Oak Creek Canyon

On Thursday (April 7, 2011) I had gotten up to tag along with my advisor's ornithology class, but it turned out they had cancelled because of the rainy weather. Being already up and the clouds not looking bad off to the south, I decided to go birding down in Oak Creek Canyon. Usually I avoid the canyon because of the crazy crowds that are clogging the trails most of the time. I figured that being the middle of the week and there being a threat of stormy weather, that there would be much fewer people. I first walked along some creek-side paths just above Cave Springs Campground before heading to the West Fork trailhead, having the place pretty much to myself (later on I saw that the campground was pretty full, but I guess people were slow-moving that damp morning). The air smelled fantastic from the rains that had fallen overnight, the wet conifer and riparian forest reminding me a lot of how it smelled in the Cascades and Coast Ranges of Oregon. There was still fog coming off the canyon bottom from the rains too:

 

 

 

One of the paths led through a nice thicket of horsetails (Equisetum sp.), many of which had the cone-like strobili on top getting ready to produce spores. Horestails are actually considered a fern, having photosynthetic stems instead of leaves:

I also spotted the "fiddlehead" of a bracken fern unfurling:

While hopping over some rocks in a small tributary of Oak Creek, I was excited to see some liverworts growing with mosses on the rocks in the stream. Liverworts (also called hepaticophytes) are the most primitive land plants, having arisen from a common ancestor with green algae. Mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants all have their origin with the common ancestor of liverworts. We teach about these plants in the biology lab I am one of the TA's for, but this was the first time I had ever noticed these plants in the wild. Liverworts have a flattened leaf-like body that grows on rocks or soil, which can grow little palm tree-like structures that produce the gametes (sex cells; the sperm and eggs). After the gametes fuse, they produce another downward facing structure that produces spores that can then give rise to a new plant. However, some liverwort species have unique structures called "gemmae cups", which are a means of asexual reproduction. The gemmae cups have little disks of cloned cells that will get splashed out when precipitation occurs. The clonal disks can grow into new plants without sex happening. Here are some photos of the liverworts I saw, some of which have gemmae cups:

 In this same area of the creek, there were some poison-ivy that still retained the berries that were produced the previous fall. Their berries are cream-colored, which is a way to identify the plant when it lacks leaves:

 

As I made my way towards Cave Springs Campground I could see lots of the trees starting to leaf out or blossom, including the exotic apples in the old orchard along the creek. Many exotic plants can also be seen throughout the canyon due to decades of human settlement. Here are some of the flowering fruit trees below:

The maples were also starting break bud, with flowers out on some of the boxelders (Acer negundo). The long hanging structures are stamens, which bear the anthers that produce pollen:

Vinca (Vinca major, Apocynaceae--dogbane family), an exotic plant that can be invasive along riparian areas:

Lots of birds were moving along the creek that morning including Painted Redstarts, Yellow and Lucy's Warblers, and territorial House Wrens. One of the wrens:

Some views from the Cave Springs stretch of the canyon:

 

 

 

I then went just down the road to the West Fork trailhead, one of the main trails in Oak Creek Canyon which I had never been to before. When I arrived I was the first person to the trailhead besides the Forest Service workers manning the fee station. The only people I saw there were a few couples as I was heading down the trail. The cliffs above the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon are spectacular, being very reminiscent of Zion National Park. These cliffs are very attractive to nesting raptors, as I could hear the constant calling of Peregrine Falcons at one spot, suggesting a nest somewhere on a ledge hundreds of feet above (I eventually saw one of them soaring around). Here are some views from the West Fork trail:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some ruins of old homesteads and storage areas along the beginning of the trail, including one right in a cave in the rock:

 

Lots of flowers were in bloom along the trail entering West Fork canyon. Starting off, here is a wild candytuft (Thlaspi montanum, Brassicaceae--mustard family):

 

Arizona valerian (Valeriana arizonica, Family Valerianaceae)

 

Draba (Draba asprella, Brassicaceae--mustard family):

 

spring beauty (Claytonia lanceolata, Portulacaceae--portulaca family):

 

Willow catkins, with the stamens clearly visible (Salix sp.):

There were also a few not-yet-flowering plants I saw that I've infrequently encountered in the state, including silktassel and mountain lover. Here is the silktassel (Garrya flavescens, Garryaceae--silktassel family):

mountain lover (Pachystima myrsinites, Celastraceae--bittersweet family):

Further up the canyon I came across some interesting birds, including my first of season Black-throated Gray Warblers and a Pacific Wren. The wren species has bred locally in Oak Creek Canyon and See Canyon along the Mogollon Rim, the only known breeding localities in Arizona. The species was recently split from Winter Wren. Also, I got good views of a Steller's Jay who was acting like it might have a nest nearby:

While I was watching the jay, I neglected to look at what was going on at ground level. As I turned to head back, I happened to look down to see what appeared to be a centipede crawling on top of my boot and towards my leg. I shook it off and jumped a couple of feet back (yelling some choice words). I took photos of it and later on determined that it was actually the larval stage of an insect, a western dobsonfly. It was about 3 inches long. Apparently the larval stage of this insect is called a "hellgrammite" and they can give a pretty nasty bite (good thing I noticed it when I did!):

I only got to go about 3/4 of a mile up the trail before I had to turn back so I could make it back to Flagstaff in time for my mammalogy class. Definitely a trail to go farther up. I'll have to hit it again during inclement weather to avoid the crowds! Here are some more photos from the West Fork trail: