So Far So Good
shares recent encounters
with plants, animals, landscapes and other curiosities found here and there.
Some are well-known, near and dear to us, others we have yet to identify
or fully comprehend…
Patagonia, Arizona and bits of New Mexico in and around the Gila National Forest with Finn as our guide
bird-of-paradise shrub, flame skimmer, antelopehorn milkweed
where do such names come from?
Mogollon Cliff Dwellings
Near the headwaters of the Gila River in New Mexico, up a steep path we entered a cluster of well preserved cliff dwellings, last inhabited by the Tularosa Mogollon in the 1200s. The National Park Service protects these dwellings in the Gila Wilderness and as long as visitors remain respectful, they are allowed to walk through these ancient dwellings.
Desert flowers
a constant fascination
of toughness and fragility
Look closely at the yellow stamens. Somewhere there is a name for this delicate yet persistent desert flower…
update: oenothera albiculus an evening primrose
A DESERT ROSE!?
Indeed it’s Stansbury’s cliffrose
(Michael’s blue jacket in the back is not a flower)
Pink is Abert’s Buckwheat……………………………….this one is Tufted Globe Amaranth
Meanwhile there's a party going on in the little Mariposa...
On the road…
with other creatures…
black widow spider, lizard of some kind, checkered white catapillar, desert black stinkbug, bombyliini fly, and coachwhip snake pretending to be a very still branch
I wish I had photos of all the stunning birds we’ve seen among sky, earth, trees …
The plants drew us in just as much as the birds.
And finally we found a planter full of cactus and artichoke…at the best pizza place for miles around!
Before Arizona I spent a couple of days in Colorado’s eastern slopes – near Golden Gate Canyon, with a new friend and kindred spirit – and also outside of Boulder. Again, the plants drew me in:
Before Colorado and Arizona, it was Chicago…
To see dear Cam, Eric and Iris
and visit the Field Museum for a good dose of dioramas, sculpture, culture. Like our years of work and good times at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Then on to Nebraska
From here on out I was mostly birdwatching in unexpected landscapes, with the sandhill crane migration along the Platte river to the south as my prime destination. There are few photos of birds because I have only a smartphone camera. I hope though, that you can take in the landscape, to catch glimpses of the journey. At present I don’t have videos and sound to share here. 😦
Niobrarra State Park in northeast Nebraska immediately changed my perception of this Great Plains state, so much more than flat corn and wheat fields. I had come to see the sharp-tailed grouse on their lekking grounds. Here’s what I found.
You’ll just have to take my word for it – or look it up – sharptailed grouse lekking. And then find the prairie chicken leks where the dances and songs are even more exotic.. stomping, booming and cooing all at the same time. Here are a couple of teaser photos…
The Platte river hosts close to 1 million sandhill cranes during spring migration each year.
Those of us who join them during this time are mere specks. We move carefully around the crane flocks as they prepare for journeys of flight, feeding, dancing, bonding, and finally nesting. Humbling to be among them.
During the day cranes feed in nearby fields- mostly on waste corn from last year’s harvest – or in remnant wet meadows.
They migrate in small family groups of parents and last summer’s full grown chicks, and feed in small groups (on a hot day they may cool off in water canals/irrigation ditches).
Early evening – we gather on boardwalks to wait and watch – hear them first……
and soon the sound is deafening.
It seems as though the sky is never empty of cranes
the trumpeting calls may fade for a time at night, but never completely
By morning everyone is stirring
calling
restless
hungry again
This is the pattern for days and weeks of fattening up for migration. The sounds, the constant noise of cranes becomes a palpable part of your world yet at the same time, ineffable.
At times a crane will lose its ability to fly from illness, collision with powerlines or other injuries. A family will, eventually, have to continue to migrate, leaving one behind. Roving eagles make short a lingering death.
One night was spent in a blind
at the edge of one of many roosting sites on the river
calm and quiet at 5pm
bodies in motion and vocal till just before dawn
And then a long-winded morning discussion on when and where to feed.
This time in with the cattle
I head next toward North Platte for white pelicans in the Great Plains
Arriving at Mcounaghy Lake – a huge reservior/dam where the flow of the North Platte river is managed. In early April the lake is severely low, with long white sandy beaches. Water for farmers, cities, towns and wildlife is in short supply. It took a day to find some pelicans among a multitude of waterfowl crowding onto the diminished (though still large) reservoir.
FIrst I find the footprints…
then some pelicans, who are not disturbed by the nearby eagle, a local scavenger.
All this followed by a couple of days in Colorado, picking up Michael in Denver, travel through New Mexico to Arizona….
where the family fun carries on…
So Far So Good 