Before leaving, I also stopped to photograph the awesome sunset. Right off the bat, I heard another Cassin's Sparrow singing in the grasslands to the east of the ag. fields. Record #2 of this species for Navajo County in a week and a half! It was too dark to try photographing the bird, but here are some shots of the sunset:
Earlier in the afternoon I stopped in Joseph City to check out a weird-looking hawk I saw from I-40 (which turned out to just be a Swainson's Hawk). From the off-ramp I noticed a line of tamarisks along the fence of someone's ranch that all looked brown from defoliation. It appears that the introduced tamarisk beetles (Diorhabda carinulata) have either arrived this far up the Little Colorado River on their own or someone transported them here (inadvertently or on purpose):
On Wednesday, my familia and I went down to the bridge at Black Canyon Creek to walk around. The water level was way down, but in the deepest pools we were surprised to find lots of larval Arizona tiger salamanders (we think this was the first time we had ever seen them). Most were only a couple of inches long, but the largest were over 6 inches in length. Notice the external gills on the sides of the necks of these amphibians:
Old tadpole of some frog/toad species:
After checking out stuff along the creek, we went up a nearby side drainage, mainly to see if the territorial Greater Pewee had found a mate yet. We watched the bird a while, but we could not see a second bird or any evidence of a nest. Since presumably this same bird has been present on this territory for at least the last three-four years, it seems like nesting might be occurring in the area (along with the few other birds we've found in Black Canyon over the last few summers). While walking across one of the meadows, I found a broken up piece of scat (probably coyote) that had a few rodent skulls in it. Based on the tear-drop shaped molar, I'm thinking that at least a couple of them might be pocket-gophers (Thomomys bottae), although the one jawbone I found looks more like a rabbit since it seems to have a second set of incisors:
Among the birds we saw, this young Grace's Warbler perched right above our heads:
We also found some cool pines growing right out of boulders, including this one that looks like the roots have wedged a crack down the boulder:
There were also lots of these beetles flying around, called western rose chafers (Macrodactylus uniformis), a couple of which landed on us:
Skyrocket (Ipomopsis aggregata, Family Polemoniaceae):
varileaf phacelia (Phacelia heterophylla, Family Hydrophyllaceae):
The next day we went back to Black Canyon, but instead went down to one of our favorite mixed conifer groves that survived the fire near Baca Meadow. Along the road, we saw a patch of butterflyweeds / orange milkweeds (Asclepias tuberosa, Family Asclepiadaceae), one which had a Nais metalmark butterfly (Apodemia nais):
In the mixed conifer grove, we found some fungus beetles (Gibbifer californicus):
Their fungal food growing out fallen, burned tree:
golden-beard penstemon (Penstemon barbatus, Family Scrophulariaceae):
Hooker's evening-primrose (Oenothera hookeri, Family Onagraceae):
Wright's bluets (Houstonia wrightii / Hedyotis pygmaea, Family Rubiaceae):
narrowleaf penstemon (Penstemon linearioides [??], Family Scrophulariaceae):
Earlier that morning my mom and I had gone out to look for more Cassin's Sparrows in the valley northeast of Heber where we had found the first one (on Zeniff Rd.) two weeks prior. We did not find the one on Zeniff Rd., but we found eight along Duck Lake Rd. and another three along State Route 377 east of the Zeniff Rd. turnoff (at least 11 birds total that morning). Here is a video recording I got of one of the birds on Duck Lake Rd. (note that you must fast-forward to 28 seconds and again to 49 seconds to hear the Cassin's Sparrow singing:
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