Golden oldies

Another drab day, raining/sleeting instead of snowing (later), which is good I guess, but colorless as usual. So here are some golden sunsets from the past to perk up our spirits!

Starting with sunset in the backyard in December.

A summer sunset on White Bear Lake in the Twin Cites, MN

More spectacular color on a different lake in the Twin Cities, MN

Sonoran desert sunset in Tucson, AZ

Sunset color in Mobile Bay, AL in October

Sunset with swans on Cloud Lake in the Porcupine Mts. of Michigan

Sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache near Socorro, NM

A glorious sunset in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of CA.

Grandkids enjoyed a sunset hike in Arches National Park, UT four years ago

Wild (and not so wild) life in Valley of Fire

A second day of exploring the Valley of Fire was even better than the first, with lucky encounters with lots of wildlife, especially a couple of tame Bighorn Rams that had no fear of approaching me on their way to find better forage.

We started the morning with good views of the black Cardinal of the desert — the Phainopepla, consumer of mistletoe berries and primary disseminator of its seeds.

A sweetly, but softly, singing Solitaire — another bird of dry places. This one was not solitary, it had a mate close by.

A pair of desert burros, basking in the morning sun, neither of which wanted to come closer or turn their heads for a better photo.

The female, disinterested in us and the male several yards away.

But suddenly, as we turned into fire canyon road, Bighorn Sheep appeared on both sides of the road, munching their way from place to place. They would have walked right up to me if I hadn’t moved.

They hardly ever raised their heads to chew, but just kept pulling vegetation from one plant to the next.

Finally, one lifted its head. Both sexes have horns throughout life, but those on the females never grow very large, nor do they curl around like those of the males.

In a different location, near the campgrounds, two large rams foraged along a rock wall. The two apparently keep the campers entertained every evening, but seem to be are completely separate from the rest of the herd.

The ram’s horns look like they have been trimmed and prevented from curling around. These weapons in a a mature ram 10-15 years old can weigh as much as 30 pounds,
That swelling on the ram’s forehead above its eyes and below the horns is probably the bony reinforcement designed to absorb the impact of from clashing heads with another ram during the rut.

On our hikes, I began seeing animal shapes in the rock formations.

A ram…

A dog…

And the famous Elephant rock, seen near the entrance to the park.

There are many petroglyphs in the park, depicting the animals native Americans saw living here—maybe they saw animal shapes in the rocks here too.

Red stones and fire canyons

Red soil, red rock, red cliffs, striped red and white rock — we were inundated with all shades of red driving through western Arizona and southwestern Nevada parks last week. Just north of Lake Mead and Boulder Dam, we took a couple of hikes on the Redstone Trail and the Fire Canyon trail to appreciate the amazing geology of this area.

Enormous sandstone cliffs and boulders dominate the landscape here —complex forms shaped by wind and water.

The color of the red sandstone was accentuated by the late afternoon sun.

Further down the road we entered the Valley of Fire state park, which featured more colorful domes, cliffs, and an assortment of strange shapes.

A late afternoon hike down the Fire Canyon—the start of the trail is a gigantic monolithic sandstone slab called Gibraltar.

The sculpted rock slabs do look like a river of fiery lava.

Sandstone layers deposited over eons of time, primarily during the Jurassic period.

Looking back toward the Gibraltar rock at the start of the trail, this scene looks like waves of fiery water, not hardened rock.

I start down the “fiery river” to look more closely at the incredible pink and white domes.

Steve photographs me at the bottom of the canyon looking up.

My photograph from the bottom of the canyon looking up at the same red and white domes. The light from this direction hides their striking color.

This was the end of the Fire Canyon trail, but we forged on down the pastel canyon to find more incredible scenic wonders in the Valley of Fire state park (in the next post).

Remembering the year that was…

This year was an amazing time of one adventure after another…as we made up for the Covid isolation period and two years of postponed trips. So many beautiful places, beautiful animals, beautiful landscapes, and amazing people that we met. Here’s a snapshot of the year in review.

(Note: if you’re interested in seeing more and perhaps better photos of any of the activities mentioned below, go to the main page of the blog: https://bybio.wordpress.com and there should be a pull-down menu for the Archives with months and years of the blog listed near the top right of the main page. Just click on the month of interest, and scroll down through the days to see more of what I have summarized here. IPhone and iPad users may have to scroll to the bottom of the main page to see the dialog boxes with the months listed.)

The highlight of a trip to northern Minnesota to photograph the winter avian residents there was watching a very cooperative Great Gray Owl get four mice (from under the snow) in just four attempts — 100% success!

