Highlights at the Salt River Canyon included a flyover Zone-tailed Hawk, in addition to a Red-tailed Hawk chasing a Common Raven. Swarms of White-throated Swifts also dazzled us high above the canyon walls. Mel's stuffed condor also provided some imagination as to what it might have been like when California Condors once roamed the area:
Finally after a few hours of driving we arrived at Portal Rd. during late afternoon, where we stopped to listen for birds and take in the scenery as we approached the Chiricahua Mountains. Cassin's Sparrows and Blue Grosbeaks were singing nearby, with one of the sparrows popping up briefly for nice views:
In the distance we could hear the rumblings of thunder, as the humidity rose and the scent of rain began wafting through. The brief thunderstorm blew through while we took cover from the rain and wind under the picnic table as darkness came. After the rain had ceased, we again heard the Whiskered Screech-Owls calling again, this time joined by a few Mexican Whip-poor-wills. Crawling out from under the table, we began noticing lots of arthropods crawling around on the ground, with several taking a liking to our feet. This provided an excellent opportunity to engage in some entomology right at our campsite.
A type of leafhopper (Thionia producta):
A cricket (Gryllus sp., possibly G. integer) and other bugs flocking to Theresa's foot:
Green-margined ground beetles (Pasimachus viridans) copulating:
Type of May beetle (Phyllophaga sp.):
A type of root borer beetle (Prionus heroicus)?:
A type of May/June beetle (Cyclocephala sp.). Possibly Cyclocephala longula, C. hirta, or C. pasadenae:
A type of darkling beetle (Strongylium atrum):
A type of leafhopper (Thionia producta):
Juniper stinkbug (Banasa euchlora):
While it was cool to examine the plethora of moths, beetles, and other bugs, we were soon alarmed by a fast-moving arachnid which we were unfamiliar with: the solpugid. Also known as "camel spiders", "sun spiders", or "wind scorpions", solpugids must maintain their high metabolism by constantly feeding, eviscerating their prey with huge chelicerae. After identifying this arachnid and reading about it in my Kaufman insect field guide, we learned they are practically harmless to humans despite their ferocious appearance. While walking to the outhouse we saw a couple more of them, which freaked us out by running towards us and the shine of our flashlights. Here's one eviscerating its prey:
We also were graced by the creepy countenance of spiders in our campsite. This first one is a type of ground-spider (Drassodes sp.), possibly Drassodes gosiutus, D. neglectus, or D. saccatus:
A type of "haplogyne-looking spider" according to folks on bugguide.net (no consensus on ID yet):
After walking the loop road through the campground, Mel was surprised by a huge moth landing on her shirt which we took the time to examine under a lens. The moth is Dicogaster coronada:
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The next morning, while Theresa decided to sleep in for her birthday, Mel and I walked the Sunny Flat Trail up to Stewart Campground and then back up the road to Sunny Flat, finding 42 bird species in about an hour. Highlights included Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, Peregrine Falcons, Arizona Woodpeckers, White-winged Doves, Painted Redstarts, and Blue-throated Hummingbirds. A Chiricahua fox squirrel also made an appearance. Along the trail, we also examined insects, plants, and an old dynamite shack from mining operations that took place in the late 1800's/early 1900's.
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher:
Arizona Woodpecker:
A type of net-winged beetle (Lycus fernandezi):
Horsetail fern (Equisetum sp.):
Blue-throated Hummingbird:
Mel with an Apache pine (Pinus engelmannii) sapling:
Mountain yucca (Yucca schottii):
Blue-throated Hummingbird:
Chiricahua fox squirrel (Sciurus nayaritensis):
Arriving back to camp, Mel and I found Theresa doing some awesome scenic sketches of the sycamores and cliffs. We also saw some interesting ants (at least a few different species) wandering along the campground road.
A type of carpenter ant (Camponotus sansabeanus):
Shortly thereafter while we ate brunch around the campsite, Theresa and I were startled to see a 9-10 inch centipede (Scolopendra sp.) crawling among the rocks and leaf litter on the slope above camp. It is possibly a "banded" morph of the Arizona giant centipede (Scolopendra heros arizonensis) that occurs in southeastern Arizona, or maybe a hybrid between S. heros and S. polymorpha (the genetics of these species is unclear and probably hasn't been investigated yet).
