January 2014
Our first month here in SE AZ has been a good one. While the east has suffered through a colder than usual winter we have had warmer than normal temperatures here in the Sonoran Desert.
Below is a potpourii of some of the things we saw and did during the month of January.
Click on the photos below for a larger image.
We arrived in SE AZ on Dec 29th and I got right back into leading hikes for The Tucson Hiking Meetup Group. The first hike I led was on the Madera Canyon Nature Trail in the Santa Rita Mountains. The second one, shown here, was in the Tucson Mountains. It is one of my favorite hikes - Brown Mountain Loop.
Here, veteran hiker Roger takes a shot for these 3 U of A students from China. No doubt for posting on FaceBook
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This was a big group - 38 hikers!
This hike was in Sabino Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It was a beginners hike. I deliberately routed the hike so there were two creek crossings - both of which could have been avoided.
Meet Michelle from Michigan. She recently moved to Tucson and loves it here.
This Saguaro cactus exhibits "cresting". But, in a bizarre twist it is growing "arms" out of the crest. This specimen is growing along the nature trail behind the Sabino Canyon visitors' center.
This cactus, a Barrel cactus, was also growing along the nature trail. The fruits are eaten by various critters including the Curve-billed Thrasher.
If you look closely at the top row of fruits, just left of center, you will see a hole in one of them. That is the work of the Curve-billed Thrasher.
This Thrasher's bill is well adapted for getting the seeds out of the Barrel cactus fruit.
Now these critters were not spotted along the nature trail in Madera Canyon.
They reside at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
At their peak, North American bighorn sheep numbers were estimated at 2 million. Desert populations have since fallen to about 20,000 and Rocky Mountain populations are at about 45,000.
Arizona’s bighorn population, consisting of both desert and Rocky Mountain races, is estimated at 6,000 animals. The causes for this decline, which occurred primarily between 1850 and 1900, were competition with livestock for food and water and exposure to livestock associated parasites and diseases.Source: AZGFD
This animal, the Bighorn Sheep, has been the center of much controversy of late here in South East Arizona. The Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society and Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) are working together to reintroduce bighorn sheep into the Santa Catalina Mountains. Sounds like a good idea - right?
Well, the problem is Mountain lions seem to enjoy dining on Big Horn Sheep. And 11 of the 30 transplanted sheep have been turned into meals by the Mountain Lions. To put a stop to this, AZGFD is killing Mountain Lions they suspect are preying on Bighorn Sheep. The AZGFD does not say they killed the lions, they say they have been "administratively removed".
So far two Catalina Mountain Lions have been "administratively removed". But it will probably not stop there.
In nearby Aravaipa Canyon, 43 lions were killed for doing what comes naturally - eating Bighorn sheep.
One has to wonder at what point AZGFD will stop killing lions and give up. It might take awhile. There have been reports that the main impetus for transplanting Bighorns and the killing of lions is from hunting groups who want Bighorn populations large enough to support more "sport" hunting.
As you can see - it is the same old story of predator persecution so a few morons with guns can shoot their fill of Bighorn sheep. Sick..
OK! On to more pleasant things...
Another one of my favorite hikes is King Canyon in the Tucson Mountains.
Although I could lead the groups along the easier established trail I always take them through part of the wash so they get the chance to scramble and climb a series of ledges.
Here is another crested Saguaro. I spotted this one in the newly developed Robles Pass trail area of Tucson Mountain Park. Is is estimated only 1 in 20,000 Saguaro exhibit this growth pattern.
Even when saguaro cacti grow in their normal form, they rarely grow symmetrically. Saguaros sometimes grow in odd or misshapen forms. The growing tip occasionally produces a fan-like form which is referred to as crested or cristate. Though these crested saguaros are somewhat rare, over 25 have been found within the boundaries of the park. Biologists disagree as to why some saguaros grow in this unusual form. Some speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of a lightning strike or freeze damage. At this point we simply do not know what causes this rare, crested form.
Source: NPS
My buddy Jimbo and his girl friend Peggy took Betsy and I on our first GeoCaching walk. It was up a wash which has some interesting rock formations.
A regular crazy quilt!
Beautiful weathering and mineral staining on this chunk.
This shot was taken from Rogers' Rock in the Santa Rita Mountains. It is located in a ravine just to the east of Madera Canyon. From this vantage point one can see the broad alluvial fan or bajada.
