A Desert Adventure!

Mourning Doves on Ocotillo

Zenaida macroura - Fouquieria splendens

Last week I drove 800 miles to a favorite camping spot in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, that I've been going to since 1979! I saw lots of flowers, birds, insects, a few mammals, several reptiles, and an amphibian! True to form the desert was hot, then WINDY, and finally breezy and warm. We camped out for three days and hiked up the local washes and ridges and reveled in the flora, fauna, and clear blue sky! It looked just the same as it did 40 years ago! How lucky I am to be able to return to this beautiful untouched wilderness year after year!

House Finch on Saguaro Cactus

Haemorhous mexicanus (male) - Cereus giganteus

Desert Birds

Many desert dwelling birds don't need to drink water.  They get enough moisture from the food they eat.  The Mourning Doves, pictured at the top of the page, and the House Finches, pictured here, need to drink water daily.  In the past we have watched the Mourning Doves fly in from the bajada in the evenings, to get a drink at the tanks.  The tanks are natural, bedrock pools that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have enhanced and dammed to hold water year-round for wildlife. Large populations of Mourning Doves and House Finches can be found across most of the U.S.  Some of these populations seasonally migrate. However, the desert dwelling populations are non-migratory and live here year-round.  

Mourning Doves are seasonally monogamous, and produce 2-5 broods (of 2 eggs each) annually.  The nests are usually constructed in trees, or on the ground.  This year we saw a Mourning Dove nest with two eggs in it!  Wow!  Once the eggs are laid, both parents incubate them.  The male incubates from mid-morning to late afternoon.  The female incubates the remainder of the day.  The eggs typically hatch in 14 days.  Both parents feed the nestlings with "crop milk", a secretion from their crop walls!  Squabs (baby doves) usually fledge within 12-15 days.  As soon as they fledge, the female leaves to start a new brood, and the male alone feeds the fledglings for another 12 days!  The young doves typically stay in the area of their parents for the next 21 days.  They will roost with their sibling and/or parents at night.  As mature adults they will fly up to 3 miles to a water source twice a day, usually in the morning and evening.  They can suction up water, and do not need to tilt their heads back to swallow!  Surprisingly, Mourning Doves have a short life span of just 1 year in the wild!

House Finch (male & female) in Palo Verde tree

Haemorhous mexicanus 

The House Finch was originally only a desert dweller, but has expanded its home range to include most of the U.S.  They are seed, berry, and fruit eaters.  They travel in small to large flocks.  We came across a flock of 5 House Finches at a natural bedrock pool of water.  The female (above right) looks slightly damp.  Maybe it just took a bird bath!  The red color in the feathers of the male House Finch (above left) comes from the food it eats. This one must have found a lot of red berries! 

House Finches raise up to 6 broods in a season, with 2-7 eggs per brood!!!  3 broods are the average number. Both the male and female choose the nest site.  Only the female builds the nest and incubates the eggs.  The male will feed the female while she is on or off the nest, during the incubation period.  Both parents feed the nestlings.  The male alone feeds the fledglings until they can fend for themselves, while the female builds a new nest and lays a new clutch of eggs!  The young birds will reach sexual maturity within a year. A House Finch's life span is 8-10 years in the wild.  

 Ash-throated Flycatcher

Myiarchus cinerascens

The Cornell website https:birdsna.org states, "Ash-throated Flycatchers are tolerant of high temperatures, do not need to drink water, and can nest in relatively small cavities, they can breed even in sparse desert scrub as long as adequate food resources and nest sites are available."  They are cavity nesters, and like to nest in abandoned woodpecker holes.  They have 1-2 broods annually, of 2-7 eggs per brood. Both parents make the nest and feed the young.  Only the female incubates the eggs and broods the nestlings. They feed on a wide variety of insects, as well as the fruit of several cacti.  The average life span of an Ash-throated Flycatcher is 12 years.  This one came quite close to me one morning and curiously checked me out!

Great-tailed Grackle in Yellow Turbans

Quiscalus mexicanus - Eriogonum pusillum

From a distance I thought this bird was a Raven! However, it is not in the Corvid family, but rather the Icterid family. This family of birds includes New World blackbirds and orioles, cowbirds, meadowlarks, bobolinks, oropendolas, and caciques.

Great-tailed Grackles are polygynous, and individuals of both sexes are frequently nonfaithful to their social mates. Nest are made as high as 60' up in a tree.  They have 1-2 broods annually, of 1-5 eggs per brood.  The males defend the nesting territory, while the female incubates the eggs, and cares for the young. They eat a variety of insects, reptiles and amphibians, small mammals, as well as other eggs and nestlings of other birds!  The life span of a Great-tailed Grackle is approximately 12 years.  Apparently, they can form huge flocks numbering in the tens of thousands, and roost communally all year. However, they are not very common in desert areas without water. We only saw a couple of them during our stay in the desert.

Cactus Wrens
Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus

Cactus Wrens are xerophiles, and get all the water they need in the food they eat.  Their diet consists of a variety of insects, seeds, fruits, and occasionally small reptiles and amphibians.  They are socially monogamous.  Both male and female build a football size nest in thorny cacti or shrubs. Unlike most birds, they use their nests year-round, not just for breeding, and will sleep in them at night.  They have 1-3 broods annually, of 2-7 eggs per brood!  Only the female incubates the eggs, and broods/feeds the young.  A male will bring food to the female for the young. The average life span of a Cactus Wren is 7 years. I watched the wren on the left repeatedly visit a nest in a cholla cactus!  The pair on the right were flying around together in a Palo Verde tree.  These beautiful birds are the state bird of Arizona!

Black-throated Sparrow (male)

Amphispiza bilineata

More Desert Birds!

