On Monday, the Forest Service plans to institute a 'hard' closure of Cave Creek Canyon, meaning no entry by any means, including foot, except to canyon residents. The closure will most likely last for months. Thus, tomorrow is the last day when people can enter the canyon on foot.
I've learned a few other details: the Herb Martyr Road above the research station is washed out at Crystal Wash.
Columbus Electric laid a ground wire up the canyon, so that the research station now has electricity, but no fiber optics cable for Internet.
The South Fork Road is okay to the bridge and cabins (though in need of cleanup), but above the cabins it is gone. South Fork reclaimed it. Interestingly, the picnic area and bathroom at the trailhead are intact.
The water system to the FS campgrounds is broken.
Below the canyon, John and Morgan's straw bale home was flooded inside, and up to the top of the first layer of bales. They may need a hand in cleaning up!
Farther away to the east, the Peloncillos were as hard hit as the Chiricahuas. The county road south of Animas into the Animas Valley and Diamond A (Gray) Ranch has been washed out in some places. At the southern end, along Geronimo Trail (accessed from 15th Street in Douglas), the old wooden bridge supporting the road has been completely swept away. This means that access to Guadalupe Canyon, the Slaughter Ranch, and Clanton Canyon has been severed.
One positive note: the Chiricahua Leopard Frogs in Reed's pond at Cave Creek Ranch have survived!
Showing posts with label Peloncillo Mountains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peloncillo Mountains. Show all posts
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Celebrating Our Local CBCs
This year, again, Alan and I joined the national ritual of Christmas Bird Counts, once more participating in the back-to-back counts for Portal, Arizona, and the Peloncillo Mountains, New Mexico. The weather couldn't have been finer, with temperatures rising into the high 60s and low 70s.
The Portal count, coordinated by Jackie Lewis, was on Saturday. We hiked out our door and up to the high base of Portal Peak, a big bowl full of old-growth Arizona Madrone trees. Away from the canyon bottoms, much of our territory burned last May during the Horseshoe Two fire. Some regrowth has begun, but a lot of it still looks like the Desolation of Smaug.
Happily, many of the big madrones had weathered last year's drought, freeze and fire, although only a few still bore fruit this day.
Junipers are way off in their cycle! We saw almost no berries (and a corresponding lack of berry-eaters like Sage Thrashers and Phainopeplas), and many junipers were peaking in their pollen production! Who ever heard of juniper pollen at the end of December?? Late February is more normal. Clouds of orange pollen were wafting on light breezes, creating a very sneezy CBC. Come on, hay fever in December?
Several friends joined us––Skip from Maine, Linda from Idaho, Brad from Tucson––and here is Brad's photo of a highlight for our territory, an adult male Scott's Oriole, in all his finery. We've never before recorded one in our yard in December! I don't know whether Mr Scott is very late, or very early.
Sunday's Peloncillo count, coordinated by Nick Pederson, includes the north end of the Animas Valley, where the Diamond A Ranch (formerly Gray Ranch) allows entry for the CBC counters. Our territory was south of Dunagan's Crossing, from the hackberries through Middle Well, for those who know this valley. This part of the ranch had obviously endured a dry summer, and bird numbers were very low. (Other parts of the count circle fared better.)
The Peloncillo count has always shown boom-and-bust cycles, in synchrony with rain and drought. Once in a span of two years, we went from having the all-time national high for Brewer's Sparrows to zero! Such huge fluctuations emphasize why studies of wildlife in desert regions must be long-term to be truly relevant.
This cryptic Great Horned Owl was roosting in an old hackberry tree. He's hoping we don't see him!
The Portal count, coordinated by Jackie Lewis, was on Saturday. We hiked out our door and up to the high base of Portal Peak, a big bowl full of old-growth Arizona Madrone trees. Away from the canyon bottoms, much of our territory burned last May during the Horseshoe Two fire. Some regrowth has begun, but a lot of it still looks like the Desolation of Smaug.
Trudging through the Desolation, heading for that ribbon of green at the foot of Portal Peak (All photos except oriole by Narca)
Happily, many of the big madrones had weathered last year's drought, freeze and fire, although only a few still bore fruit this day.
An ancient Arizona Madrone, partly burned out, is sprouting new branches. Go, Life!
Junipers are way off in their cycle! We saw almost no berries (and a corresponding lack of berry-eaters like Sage Thrashers and Phainopeplas), and many junipers were peaking in their pollen production! Who ever heard of juniper pollen at the end of December?? Late February is more normal. Clouds of orange pollen were wafting on light breezes, creating a very sneezy CBC. Come on, hay fever in December?
This especially bright Say's Phoebe was flycatching within the Desolation.
The Vesper Sparrows surprised me by being in the burned area, higher on the mountain than they usually winter.
Several friends joined us––Skip from Maine, Linda from Idaho, Brad from Tucson––and here is Brad's photo of a highlight for our territory, an adult male Scott's Oriole, in all his finery. We've never before recorded one in our yard in December! I don't know whether Mr Scott is very late, or very early.
Scott's Oriole near Portal, AZ (Photo by Brad Tatham)
Sunday's Peloncillo count, coordinated by Nick Pederson, includes the north end of the Animas Valley, where the Diamond A Ranch (formerly Gray Ranch) allows entry for the CBC counters. Our territory was south of Dunagan's Crossing, from the hackberries through Middle Well, for those who know this valley. This part of the ranch had obviously endured a dry summer, and bird numbers were very low. (Other parts of the count circle fared better.)
The Peloncillo count has always shown boom-and-bust cycles, in synchrony with rain and drought. Once in a span of two years, we went from having the all-time national high for Brewer's Sparrows to zero! Such huge fluctuations emphasize why studies of wildlife in desert regions must be long-term to be truly relevant.
This cryptic Great Horned Owl was roosting in an old hackberry tree. He's hoping we don't see him!
Great Horned Owl in the Animas Valley, New Mexico
The Lark Buntings were also fun, as they picked through horse droppings in search of goodies. This male shows a trace of his classy black breeding dress around his bill.
Lark Bunting looking for a snack
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Suppression in South Fork
Yesterday the Horseshoe Fire was inordinately well-behaved: I saw no smoke! The fire crews report that the fire continues to back into the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon in the vicinity of the trailhead, although you can see by comparing today's fire map with yesterday's that the spread was not pronounced.
A crew did manage to put in a fire line and an escape route in the vicinity of D8 (see green arrow on map), and will work more in that area today. The fire line is being constructed through manzanita and sparse pinyon-juniper habitat. A blackened safety zone was created yesterday.
Efforts to pinch off the fire have been going well. Helicopters continue to drone overhead, carrying water and retardant to aid on-the-ground suppression efforts. The fire has finally moved downslope far enough that the terrain allows firefighters to work on the ground in this one region near the South Fork trailhead.
Today, the firefighters again expect active ground fire with moderate upslope runs. It should continue to spread by backing downslope and flanking, then by burning upslope through the preheated canopy. Unless it is checked to the west at the fireline, the flames are expected to advance about a quarter-mile toward the creek bottom.
The incoming Public Information Officer, Jon Kohn, reiterated something that's very worth remembering: wherever the fire is burning through fire-adapted habitat, the endemic animals are also fire-adapted. When I went into the fresh burn above Maple Camp during the trogon census, I saw several Yarrow's Spiny Lizards and Striped Plateau Lizards running about the burnt ground, their normal patterning dulled by a coating of ash, but very much alive. Likewise, a number of birds like Buff-breasted Flycatchers seem to depend on regenerated habitat after a burn. We could also see some wildflowers after the rains which need the heat of fire to break their seeds' dormancy, and which are rare to absent at other times.
A big concern has been keeping a high-intensity fire out of the old growth riparian habitat of South Fork, and so far that effort has been quite successful.
Today's fire briefing was crowded with incoming and outgoing fire teams. Brad McBratney, outgoing Incident Commander, and members of his team wished to pass their thanks to the Portal-Rodeo community, saying again how much they've enjoyed working here. Wayne Cook is the incoming Incident Commander. The two fire teams share the same approach of using patient long-term monitoring and control strategies, and the two have obviously worked together over many years––old friends were catching up with each other.
The rains reached Columbus, New Mexico, last night! And here in the Chiricahuas, the spectacular sunset was caused by clouds, not smoke. Sharma Hutchinson reported seeing lightning last night as she returned from dinner. Many folks in our area know the long wait, through drought, for rain––days and nights when it seems that rain is all we wish for. A fire intensifies that longing, and now a hint of relief is in the air.
Watch for tarantulas! As humidity rises immediately before the monsoon, the male tarantulas emerge in search of females. When I start seeing tarantulas, it nearly always means that a good rain is only one to three days away!
A crew did manage to put in a fire line and an escape route in the vicinity of D8 (see green arrow on map), and will work more in that area today. The fire line is being constructed through manzanita and sparse pinyon-juniper habitat. A blackened safety zone was created yesterday.
