry slopes of western North America, especially California, this beautiful willowherb produces a profusion of scarlet flowers in summer and fall. Gardeners find it easy to grow, and thus they earn the gratitude of hummingbirds.

Richardson's Geranium, Geranium richardsonii

A familiar flower to all who roam the Chiricahuas––and generally, to those who roam the West, all the way north to Alaska.

Huachuca Mountain Geranium, Geranium wislizeni

I hadn't realized that we have a second geranium, growing alongside Richardson's! Huachuca Mountain Geranium flowers in August and September, in oak-juniper woodlands.

Dakota Mock Vervain, Glandularia bipinnatifida

This verbena is native to the U.S., south to Nicaragua. In the U.S., it is most abundant in the prairies of the Great Plains––it is likely one more example of a Plains Grassland species that became established in our region during an earlier, wetter period, and persists today where conditions allow. 

Mock Pennyroyal, Hedeoma hyssopifolia

This fragrant mint flowers from May to October in rocky canyons of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

Macomb's Trumpet, Ipomopsis macombii

Macomb's Trumpet is a very beautiful perennial of southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and northern Mexico. Its genus name, Ipomopsis, is Greek for "striking appearance."

Plains Beebalm, Monarda pectinata

Monarda––another very fragrant mint––attracts hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. It grows from 4000-8000'.

Rabbitsfoot Grass, Polypogon monspeliensis

A non-native, widespread annual, Rabbitsfoot colonizes disturbed soil. We saw very few in South Fork, and those were likely brought in with road repairs after Hurricane Odile set its sights on the Chiricahuas.

Birchleaf Buckthorn, Rhamnus betulifolia

A common shrub of moist canyons in the Southwest and Mexico, Birchleaf Buckthorn provides browse for deer and berries for birds.

Fragrant Sumac or Lemonadeberry, Rhus aromatica

The berries are tart and tasty! Lemonadeberry is a good shrub to learn, as it's widespread in the U.S. Its medicinal uses are legion.

Caliche Globemallow, Sphaeralcea laxa

This globemallow grows on rocky slopes and in washes, especially in caliche soils. You've no doubt encountered it at lower elevations in the Chiricahuas.

One of my favorites, Torrey's Craglily, Echeandia flavescens

Torrey's Craglily graces woodlands and grasslands from Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas, south through Mexico. 

Toothleaf Goldeneye, Viguiera dentata

What would Arizona be, without its wonderful, sunny displays of hard-to-identify composites? Toothleaf Goldeneye thrives in dry canyons, from Arizona and New Mexico, all the way south to Central America. In Mexico, infusions made from this goldeneye are used to treat baby rash; its essential oils have antibiotic properties.

Next year at Heritage Days, come join our wildflower walk!

Rufous-backed Robins Visit Portal!

My glimpse of an interesting bird at dusk was confirmed soon after when Dave Jasper called to tell us that he had just seen Rufous-backed Robins by the post office in Portal that morning.

Rufous-backed Robin in Arizona Sycamore

(Photos by Narca)

Normally at home further south in Mexico, Rufous-backs most often frequent dry deciduous forest. Their behavior and diet are similar to those of their cousin, the familiar American Robin, though they are often shyer than ours –– a trait you'd never guess by the way this Rufous-back cooperated!

You can just make out the warm rufous tones 

on this bird's back and wing coverts.

The streaks on the throat are stronger and extend farther down

 on Rufous-backs than on American Robins, 

and they sport no white marks around the eye.

Isn't Portal grand in the spring?!

Winter's Subtleties

Imagine: you're immersed in the early-winter splendor of the Chiricahua Mountains.

 Dawn light on the Chiricahua Mountains (Photos by Narca)

The air is brisk and glorious, and, hiking up South Fork, you settle into the depths and subtleties of the season...

into the drifts of sycamore leaves...

Light gleams from the seedheads of Cane Beardstem...

and native thistles...

and Deer Grass.

Streamside willows still hold a few leaves,

and the sycamore's bark takes on a subtle hue of green from chloroplasts.

The riot of nesting and migrating birds has passed, and now you find winter's companions:

Acorn Woodpeckers are busy among the pines and oaks,

Gambel's Quail enliven the mountains' feet,

and Spotted Towhees scratch in the underbrush.

In fact, Spotted Towhees are having a banner winter in the Chiricahuas. Regrowth from the big fire of 2011 must have reached a stage that offers towhees plenty of nesting cover, for we've never before seen them this numerous in winter.

Adult male Scott's Oriole

And... what is a Scott's Oriole doing, still coming daily to our hummingbird feeders?? He lasted through the November snowstorm and shows every sign of being a snowbird in reverse. There's nothing subtle about this bird's summer yellows!

Okay, who has guessed? New camera!