By late morning we headed out to the flats beyond Portal so Theresa could do a birthday run along Portal Rd. while Mel and I went to the Chiricahua Desert Museum and the store in Rodeo, followed by a brief visit of the feeders at Quailway Cottage. In Rodeo, Mel spotted a Harris's Hawk in one of the cottonwoods and we had a couple of Black-throated Sparrows and Cactus Wrens in the garden at the museum. At Quailway Cottage, we had Curve-billed Thrashers, Pyrrhuloxias, Bronzed Cowbirds, Bullock's Orioles, House Finches, Lark Sparrows, and Cassin's Sparrows singing nearby, among a few other desert species. I also had the distinct pleasure of being bitten on the ankle by a fire ant (hooray! [severe sarcasm]).
Cactus Wren:
Immature Black-throated Sparrow:
Harris's Hawk:
Curve-billed Thrasher:
Bullock's Oriole:
House Finches:
Lark Sparrow:
Pyrrhuloxia:
Acacia sp.:
Next, we birded a little around Portal, where we observed a Turkey Vulture crossing the road like a turkey, examined the sycamore snag being used as a granary by Acorn Woodpeckers while we ate lunch near the post office and library, heard a Yellow-breasted Chat along the creek, and a very agitated Bell's Vireo nearby what appeared to be an old nest near the bridge.
Hog potato (Hoffmanseggia glauca), Family Fabaceae:
An old Bell's Vireo nest in a netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata):
A roadkilled fig beetle (Cotinis mutabilis) found near the Portal bridge:
Velvet-pod mimosa (Mimosa dysocarpa)??:
Magnificent Hummingbird (female) perched in an Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica):
After lunch we made our way back towards the mouth of Cave Creek Canyon, stopping for photographs of the awe-inspiring vista with the moody thunder clouds moving through:
Next, we made our way up the Transmountain Rd. on our way to Rustler Park. We paused to take in the view of Silver Peak and the mountains beyond it within which lies Cave Creek Canyon:
Upon arriving at the trailhead parking lot at Rustler Park, we spent a while looking at bryophytes (mosses), flowers, lichens, and fungi around the spring and upslope from there. Theresa collected some moss and lichen specimens and Mel got some flowers to press as specimens. While we were there we had looks at Yellow-eyed Juncos, aka "Zombie-eyed Juncos". We also examined the fire damage and how plant succession was proceeding since the 2011 Horseshoe Two Fire swept through most of the mountain range. The fire took out many of the U.S. Forest Service cabins and the campground, but the meadow at Rustler Park was still filled with flowers. While many of the trees here suffered from the high intensity burn, there were some remnant pines and firs that survived in pockets. The mosses, bracken ferns, flowering perennials, and seedling pines provided evidence that the former beautiful forest here will return, although likely not within our lifetime. The forest will regenerate into a new manifestation though, especially in light of a changing climate and probably more frequent fires (albeit likely lower intensity now that a good deal of the denser stands were taken during the Horseshoe Two Fire). The only constant is change.
Theresa, bryologist extraordinaire, looking badass with her diving knife that she uses to pry loose moss specimens that she collects:
Jacob's ladder (Polemonium foliosissimum):
Moss species:
A type of foliose lichen:
Mushroom species:
Chiricahua Mountain dock (Rumex orthoneurus)??:
Lichen types:
Theresa examining mosses:
Flower specimens for the plant press:
Mosses; if you look closely, you'll notice the small green capsules (some with a papery cap) of the elevated sporophyte structures which produce and release the spores:
The sporophytes of this moss species are reddish with long capsules:
More mosses, lichens, and fungi (possibly some green algae too):
Structures called podetia (pronounced "po-dee-shuh"), which is the fruiting body of the fungal component of this lichen. Coincidentally, we decided "Podetia" was Theresa's ghetto nickname.