Efforts to pinch off the fire have been going well. Helicopters continue to drone overhead, carrying water and retardant to aid on-the-ground suppression efforts. The fire has finally moved downslope far enough that the terrain allows firefighters to work on the ground in this one region near the South Fork trailhead.
Green arrow points to region of today's suppression efforts.
Next to the arrow, you can see the black chain indicating the new fire line, built yesterday.
The incoming Public Information Officer, Jon Kohn, reiterated something that's very worth remembering: wherever the fire is burning through fire-adapted habitat, the endemic animals are also fire-adapted. When I went into the fresh burn above Maple Camp during the trogon census, I saw several Yarrow's Spiny Lizards and Striped Plateau Lizards running about the burnt ground, their normal patterning dulled by a coating of ash, but very much alive. Likewise, a number of birds like Buff-breasted Flycatchers seem to depend on regenerated habitat after a burn. We could also see some wildflowers after the rains which need the heat of fire to break their seeds' dormancy, and which are rare to absent at other times.
A cold Yarrow's Spiny Lizard (Photo by Narca)
Today's fire briefing was crowded with incoming and outgoing fire teams. Brad McBratney, outgoing Incident Commander, and members of his team wished to pass their thanks to the Portal-Rodeo community, saying again how much they've enjoyed working here. Wayne Cook is the incoming Incident Commander. The two fire teams share the same approach of using patient long-term monitoring and control strategies, and the two have obviously worked together over many years––old friends were catching up with each other.
The rains reached Columbus, New Mexico, last night! And here in the Chiricahuas, the spectacular sunset was caused by clouds, not smoke. Sharma Hutchinson reported seeing lightning last night as she returned from dinner. Many folks in our area know the long wait, through drought, for rain––days and nights when it seems that rain is all we wish for. A fire intensifies that longing, and now a hint of relief is in the air.
Sunset over the Peloncillo Mountains
(Photo by Narca)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Bring on the Poppies!
The El Niño storms of winter soaked the desert southwest, and now we're seeing the results: native Mexican Gold Poppies cloak the lower slopes of the Chiricahuas and Peloncillos, and flood the San Simon Valley in a golden tide.
I'm off today to guide my second tour of the spring to Big Bend National Park (this one for World Wildlife Fund), and no doubt by the time I return, many other blooms will brighten these hills!
Mexican Gold Poppies
Sunburst: Mexican Gold Poppies (Photos by Narca)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Ciénaga
Ciénaga: cien aguas, one hundred waters.
A jewel of a cienaga, among New Mexico's finest, may be found on one of the big private ranches in the Animas Valley. The cienaga's waters originate in the Peloncillo Mountains just to the west and flow underground through the alluvium until just here, where an impervious layer of clay brings the water to the surface. Then a wide flood of water flows gently through the grasses, some of it captured in ponds which were dug by ranchers a half-century ago, some of it revitalizing Animas Creek and soaking the valley floor.
Our region has been bone-dry since the failure of the 2009 monsoon, and the effects of drought are obvious: "no grass seed" translates into almost no grassland sparrows, Horned Larks, Chestnut-collared Longspurs or mice. "No prey base" translates into almost no Northern Harriers, falcons, or accipiters. Even the ponds of the cienaga, which store water through most years, have been mostly dry––until now!
Alan and I take a long day's drive through the Animas Valley and up Geronimo Trail to Douglas. The valley stretches perhaps 40 miles through New Mexico's bootheel, then fades to the distant south, reaching deep into Mexico. Today the valley seems virtually bird-free, except for Loggerhead Shrikes and Red-tailed Hawks––how do they manage?––until we reach Clanton Cienaga.
Here's our first clue to what lies ahead: near ranch headquarters, Animas Creek is flowing across the county road. The cienaga, fed by this winter's heavy rain, is renewed. We ford the creek, then find that the lowest pond is brimful of water for the first time in years. Ring-necked Ducks have returned for the winter. A pair of alert Mexican Ducks suspects our motives, but doesn't flush as our car eases past.
In another mile, we see the cienaga in something like its original form: before us stretches a wide flood of shallow waters, flowing gently through the grasses and the brown skeletons of a past year's sunflowers. And here the birds congregate. American Robins bathe. In a sudden blaze of blue, dozens of Mountain and Western Bluebirds forage in the wet grasses. Interestingly, the two bluebird species stay apart. The Mountains are in the slightly more open valley floor, while only a hundred yards away, the Westerns forage in the slightly more wooded stretch.
Life returns with the waters.
