Thanksgiving week

This past week (November 23-28, 2010) I had off of work and school, spending the time over in Heber. Most of the days we went out hiking or birding, although we did have snow a couple of days that kept us inside (except for taking Eva outside to play in the snow). On Tuesday the 23rd we went down the Young Rd. below the Mogollon Rim to a place called Bottle Spring that someone told us about. On the way down, a cool sighting (to me at least) was a lone Chihuahua pine (Pinus leiophylla), a species that mostly occurs just in the "sky island" mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, south into Mexico. I had heard about remnant populations occurring along the Mogollon Rim in central Arizona, but this was the first time I had seen one here. They are a cool species in that, besides having serotinous or partially-serotinous cones (those that require intense heat or smoke from fires to open up and release seeds), Chihuahua pine is one of only a few pine species in the world that can sprout new stems from the trunk after a fire. Their cones are very tiny in comparison to the common ponderosa pine and remain on the tree for a long time. Here are a couple of pics:

At Bottle Spring we walked around the forest a bit checking out the area. Right off the bat we came across one of the largest mixed flocks of birds we had ever seen, hanging out in a clump of ponderosa pines and drinking from a small puddle along the old logging road. There were at least 40 Red Crossbills, 20 Cassin's Finches, 20 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, all three nuthatch species (including one Red-breasted), lots of Dark-eyed Juncos, a few Olive Warblers, Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, and a Steller's Jay imitating a hawk's screams. Later on we spotted a beautiful rufous-morph Red-tailed Hawk which I was able to snap a quick photo of:

Later that evening when we were back in Heber, we just happened to glance out the window and see a fairly intense sunset (the pictures only capture part of it though):

 

On Wednesday night after finishing a paper up via email with my group for the ocotillo project for my field ecology class (see other posts), I checked out the windows at around 11:00pm and saw it was snowing outside. This was funny because earlier that evening when I walked Eva around the neighborhood it did not really look like it was going to snow at all. The next morning we had around an inch on the ground in places that quickly melted through the rest of the day. It was nice to have snow on Thanksgiving though. Here are some shots from the yard, including snow on our banana yucca (Yucca baccata):

 

The day after Thanksgiving my mom and I broke from tradition and decided to hike a 10-mile loop around Horton Creek just below the Rim, instead of our usual Picketpost Mountain hike (see other post for pictures from this hike). The next day we all did a day trip over to the White Mountains in eastern Arizona to take Eva out to the snow and to check out the birds over there. Highlight birds included Northern Shrike, Snow Goose, Gray Jay, Common Yellowthroat, and Belted Kingfisher (the last two species common at other times of year, but rare this late in the fall). Despite the good bird sightings, we were depressed for the rest of the day after visiting Big Lake, where we found 8 Western Grebes stuck in the ice. One was already dead and being consumed by a crow (based on how bloody and ripped up it was, I suspect the Bald Eagles are also feasting on the grebes and ducks that get stuck in the ice). The other 7 grebes were still alive, but could only move their necks. One was even pathetically calling out. I think the birds just got caught unaware when the temperature plummeted really fast one of the previous nights. They probably fell asleep and woke up to find themselves trapped. Even though every thing dies someday, that is a horrible way to go.

On a lighter note, here are some shots of Eva going bonkers in the snow at Gabaldon Campground (1st picture at lower elevation Wenima Wildlife Area, which also had a few patches of snow):