Mushroom species:
Lower intensity/severity fire damage in this stand of pines and firs:
Red variety of mountain-parsely (Pseudocymopteris montanus):
Mosses and lichens:
Bracken ferns and mullein regenerating in burned area:
Slime mold or fungi??
Fruticose lichen:
Holes where fire burned a tree down into its root system. Mosses are growing back in its place:
Mexican catchfly (Silene laciniata):
The remains of one of the old U.S. Forest Service cabins after the Horseshoe Two Fire. Sandbags were placed around it apparently to prevent the debris from being carried away by monsoon rains:
Despite the intensity of the fire, you can still read the painted print on this Coleman lantern:
Amazingly the outhouse survived the fire, with only the door burned off its hinges:
Rustler Park, with sneezeweed in bloom (Hymenoxys sp.):
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.):
Orange variety of western wallflower (Erysimum capitatum):
pony beebalm (Monarda pectinata):
Penstemon/beardtongue species(Penstemon sp.) and Chiricahua Mountain mock-vervain (Glandularia chiricahuensis):
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The next day we embarked on what was to be a very epic day hike on the Silver Peak Trail. The trail starts from the lower portion of Cave Creek Canyon just above the U.S. Forest Service Ranger Station at an elevation of 4,960 ft. One-way, the trail climbs 3,015 ft. in 4.6 miles (9.2 miles roundtrip hike), ending at the old fire tower foundation at the summit of Silver Peak at an elevation of 7,975 ft. The lookout tower burned down following a lightning-caused, small-scale fire in October 1992, leaving only the square brick foundation, an adjacent covered well, and an ammo can with notebooks for hikers to put their names and comments. The panorama seen from the summit is breathtaking and well worth the somewhat strenuous hike, giving views of the small communities of Portal and Paradise, Portal Peak, the Southwestern Research Station (SWRS), the formation of Cochise Head peak near Chiricahua National Monument, Chiricahua Peak and most of the other high peaks of the Chiricahua Mountain range. Cave Creek Canyon is mostly hidden by the sister peak of Mount Sceloporous (part of the entire mountain that Silver Peak shares with it), although you can see the ridge separating South Fork Canyon from the other forks of Cave Creek which go past SWRS and up towards Herb Martyr Campground and Winn Falls. On a clear day you can see Granite Gap through the Peloncillo Mountains to the east and with binoculars you can make out the tops of the Dos Cabezas and Pinaleno (Mt. Graham) Mountains to the north.
Along with the view from the summit, the Silver Peak Trail is fantastic for naturalists/biologists to hike, as it traverses a wide range of vegetation communities along its 4.6 mile stretch. The trailhead is near Cave Creek with Arizona sycamores, alligator junipers, evergreen oak species, and mountain yuccas at the parking lot (with great views of Cathedral Rock towering above on the opposite side of the creek. Away from the riparian floodplain, the trail quickly enters upper Sonoran zone vegetation, including agaves, sotol, prickly pear and cholla cacti, ocotillos, mesquite, and scattered junipers with grasses in the understory. As the trail climbs the foothills, a few chaparral species, such as Mearn's and three-leaf sumacs mix with the desert vegetation. Once you round the bend in the mountain and begin climbing up the north-facing slope below Silver Peak, you go up through variations of chaparral, oak-juniper-pine woodlands, a drainage with deciduous shrubs (Gambel oaks, New Mexico raspberry, cliff fendlerbush, smooth sumac, etc.), and eventually into an almost pure stand of Douglas-firs (the only such stand I've come across in Arizona). Just before the rocky outcropping of the summit, the trail passes through silverleaf and netleaf oaks along the saddle. As we discovered, a wide variety of mosses, liverworts, ferns, lycophytes, and lichens are also found on the north slope of this unique mountain. Coinciding with the awesome variety of plant life, a plethora of vertebrate and invertebrate fauna can also be found while taking in the views along this hike.
