Another Hike in Madera Full of Wildlife

The stars of my last hike were definitely the two mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) who were hanging out with us for quite a while. They were right on and next to the trail and seemed quite undisturbed by our presence.

Having grown up around white-tailed deer, mule deer's ears always seem comically large to me.

Do you see her tongue?

Another tongue!

Look carefully and you can see her eyebrow whiskers.

The squirrels (Sciurus arizonensis) were also having a ball, dashing about...

Finding acorns...

And even caching them.

This brown creeper (Certhia americana) was especially well camouflaged. Do you see it?

I know some people find jays (of all types) annoying, I suppose in part because of their tendency to monopolize bird feeders, but I love their stunning blue and their behavior and cognition are really interesting too. Not only do they have amazing memories for cache locations, they pay attention to who is watching them cache and therefore might steal their food later! Here's a Mexican jay (Aphelocoma wollweberi) that was particularly cooperative in posing for my photos.

The exciting invertebrate of the day was a tarantula (Aphonopelma) of some type that was right on the trail. No, I'm not going to try to specify the species (invertebrates are hard!), but I think it's a male because they are smaller and darker than females.

Another interesting site along the trail was this mysterious bird graveyard. It looked like maybe a predator of some sort (maybe a canid or felid??) had a nice avian meal.

Any ideas on what bird species this might have been?

Canyon Lake: In Search of Water

Last month was the anniversary of my cousin's death. My aunt and uncle placed a gorgeous wreath of flowers in the Pacific Ocean, and they encouraged friends and family to place a single flower in any local ocean or river. It was such a lovely idea, especially because my family scattered my grandfather's ashes in Katama Bay just over five years ago. But where was I to find water, here in the Arizona desert? Although there are many local rivers--including one right outside of my apartment--but most of them are seasonally dry (at least in recent years, due to agricultural irrigation water use). Even those running this time of year sadly do not connect to the ocean. So I decided to drive north to the Salt River, a tributary to the Gila River (which runs dry south of Phoenix before it reaches the Colorado River, but at least is a large, relatively natural body of water).

First, I went to find a quiet place to place my orchid flower. There's a lovely canyon to the south of the lake with a small creek. Although there were some families escaping the Phoenix heat in tubes and kayaks near the parking lots, there were also paths through the grass with lots of secluded areas--probably intended for fishing--where it was easy to wade into the water.

After standing for a while in the cool water, I placed the orchid in the water and watched it float off.

A variety of water birds kept me company:

American coot (Fulica americana)

Common gallinule (Gallinula galeata)

Female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) flying over the common gallinule.

I'm not sure what this one was. Any ideas?

The coot, mallard, and gallinule all together.

And dragonflies...

A lovely rust-orange dragonfly, I think maybe a flame skimmer (Libellula saturata)?

Next, I took a short one-mile hike--a short loop from the Boulder Canyon trailhead--all that I could manage in the 100+ degree heat. But it was worth the lovely views of the lake and canyon. I also spotted a few lizards, some photos of which I might submit to #FindThatLizard.

I love how clearly you can see the line of riparian vegetation along the creek,

On the drive back, I stopped at a few view points the cliffs, which are pretty spectacular, especially due to the yellow coloration in certain places that I believe is due to being covered in lichen:

Despite the heat, it was a lovely, calm day of remembrance, away from work and the rest of the world. 

Madera Canyon: Escaping the Heat

Yesterday, Tucson hit the 75th day of 2020 with a triple digit high, and we recently had two consecutive days of at least 110°F, which is common here in June, but the first time in August since 1915. At such temperatures, going to elevation is basically the only way to hike--or really spend any time outdoors, except perhaps in a a pool--during daylight hours. So this past week I went back to Madera Canyon for another lovely excursion. I saw many of the same birds, which I could mostly identify this time, plus some new ones! 

I think this is a juvenile elegant trogon (Trogon elegans), which is very exciting, because these birds are rare and highly sought after, as the only member of trogon/quetzal family (Trogonidae) present in the United States. There are a few known nesting pairs in Madera Canyon, but they are mostly found south of the border, in the tropics. The last time I saw a trogon--of a different species--was in Panama!

As is typical of many species, especially birds, the photos you see are often of the brightly colored adult males, while the females and juveniles are much less frequently photographed (or at least shared). It took me a while to identify this one because the barring of the wings seemed so distinctive, but that's not in any of the identifying information for the species. The white spot underneath is mentioned for both juveniles and females though.

Based mostly on the white stripe on the head, I think this one is a female black-headed grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus), which similarly has much more muted coloration than its male counterpart. Unfortunately, she didn't turn her head, so I didn't get a clear side view.

Here's a yellow-eyed junco (Junco phaeonotus) again. There were certain places along the trail where several of these hopped on ahead of me companionably for quite a ways.

This little bird is a house wren (Troglodytes aedon), which is one of the most common and widespread birds in the western Hemisphere. They can be found from Canada to southern Chile, although in the winter they reside closer to the tropics and in the summer some of them migrate polewards.

Mammals tend to be scarcer here in the desert, although I did see a couple of deer and several cute squirrels. Tree squirrels (as opposed to ground squirrels) are much rarer out here than they are back east, and I'm always happy to see them. Also, the local gray squirrel is actually a different species, the Arizona gray squirrel (Sciurus arizonensis), which is endemic to the riparian forests in the sky islands of southern Arizona and northern Mexico.

There were a few different wildflowers blooming along the trail this time, including what I think was a lemon beebalm or lemon horsemint (Monarda citriodora).

These delicate pink flowers are coralbells (Heuchera sanguinea), which are native to Arizona and New Mexico, but are often planted in gardens elsewhere in the country.

My favorite flower of the hike, though, was the Mexican pink (Silene laciniata), which has quite a distinctive lobed petal shape that looks a little bit like a firework.

I didn't see any of them last month, but this time there were several, especially at slightly higher elevation. Here a yellow butterfly of some sort--I think maybe a cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae)--is drinking nectar from one. Can you see its tongue (also known as a proboscis)?

I got lucky with the lepidoptera tongues! This one is some kind of skipper. I think maybe it's an Arizona mottled-skipper (Codatractus arizonensis). See the curl of the proboscis in this one?