A Western Screech Owl

Last night Alan and I ventured into Cave Creek Canyon above Portal, as wind swayed the sycamore branches, and a thickening crescent moon shone over the scene. We joined friends Dave Jasper and Rick Plage to see the location of a likely owl nest that Dodie Logue and Bob Hautman had found a couple of days ago.

Night deepened. We listened, hearing mostly the rustling of the leaves. When darkness was complete, a Western Screech Owl began to call, but it wasn't the usual territorial whistling or trilling. Dave thought it was perhaps a male's pillow talk. I wondered whether it was the female announcing to the male that she was ready for her evening meal. "Her" intensity while vocalizing in the cavity entrance made it clear that she was including the magic word: "Now!"

A Western Screech Owl calls in Cave Creek Canyon

(Photo by Narca)

Cave Creek Canyon is renowned for its small owls, which also include Whiskered Screech, Northern Pygmy, and Elf. Occasionally a Flammulated will also breed at lower elevations in the Chiricahua Mountains, though usually they are higher in the mountains.

Autumn Musings

Once again, drifts of autumn leaves shift with the winds in South Fork, in the Chiricahua Mountains. Madrone berries are peaking, and pulling in feasting birds. Above, the sky is frisky with mares' tails, foretelling an impending storm. All this richness!

Autumn along the South Fork Road (Photos by Narca)

And one friend who fully appreciated wild richness, no longer is here to do so. Farewell to Rich Stallcup, who showed me my first Montezuma Quail right here in the Chiricahuas, more than three decades ago.

Montezuma Quail (Acrylic painting by Narca)

Mexican Jay, tossing leaves

The only industrious creatures this afternoon are the jays, proving by their behavior that we've overlooked some subtle relation between them and the leaftossers of Central America... a musing that returns to Rich, who often connected ideas in an original manner. He told Peter Warshall, "They've put vultures and storks in the same family. Seems like a birder's great melding of bringing babies and recycling the dead."

The main idea that stayed with me from reading One Hundred Years of Solitude was Márquez's notion that the key to living well in old age is to reach an "honorable pact with solitude". We also face the challenge of reaching some peaceable accommodation with the loss of friends––with losing all of those whose going leaves an empty place against the sky.

Mexican Jay, a portrait

Fledgling Trogons!

Wow––6 trogons in South Fork this morning! My first glimpse was of a plump bird, breast on, perched on a creek boulder. That breast showed a big white crescent, framed above and below by dark, and my first thought was, surely not a Ring Ouzel! Surely not, indeed. Through binoculars it resolved into a fledgling trogon with darker-than-normal feathers framing the big white breast crescent.

Later I saw a second fledgling, accompanied by an adult male and possibly the sibling of the first, though they were separated by about 100 yards. This second youngster didn't look as dark below the chest band, and allowed a closer approach. Its tail, while showing copper, wasn't as bright as the tail of the first fledgling. Here it is:

Fledgling Elegant Trogon, front and back (Photos by Narca)

Up at the trailhead, two male trogons were contesting territorial rights. The younger male foraged, plucking insects from spider webs. Mostly the action was quiet, and the two even perched side by side for a while. But all it took was the arrival of a female trogon, and suddenly the two males were grappling mid-air!

Two male Elegant Trogons are sizing up each other.

The older male is warning away the younger with a bit of tail-flipping, prior to combat.

The underside of the tails of these two birds reveals their age difference: the bird on the left shows the heavier barring of a one-year-old male in his first summer of life. The bird on the right shows much finer barring under the tail––the pattern of an older male. The year-old bird also shows an anomalous white feather within the green of the breast. If that pattern holds true through future molts, we should be able to identify this individual in years to come.

Interestingly, none of these three adult males was the same as the male at the known nest. That male (often seen near the bridge) has an anomalous dark feather within the white breast band. He also has a mate, so it appears that at least 8 trogons, including the two fledglings, are in lower South Fork. It also appears that the trogon census missed some! Possibly running it in May instead of June, as customary, resulted in the census's low figure of 8 individuals for the entire Cave Creek drainage. (The June counts sometimes record fledglings; one year on the count a trogon fledged right before our eyes, and landed at our feet, stub-tailed and blinking at the world.)

Other fledglings were also out and about: young Bridled Titmice, young Painted Redstarts. The Painted Redstart fledglings are at that stage when birders unfamiliar with the plumage sometimes think they are seeing a Slate-throated Redstart. Today one of the young redstarts was a black-and-white blur, not yet showing a smidgeon of red, flycatching in the gloom beneath the big willow at the South Fork bridge.

Even a young Northern Goshawk came roaring in, perched briefly, glared at me, and flew off, kek-kek-kekking. A word of advice to the young trogons––¡Ojo!––keep your eyes open! 

Early morning in South Fork

Look Who Came to Dinner

Gila Monster in Portal (Photos by Narca)

Gila Monsters have been uncommonly common this season! This is the fourth for me: two in Guadalupe Canyon, and two here, close to Portal. Quite a treat!

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?