Alright, enough written description. Here's what the views along the trail look like and the various life forms we found along the way:
A side profile of Cathedral Rock looming above Cave Creek Canyon:
The trailhead parking lot:
The east side of the mountain we are about to go around and up (note: Silver Peak is not visible here, nor from the first half of the trail).
Theresa posing next to a mountain yucca (Yucca schottii):
Cathedral Rock again:
Embarking on an epic journey...
hoary indian mallow, or pelotazo (Abutilon incanum):
Looking at rock mosses and lichens:
Joint-fir (Ephedra sp.). These organisms are gnetophytes, a group of gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants). This plant is male, bearing pollen cones:
Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), all leafed out with the ample moisture from the monsoons:
A rock moss species (Grimmia sp.?), dry at the moment in its little crevasse before being sprayed with water by Theresa. Lichens are surrounding the crevasse.
The moss greening up mere seconds after being sprayed with water. Since mosses are non-vascular plants, they cannot conduct and retain water the same way that vascular plants can, so mosses essentially act like sponges by soaking in water when its available and going dormant (drying up) during dry periods between precipitation events:
ornate tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus)??
velvet mite sp.:
Mel next to one of the flowering Palmer agaves (Agave palmeri)?:
Theresa, with "The Fingers" formation in the distance:
velvet ant (Dasymutilla sp.):
Some video footage of the velvet ant:
A type of big-legged plant bug nymph (Acanthocephala sp.):
A type of bee mimic/robber fly (Mallophora fautrix):
Lindheimer's lip fern, or fairy sword fern (Cheilanthes lindheimeri):
The same whiptail hiding amongst beargrass (Nolina microcarpa):
The Fingers:
Peregrine Falcon:
sotol, or desert spoon (Dasylirion wrightii) blooming in foreground:
Thalloid liverworts growing in damp, slightly shaded runoff channel on desert slope (east/northeast aspect). Liverworts usually are found in much wetter locations, so this was a surprise for us! "Thalloid" liverworts are ones that have just a thallus body, a single prostrate leaf anchored by rhizoids into the substrate upon which it grows:
...opening up after being sprayed by water:
Old insect gall that was growing on an oak:
While I was holding the branch trying to get a closer photo of the mountain mahogany flower, this type of flower fly flew in for some nectar, sitting there for at least a minute while I snapped a few shots:
Theresa having a moment of zen:
snapdragon vine (Maurandya antirrhiniflora):
western wallflower (Erysimum capitatum):
Palmer agave flowers (Agave palmeri)?:
Portal down below:
firecrackerbush, or scarlet/smooth bouvardia (Bouvardia glaberrima):
Starting to round the bend in the foothills below "The Fingers", leaving the view of Cave Creek Canyon behind:
Collecting lichen specimens:
Lichens:
Checking out a xerophytic fern species:
Stopping for a snack break in the shade of junipers. Although the monsoon thunderheads are beginning to build over the mountains, the temperatures were very warm at this point.
In the distance, just to the left of the rock outcrop in the foreground, was our first view of Cochise Head (one of the mountains just north of Chiricahua National Monument at the northern end of the mountain range):
Lichen:
Some sort of cocoon or exoskeleton, apparently of some sort of insect larvae:
Taking our lunch break:
As we ate lunch and rested a bit, the day's monsoon thunderstorm started heading our way over the mountain:
Despite the impending thunderstorm, we continued on a bit up the trail after finishing lunch, hoping to get to a more sheltered spot before the rains started. We initially heard thunder rumbling from the other side of the mountain (from over Cave Creek Canyon) and then a breeze started up and temperatures cooled quickly as we began smelling rain in the air. Lightning bolts hit further up the trail and on the nearby slopes, followed by loud, cracking thunder. The first few large raindrops began to fall as we stopped to pull out our rain jackets and ponchos from our packs. A heavy deluge then began drenching us and the landscape as lightning continued striking ground nearby as the sky bellowed. We found a half-sheltered spot next to a large flat boulder under a Mexican pinyon pine along the trail and watched as the gusts of wind blew sheets of rain down the mountain and the adjacent drainage. Despite what protection the rain-gear afforded us, the lower halves of our bodies got completely soaked and some rain crept into other areas as well (at least the ponchos/jackets protected our cameras and binoculars though!). The lightning became less frequent as the rain continued to pour buckets for at least 15-20 minutes. The temperature plummeted quite a bit from the 90 degree (F) temp.'s we had experienced only half an hour before, now likely somewhere in the low 60's or upper 50's (F).
