Recently in Wildfowers Category

Sorry about the dearth of posts lately, I worked a heavy schedule during the park's astronomy festival and was kind of burnt out without much to say. Spent a fair amount of time in the mornings - once I finally had some days off - hanging around the birdbath, mostly hoping to get shots of the really bright male Western Tanager who shows up every once in a while. That hasn't happened yet, unfortunately. The most frequent visitors are the Cassin's Finches and is getting to the point that there is no need to shoot them anymore. This male Yellow-rumped Warbler did pose for me briefly - wish he would bring the Plumbeous Vireo who has been tormenting me daily with his incessant calling from high in the Ponderosa Pines down to water some time (you would think a vireo would need a drink every now and then . . .).

I have also been trying to photograph some of the local wildflowers when the wind lays down enough that I can do something with them. This one was growing just outside my trailer and the book on local wildflowers didn't have it listed, so I had to do a little legwork to figure out what it was. One of the best resources on the web is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, though it helps to have a name (preferably the scientific name) to search their extensive database of North American wildflowers. The method I used to find this one was by starting down the list of evening-primroses - I have a complete list of the vascular plants for the park - and searching. Thankfully this one was near top and the fun part is that this plant, Crownleaf Evening-primrose (Oenothera coronopifolia) was listed as "historical". What that apparently means is that it had been recorded as occurring in the park some time ago, but had not been reported recently. So I get to chalk up a "rediscovery" of this species to go along with my recent documentation of Red Foxes breeding in the park.

On the other hand, this flower is actually rather common around the park, Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana). I'd missed getting shots of them last summer for some unknown reason so made up for it this time around. What struck me is how much they smelled like the roses that were grown around my childhood home (at least to my sense of smell). Another plant blooming now in the park is Sego Lily, but the flower isn't fully open until a time during the day that has been windy, making them impossible to photograph. They are widespread but, just as an example of how elevation makes a huge difference, I'd photographed them a month ago down in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (about 760 meters or 2500 feet lower).

In other news, I saw a pair of fresh fawns (Mule Deer) a couple of nights ago so will have to keep on the look out for them in decent light. I've also been alerted to a major bat roost in one of the park buildings - tried to shoot a little video last night but it started to rain just as they began to emerge. Photos would be nice and I may try that one day, too, though the fact that they don't start coming out until sunset will make things tricky to say the least. My best guess, since I didn't bother to try and count, is there are over 200 in this location.

Around here, when the "locals" (do I qualify yet?) say "The Monument", they are referring to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. That is where Roxy and I spent the morning, taking a ride down the very bumpy Cottonwood Road, where our quest was to see if we could find a few wildflowers. This one remains unidentified and hopefully I'll be able to corner someone who knows this stuff. So far I haven't found much in the way of resources for the monument's flora. Whatever it is, there was no shortage of them along the first part of our route. They seemed to be just about the most numerous flowers for a pretty long stretch.

I'd heard about this flower being in bloom and it was one of my targets to look for on this trip. Sego Lillies (Calochortus nuttallii) can be found throughout the west - primarily in forests, so I was a little surprised when someone told me last week that they were in bloom down in the monument. The bulbs are edible and were used by many indigenous peoples - as well as Mormon settlers in Utah (it is also the state flower). Should be some blooming up here on the plateau over the next few weeks.

Cacti in bloom was another part of the quest. I need to find a botany expert who knows something about when these flowers open up. Almost everything I saw initially was closed or, at least, seemed to be closing, making me think that I'd arrived too late in the morning, but these - Engelmann's Hedgehog (Echinocereus engelmannii) - were relatively abundant and seemed to be opening up more as I was on the return trip. There were also a few Prickly Pear with yellow flowers that I hadn't even noticed on the way down. Guess I'll have to find about cactus flower timing for future reference . . .

I was also hoping to find some "herps" along the way and this Great Basin Collared Lizard turned out to be very cooperative. I also saw a huge (20-25 cm./8-10 in.) Western Fence Lizard and a Nightsnake.

I hadn't gone with the intention of doing any birding, but still managed to add to my state list with 4 species: Northern Mockingbird, Bewick's Wren, Black-throated Sparrow, and Bullock's Oriole.

This morning I stopped off at the storage area where the park's brochures are kept to do an inventory and was greeted with a call as I unlocked the warehouse door. While it seemed familiar, it wasn't anything that I'd heard recently, I played it back in my mind while the door opened and I walked back to my truck to grab my binoculars. Hearing another "round" of the call, I remembered the mnemonic:

"Quick, three beers!"

"Quick three beers!"

"Okay, it's a flycatcher", I decided.

Then it hit me:

"Yes! That's it! An Olive-sided Flycatcher!"

I never did find the bird up in the pines, but recognizable calls count. However, despite the persistent request, I haven't had a beer in many years, and it has been a really long time since I had one at 8 in the morning . . .

That was the second new species for the week after what seemed like a bit of a dry spell for new "year birds". The first was on Tuesday while I was lounging around trying to recover from my nasty cold: a female Red Crossbill stopped by my birdbath that afternoon. Earlier in the day, before the wind started to kick up, and while feeling much better thanthe day before, I did shoot a few wildflowers. At this elevation this early in the year there aren't but a few, one early bloomer is the Common Starlily (Leucocrinum montanum). I think it may be a good year for wildflowers based upon some of the stuff I see growing in the vicinity of my trailer. Very little flowering yet, but, as last week showed, winter hasn't quite given way to spring completely.

This photo is also from Tuesday morning, an Acmon Blue that I encountered while searching for flowers. A tiny butterfly whose total wingspan is an inch or less, it is the first butterfly I've photographed since arriving here more than a year ago. I guess I really need to work on that statistic a bit more. . .

With training here at Bryce Canyon finally completed I was able to do a little photography on my day off and, with calm winds and flowers beginning to show all around, decided shooting some of them would be a good idea. At right is a Scarlet Gilia (aka Skyrocket), among some of the others in bloom were Yellow Evening Primrose, Cut-leaved (or Crownleaf) Evening Primrose, and Blue Flax. This next image isn't a flower but a seed pod for a flower/plant called Great Bladdery Milkvetch. The patterns were too cool not to shoot; there are several around the base of each plant, each about 1-1/2 - 2 inches long and maybe 3/4 inch wide.

This year's crop of young Utah Prairie Dogs are now out and about near their burrows, already about 8 weeks old and ranging from 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the adults. They sometimes were running around and playing or just nibbling on plants. As much as I'd like to just hang out and look for birds today, I think I'll have to go back to the dog town(s) while the getting is good. And search a little more for Pronghorn babies . . .