Here are some more birds that I was lucky enough to see in the desert, but don't have the time to write about!  They were all gorgeous and fun to watch!  Small flocks of Black-throated Sparrows were some of the first ones to start singing in the morning.  I saw a number of them with grubs/caterpillars in their beaks!

Scott's Oriole (male)

Icterus parisorum

I saw 2 of this strikingly beautiful male orioles in the area where we camped.  What a gorgeous surprise they were!  So tropically colored in the dry desert! 

Western Kingbird

Tyrannus verticalis

This kingbird posed for me in the early evening at Joshua Tree National Park. 

It stayed on its perch for 10+ minutes!  Just lovely!

Northern Mockingbird

Mimus polyglottos

The Northern Mockingbirds serenaded us loudly throughout the day with their incredible repertoire of songs!  The distinctive flash of their black and white wings makes them easy to identify in the field.

Brush Mouse - Black-tailed Jackrabbit

Peromyscus boylii - Lepus californicus

Desert Mammals!

One late afternoon a friend of mine noticed that there was a large mouse sitting on the wheel hub of one of our vehicles!!!  It stayed there for several hours, probably because there was a dog in camp!  It had HUGE ears!  We couldn't exactly identify it, as it wasn't in full view, but our best guess is a Brush Mouse.  It's about the right size for a Brush Mouse, 8-9", but we couldn't tell if its tail was bicolored or if it had "dusky ankles".  They are known to be good climbers, so maybe...  At any rate it was super fun to watch it!  It stayed on the wheel hub for several hours, but was gone in the morning!  So cute!

Black-tailed Jackrabbits

Lepus californicus

These Black-tailed Jackrabbits were foraging at dusk in Joshua Tree National Park. They were super easy to photograph, as they froze in place when they saw me! They are not actually "rabbits". They are hares. The following quote from www.Britannica.com clearly explains the difference between the 2 species. 

"In general, rabbits are smaller and have shorter ears than hares. They are born without fur and with closed eyes after a gestation period of 30–31 days. Rabbits prefer to hide, rather than run, from their enemies. They prefer habitats composed of trees and shrubs, where they live in burrows dug into the soil. Hares, in contrast, are larger, and they are born fully developed with fur and open eyes after a gestation period lasting about 42 days. They are runners, preferring open-area habitats such as prairies, where they make their nests in small open depressions." 

Jackrabbits rarely walk, but hop 5'-10' at a time. When panicked they can hop up to 20' at a time, and can travel at 30-35 mph! They are preyed on by coyotes, bobcats, foxes, hawks, owls and snakes. They are mostly active from dusk to dawn. The female black-tailed jackrabbit can have as many as four litters a year. The young are born in a fur-filled depression, or form. Most litters have 3-4 young. The mother will separate the young and put them in individual forms, to help reduce the chance of predation. They will nurse for only the first 3-4 days of their life. During the remainder of their lives, they eat green plants in the spring and summer, and woody, dry vegetation in the winter.

Long-nosed Leopard Lizard

Gambelia wislizenii

Desert Reptiles and Amphibians

We came across this Long-nosed Leopard Lizard in a gravely wash.  Wow!!! I had never seen one before!  It froze in position, and we watched it for some time!  They are large lizards, sometimes reaching 5'5" in length!!!  The one we saw was probably around 3' in length, from snout to the tip of the tail.  Unlike other lizards, they do not cast off and regrow their tails.  They have powerful jaws and eat grasshoppers, beetles, moths, wasps, caterpillars, lizards (including its own kind), and even small mammals.  This one is a gravid (pregnant) female, identified by the bright orange dots and stripes!  What a beauty!

Red-spotted Toad - Bufo punctatus 

We saw several Red-spotted Toads near and in the bedrock pools we passed while hiking.  They toads are about 3" in length, and have round, bulging, parotid (salivary) glands at the back of both sides of the head.  They breed in Spring and lay eggs singly or in small strands at the bottoms of pools.  The tadpoles take 1-2 months to mature!!!  These toads can withstand a 40% loss of body fluids and still remain active during the day!  They eat ants, beetles, bees, bugs, and recently metamorphosed tadpoles!!!

Ground Snake - Sonora semiannulata

My friend spotted a Ground Snake as we walked back from some tanks in the early evening.  It scooted under a rock, so I didn't get a photo of it.  The photo above was taken by Randy Babb at www.reptilesofaz.org. This was a small snake, about 19" long, and only as wide as your finger!  It was beautifully marked with a bright orange stripe down it's back!  These snakes are non-poisonous, and eat insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and lizards!  They are very widespread in the Sonoran Desert, ranging from near sea level to 5,000'!  I'd never seen one before!  How exciting!

I traveled through the Mojave Desert in California, on the way to Arizona, and it was in full bloom!  There were yellow, blue, white, and purple carpets of flowers extending for miles along the roadside!!!  It was amazing to see, and the fragrance was heavenly!  The southern end of Joshua Tree National Monument was covered in flowers!!! Thousands of royal blue phacelias filled the dry washes!  WOW!!!

The Sonoran Desert of Arizona wasn't as profusely in bloom but the cactus and ocotillos were lovely, as well as the shrubs along the highway.  The dry washes weren't filled with flowers, but we saw many different species in bloom!  I relished them all!  Here's a few photos for you to enjoy!

Mojave Desert Wildflowers - Sonoran Desert Wildflowers

View of the snowy Sierra Nevada from Bishop, CA - 4/12/19

I spent the night in Bishop, CA on the way home.  In the morning there were clear blue skies and the sun was shining on the snowy Sierra Nevada.  It was absolutely, spectacularly beautiful!  What a perfect way to end a fabulous trip!  I am so filled up with beauty!

What's happening in my neighborhood?

Are the Grosbeaks and Orioles back?

What's blooming?

Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more!

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