May is such a beautiful month in the Middle San Pedro Valley! Our mesquite bosque bursts into new life, sprouting a light-filtering canopy of spring-green leaves. Birds are singing from the trees, building nests, and rearing their young. Lizards are a near-constant sight and snakes have been leaving their telltale trackways in the dust. Late in the month, something special happens as catclaw acacias suddenly explode with constellations of pale yellow blossoms, perfuming the valley with their luscious, signature scent. The heat of summer begins to blanket the land in newfound warmth, gearing up toward the frying-pan month of June.
This has been a banner year for catclaw acacia, Acacia gregii. The bushes (at times, these plants grow into small trees) have literally colored parts of the valley floor with an unusually dense show of blossoms. This is one of the desert’s special plants that begs to be appreciated in an olfactory way…push your nose up against any fresh flower, and one whiff of its sweet, heady perfume will weld the current zeitgeist of this wonderful region into your permanent memory. A dense stand of palo verde (Cercidium spp.) in full bloom colors an entire ridge with literally millions of flowers, all set beneath tall saguaros that are also in bloom. Palo verde and saguaro are two flagship plants of the Sonoran Desert Ecoregion, here reaching its southernmost boundary in the valley along this very ridge. The spot that I stood on to gather this image marks the northernmost extension of the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion. Two great ecoregions merge here, enhancing the rich biotic diversity that is so much an intrinsic part of the San Pedro River Drainage.
Most of the early wildflowers are gone by this month, but some wait for their bloom times, like this display of cow pen daisies, Verbesina encelioides.
A closer look at the vivid yellow flowers of cow pen daisies. The yellow “petals” are actually sepals – subtending the many dozens of tiny individual flowers that crowd the centers of these composite blooms.
I am happy to report that our resident Chihuahuan ravens have successfully fledged a trio of youngsters this year. This comes in welcome contrast to last year’s double brood failure; their initial brood was decimated by hungry coyotes on the first night that they spent out of the nest, and the second brood (rare in ravens) was lost to raptors.
Mavis skillfully positions a bulky chicken egg in her beak and readies herself for takeoff. The youngsters must be fed very frequently. Ravens are experts at finding the eggs of other birds. Mike and Mavis never hesitate when we leave an egg on the ground for them.
Loud cries emanating from the raven nest less than 120 feet from my desk window have been a daily part of this month’s panoply of happenings in the natural world. Young ravens have zero shyness when it comes to screaming at their parents for more food, more food, more food! Five days ago, they left the nest to begin exploring the outside world. We see and hear them many times a day as they roam with their parents and learn the complex magic of raven flight mastery. Few North American birds attain a higher level of flight skills than ravens do.
The three youngsters at rest in the mesquite trees only days after fledging. This is a vulnerable and crucial time for the young wolf birds. They must sharpen their flight skills quickly, for predators lurk above and below. It is also the one time in their lives when learning is greatly accelerated as they stay with their parents for weeks, who guard and teach their brood with steadfast devotion.
Raucous cries and characteristic fluttering wings are a part of every feeding, as Mavis approaches one of her ever-hungry youngsters with a crop full of food.
This has been a sad year for migrant birds, with fewer numbers and fewer species than usual, but there are still plenty of feathered creatures bringing life and – at times – utterly dazzling colors to our world. This male broad-billed hummingbird could not possibly have been dubbed with a duller nor less imaginative name.Among the resident bird species that are still doing well are lesser goldfinches, which crowd our seed bags daily, enriching our surroundings with cheerful choruses of bird song.
During every summer, wet mud or other moist places on the ground attract large congregations of gorgeous, diminutive butterflies.
“Blues” as they are collectively called, belong the the lepidopteran subfamily Polyommatinae. Approximately twenty species occur in Arizona. The moniker “blue” comes to light any time these insects open their wings, revealing brilliant blue coloring on their upper wing surfaces. The species pictured is known as the marine blue, Leptotes marina.
Only male “blues” congregate at puddles or on moist soil and animal scats. The males may require certain minerals, amino acids, and/or salts that the females do not. Local native host plants (for their larvae) include saltbush, catclaw acacia and velvet mesquite. Each species has its own hibernation strategy, with some overwintering as either eggs or larvae, as opposed to the far more common lepidopteran chrysalis. Other species have close associations with ant colonies – such as larvae pupating inside ant colonies, or larvae being tended and protected by ants as they feed on their host plants.
Warm morning light dapples the coat of this mature mule deer doe as she slakes her thirst at our “bird pond.”
Early summer in the Middle San Pedro Valley has brought us some uncommon sights. One of our nation’s most dazzling – and sneaky – songbirds is the varied bunting. No larger than a small sparrow, varied buntings often appear black unless they are viewed at just the right angle in favorable light. They occur in small numbers here; we typically see only one or two of them in our bosque every summer. They are sneaky because we never know when they will appear, which is infrequently at best. A beautiful male will drop from the mesquites to grab a quick drink of water from our bird pond, then quickly disappear into the depths of the woodland, not to be seen again for days or even weeks.
My wife Kathleen photographed this male varied bunting through the kitchen window just days ago. When viewed from an elevated position (like our kitchen window), a blazing scarlet patch can be seen adorning the top of the male bunting’s head. This is no accident. Birds often view one another from above, so bright patches of identifying color on the top of their heads help them to keep track of who’s who. Photo by Kathleen Waldt. An even rarer sight here in Cochise County, Arizona comes in the form of another bunting species, the painted bunting. When this female landed at our water dishes in May, Kathleen identified it immediately. The males are among our most brightly colored songbirds, but females are far more subtle. The softly colored green back gives this one away.
Last week, a rare find presented itself in the form of a fresh Gila monster trackway etched into the fine dust along the side of our shop building. The only other animals that can leave similar trackways here are turtles, but a close look at this trackway leaves no doubt as to its maker.
I discovered this trackway less than an hour after it was made, but try as I might, I could not locate the Gila monster that made it. Finding Gila monster tracks is uncommon; finding an entire trackway like this one is downright rare. The animal that made these tracks was a young individual, roughly 9 – 11 inches in length. A closer look reveals distinctive footprints and a drag mark left by the lizard’s tail down the center of the trackway.
The month of May brought the expected blooming of saguaros, but this year the huge cacti did something very strange. Instead of crowning the tips of their trunks and arms with halos of blossoms, they grew flowers both on the tops and down the sides of their heavy arms. I had never seen this phenomenon until this year. Locals are saying that this is a response to the severe drought we are experiencing in the desert southwest. I want to know why the plants are behaving like this.
A very rare sight! Flowers extending far down the sides of saguaro arms. Normally, they are located only at the tips of the arms and atop the crowns of saguaros. Photo by Kathleen Waldt. Another rare sight in the form of a cristate saguaro. Like its neighbors, this one had blossoms sprouting down the sides of its arms.