An alluvial fan is a fan- or cone-shaped deposit of sediment crossed and built up by streams. If a fan is built up by debris flows it is properly called a debris cone or colluvial fan. These flows come from a single point source at the apex of the fan, and over time move to occupy many positions on the fan surface. Fans are typically found where a canyon draining from mountainous terrain emerges out onto a flatter plain, and especially along fault-bounded mountain fronts.
A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope is called a bajada, or compound alluvial fan.
Source: WikiPedia
Rogers' Rock is capped with a picturesque old Apache Pine (Pinus engelmannii) which I was standing under to take this shot.
On a hike recon in the Tucson Mountains I met Stephen. He and his wife are Canadian SnoBirds. He has been hiking the Tucson Mountains for 8 years and knows them well.
I met up with him on this day for my first hike up to the top of 1st Ridge which is just to his left. Gorgeous hike!
On the hike Stephen was accosted by a Jumping Cholla (Cylindropuntia fulgida). But not to worry. He had the right tool to extricate this prickly cactus chunk - a plastic hair comb.
The view from the top of 1st Ridge. All those little white dots make up the 1660 mobile homes which are called Tucson Estates.
In the distance are the Baboquivari Mountains and Baboquivari Peak.
On this day Betsy and I took a little road trip down south to Arivaca. This area is a vast grassland surrounded by numerous mountain ranges. And of those mountain ranges one stands out - the Baboquivari Mountains and the always present Baboquivari Peak.
The rolling mounds of grass seem to go on forever.
We drove by Arivaca Lake for a look see, but all was quiet except for a few Coots and a Say's Phoebe.
This sign was at the entrance to the lake. I often forget there are people out there who will kill any snake they see.
More beautiful scenery near Arivaca Lake.
Framed by electric lines and barbed wire fence, Baboquivari Peak looms in the distance.
We drove as far south as Sasabe which is on the border of Mexico.
We then drove north into the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge where we saw these Prong Horn Antelope. They were very still and moved not one bit.
Spanning the 117,464-acre refuge are several distinct groups of plants and animals that are dependent on each other, also known as biotic communities.
Visitors will enjoy the semi-desert grasslands that blend into the cottonwoods and willow that line river banks and wetlands within the refuge. Settled in amongst the grasslands and wetlands is a beautiful sycamore-shaded canyon of extraordinary diversity.
Brown Canyon is home to 200 million year-old volcanic rocks that support a distinct variety of plants and animals that have evolved within this amazing sky island ecosystem.Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
We saw these mounds of dirt all along the Pronghorn Drive. But - no signs of life.
Here we are again at the Robles Pass Trails in Tucson Mountain Park. This was another one of my "Beginner" hikes I offer to introduce people who are new to the area to the beauties of the Sonoran Desert.
Here we all take a closer look at a Saguaro skeleton.
Saguaro are very slow growing cactus. A 10 year old plant might only be 1.5 inches tall. Saguaro can grow to be between 40-60 feet tall (12-18m). When rain is plentiful and the saguaro is fully hydrated it can weigh between 3200-4800 pounds.
These clumps of dried plants are uprooted Buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris).
Cenchrus ciliaris has become naturalised and often an invasive species in Australia, the southwestern United States, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, South America, and Macaronesia. In the Sonoran Desert it was introduced for erosion control. In the Mexican part of the Sonoran Desert, it is still being planted and irrigated for livestock grazing.
It spreads very quickly and will often kill local native plants such as palo verdes by taking away nearby water. This plant has a very low ignition threshold and can burst into a raging flame even during the peak growing season. Its flammability and quick regrowth allow it to compete successfully against almost all vegetation in this region.
Source: WikiPedia
The SABCC (Southern Arizona Buffelgrass Coordination Center) organizes volunteers to uproot this weed in the hopes of controlling its density and spread. The NPS has aerial spraying planned.
In Southern Arizona, rapid spread of buffelgrass and conversion of fire-resistant desert to flammable grassland rivals urban growth and water as the region's most pressing environmental issue.
Buffelgrass has introduced a new wildfire risk into an ecosystem that is not fire adapted. It grows in dense stands, crowds out native plants, and negatively impacts native wildlife species and their habitat.
Buffelgrass is considered a particularly serious threat to the saguaro cactus, the iconic plant of the Sonoran Desert Ecoregion, and is extremely detrimental to desert tortoise and mule deer habitat.Source: WikiPedia
'Till next time...