Eventually the rain ceased and we made the decision to continue up the trail at least a little bit longer, since the clouds seemed to be lightening up some above the mountain. Despite feeling cold and wet, we still wanted to see what else we could find along the trail and hopefully still make the summit before any more storms came through (although we spent a bit of time contemplating the decision to push onward).
Theresa and Mel at one of my favorite spots along the hike: a large alligator juniper atop a large rock precipice:
A coin someone wedged within the alligator juniper, now stuck as the tree grows cells around it:
As we continued the hike, we began encountering more lichens, mosses, and liverworts on the northern slope of the mountain. The monsoon rains made these features stand out even more, everything appearing more vibrant and lush. We were also treated to finding many snails crawling throughout the diverse undergrowth.
Foliose lichens, with apothecia (the fungal component's bowl-shaped fruiting bodies; ascomycete fungi growing separately produce these bodies too, which singularly is called an ascocarp):
More lichens:
Snail species, which interestingly held their shells horizontally on their backs:
Thalloid liverworts, lichens, and mosses:
Liverworts:
Moss and lichens:
Fern species, liverworts, mosses, and lichens:
Spider species (possibly in Family Dictynidae):
Fern species (possibly Cheilanthes fendleri):
Mosses with sporophytes:
Foliose lichen with apothecia:
Moss:
Snail species:
Lichen rhizoids:
More foliose lichens with apothecia:
We stopped by a little cave next to some huge boulders to see if we could find any different bryophytes or lichens and were rewarded by a lot of diversity:
false Solomon's seal (Maianthemum racemosum):
Examining the boulders, Theresa discovered some leafy liverworts, a type of liverwort that has not been well documented in Arizona and is probably rare in the state!
Leafy liverworts, which are differentiated from thalloid liverworts by having rows of overlapping leaves on either side of the central "stem", rather than having one large leaf surface prostrate to the ground (or a thallus body):
Foliose lichen:
Fern species:
Looking northward with Limestone Mountain in the distance:
Earthstar/puffball mushroom (Geastrum sp.):
Foliose lichen:
Acorns, lichens, mosses, pollen cones, and leaves:
Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) stand that the trail passes through:
Lichen apothecia (fungal ascocarps):
More lichen apothecia:
netleaf oak (Quercus rugosa):
Looking north/northwest from the trail:
Looking north/northeast from the trail:
Moss species:
Mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) trunk covered by foliose lichens:
Cochise Head in the distance, to the northwest of the trail:
cliff fendlerbush (Fendlera rupicola):
Moss species with lots of sporophytes (stalks bearing spore capsules):
Foliose lichen:
Mosses and lichens:
As we continued along the trail through varied chaparral habitat, we soon saw the lower edge of the almost monotypic Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) stand on the north slope of Silver Peak, a forest stand type that I have not yet found elsewhere in Arizona:
To be continued...
Sweet! I love all the beetles, and the giant moth. And most especially the birding monkey.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful blog dude!
ReplyDeleteEdward Abbey is suiting reading. What was your ghetto name?
Mine wasn't a ghetto name...it arose out of Mel saying that I would be like an exotic fruit going to the east coast on a Maine trip Theresa and I were planning (we went in early August). That "exotic fruit" name came up in discussion again at some point in the Chiricahua trip, and given a particular connotation of the word "fruit" and considering a certain part of my identity, the name stuck (maybe slightly derogatory, but I have a sense of humor). Mel's was "hunchback" because of what she looked like with her rain jacket over her backpack while we got rained out on a hike. On the last day of the trip we goofed around making short videos while packing up camp, incorporating caricatures of the nicknames we came up with for each other (variations of ghetto, fruity, and weird shit happening).
Delete