A jewel of a cienaga, among New Mexico's finest, may be found on one of the big private ranches in the Animas Valley. The cienaga's waters originate in the Peloncillo Mountains just to the west and flow underground through the alluvium until just here, where an impervious layer of clay brings the water to the surface. Then a wide flood of water flows gently through the grasses, some of it captured in ponds which were dug by ranchers a half-century ago, some of it revitalizing Animas Creek and soaking the valley floor.
Our region has been bone-dry since the failure of the 2009 monsoon, and the effects of drought are obvious: "no grass seed" translates into almost no grassland sparrows, Horned Larks, Chestnut-collared Longspurs or mice. "No prey base" translates into almost no Northern Harriers, falcons, or accipiters. Even the ponds of the cienaga, which store water through most years, have been mostly dry––until now!
Alan and I take a long day's drive through the Animas Valley and up Geronimo Trail to Douglas. The valley stretches perhaps 40 miles through New Mexico's bootheel, then fades to the distant south, reaching deep into Mexico. Today the valley seems virtually bird-free, except for Loggerhead Shrikes and Red-tailed Hawks––how do they manage?––until we reach Clanton Cienaga.
Here's our first clue to what lies ahead: near ranch headquarters, Animas Creek is flowing across the county road. The cienaga, fed by this winter's heavy rain, is renewed. We ford the creek, then find that the lowest pond is brimful of water for the first time in years. Ring-necked Ducks have returned for the winter. A pair of alert Mexican Ducks suspects our motives, but doesn't flush as our car eases past.
Waters of Clanton Cienaga (Photo by Narca)
In another mile, we see the cienaga in something like its original form: before us stretches a wide flood of shallow waters, flowing gently through the grasses and the brown skeletons of a past year's sunflowers. And here the birds congregate. American Robins bathe. In a sudden blaze of blue, dozens of Mountain and Western Bluebirds forage in the wet grasses. Interestingly, the two bluebird species stay apart. The Mountains are in the slightly more open valley floor, while only a hundred yards away, the Westerns forage in the slightly more wooded stretch.
Life returns with the waters.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Whiskered Screech-Owl
A year ago on the Atascosa Highlands Christmas Bird Count south of Tucson, Alan and I encountered a little Whiskered Screech-Owl at its day roost. The owlet perched at the entrance to its roost cavity, comfortably soaking up the sunshine on that wintry day. A brief Morse code call and its yellowish bill confirmed its identity.
Yesterday that image of the basking owl, shimmering in my awareness for the past year, finally made it to paper. Here's the beguiling little raptor, rendered in watercolor and gouache.
Whiskered Screech-Owls are common within their limited habitat in the southwestern Sky Islands. Their abundance in the Chiricahua Mountains helps to boost that area's density of nesting raptors to a dizzying level. Helen Snyder has investigated nesting raptors around Portal and the Chiricahuas for years, and found that when owls are included with the hawks, eagles and falcons, the density of nesting raptors in Cave Creek Canyon far exceeds that known for any other location in North America. The next closest is the Snake River Birds of Prey Area in southern Idaho, and it boasts less than 1/4 of the density of raptors found in Cave Creek Canyon. Helen and others are encouraging the US Forest Service to give Cave Creek Canyon a special designation that recognizes its unique importance to raptors and further protects the region from oddball threats that occasionally arise.
If you will be in southern Arizona in early January and would like to join Christmas Bird Counts for these areas, you can contact the compiler for the count that interests you. For Atascosa Highlands on Sunday January 3, email Rich Hoyer (calliope@theriver.com). For Portal on Saturday January 2, email Jackie Lewis (winjac12@vtc.net). Counts for Portal and the nearby Peloncillo Mountains are run back-to-back, and many people spend the weekend attending both counts. For the Peloncillo Mountains count on January 3, please contact Alan Craig (narca@vtc.net). Yes––the dates for Atascosa Highlands and Peloncillo Mountains do conflict!
Yesterday that image of the basking owl, shimmering in my awareness for the past year, finally made it to paper. Here's the beguiling little raptor, rendered in watercolor and gouache.
Whiskered Screech-Owl by Narca
If you will be in southern Arizona in early January and would like to join Christmas Bird Counts for these areas, you can contact the compiler for the count that interests you. For Atascosa Highlands on Sunday January 3, email Rich Hoyer (calliope@theriver.com). For Portal on Saturday January 2, email Jackie Lewis (winjac12@vtc.net). Counts for Portal and the nearby Peloncillo Mountains are run back-to-back, and many people spend the weekend attending both counts. For the Peloncillo Mountains count on January 3, please contact Alan Craig (narca@vtc.net). Yes––the dates for Atascosa Highlands and Peloncillo Mountains do conflict!
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