We took the long-awaited, much postponed cruise down the west coast of Mexico and Central America through the Panama Canal, ending up in Florida. Birding from the ship turned out to be a big plus.

Photography buddy Debby invited us to stay at Hilton Head, SC for a week to marvel at the huge numbers of shorebirds and others that overwinter in this milder mid-Atlantic climate.

As a prelude to our birding adventure in Spain in April-May, we took ourselves sight-seeing in Portugal, with a few days birding and exploring Lisbon, a train ride to Porto, and a few days there before ending the prelude in Madrid (a much more beautiful city than I remembered).

Birding extravaganza in the plains, forests, shore, swamps, and even in old cities in the Extremadura region and Donana national park in southern Spain with Ruth Miller and Alan Davies — birders extraordinaire

The annual family hike in our favorite haunts of the Desolation Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California took place early this year (to avoid a repeat of the disastrous smoke and fire threat we faced last year on the hike in August). We were rewarded with 100% warm, sunny days and no bugs!

Some of the family rode an airplane home from the Sierra hike, but two grandsons were kind enough to keep their grandparents company on a road trip from California through Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota on the way back to Minnesota. Sights were seen and adventures were had along the way.

Although tamer than the previous months of travel, the backyard did not disappoint in bringing wildlife and beautiful scenes for photography. I realize in writing this now that I forgot to include the visit from the kit fox and its mama in August.

We always make at least one trip out to the central Minnesota prairie during the summer, and this year we found ground squirrels and monarch butterflies at Fort Riley state park. The tom turkeys visited the front and the back yards often, but without their girl friends.

A trip to eastern Europe (the Balkan countries) was a premier highlight of the year. It was definitely a learning and discovery adventure since we knew nothing about this part of the world. Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Slovenia — all beautiful, all very interesting though with tragic stories from inhabitants, and all easy to travel around with lots of friendly folks that spoke English.

As always, the fall color spectacle in the Twin Cities did not disappoint. The colors remained vivid for a long time, even into November before the trees finally gave up with the snowfall that began late this year on Nov. 12.

The forest outside became a fairy land of white-encrusted branches after the first major dump of very wet snow in December. Inside the tree was decorated with lights, mementos, and presents. Happy holidays!!

Thank the trees

Each year as Thanksgiving rolls around, I renew my gratitude for the special people in my life. But I usually don’t remember to give thanks for many of the things I just take for granted. So this year, I’m thankful for trees…for the many ecosystem services they provide — for FREE.

…for forests that enrich our lives and uplift our moods as we wander their winding paths.

Forest of Nisene Marks, Aptos CA

Oak forest, University of California Berkeley

…for vast tracts of unending vegetation that pump oxygen into our atmosphere and remove carbon dioxide, helping to manage the climate.

Tropical rainforest of the Panama Canal

Temperate forest of the Porcupine Mountains, Michigan

…for forests and other vegetation that filter runoff to maintain clean water in lakes and rivers and prevent soil erosion

Wolf river near Rhinelander WI

Grass lake slough, Shoreview MN

…for trees that provide food and shelter for wildlife (and food and building materials for us)

My front yard apple crop

A fanciful look at forest animals (composite of many images)

…for forests that improve our urban landscape by providing shade, lowering the air temperature nearby, buffering noise, air, and light pollution, as well as providing a mental and physical escape from the urban jungle.

Central Park, New York city (photo from Architectural Digest)

this post dedicated to daughter Becky, an ecosystem services specialist.

Baby dragons in Postojna cave, Slovenia

I’ve visited quite a few famous caves in the U.S., but the amazing caverns carved from karst limestone near Postojna in southwestern Slovenia are the most spectacular I’ve ever seen. They are definitely one of the Wonders of the Natural World.

We walked over the Pivka river bridge and uphill to the cave. This is the river that carved the caverns millions of years ago.

From this unassuming entrance a complex of caverns and passageways runs 24 kilometers (14.4 miles) underground. There are actually four caves, interconnected by the Pivka river, which drains through them.

5 km of the cave is open to the public, the first 3.5 of which is covered by train. The rail system was first installed in 1872, and electric lighting shortly after that. The cave became a tourist destination as early as 1819 with Archduke Ferdinand’s visit, but the cave has graffiti dating to the 1200s!

We followed a very well maintained path up and down through numerous passageways and huge ballrooms over a 1.5 km track to view a huge variety of cave formations. One such ballroom is noted for its exceptional acoustics and is so large it can hold 10,000 people. Symphony orchestras sometimes perform there.

Some of the massive rooms were several stories tall, decorated with all shapes, sizes, colors, and varieties of cave structures. The bridge in this photo was constructed by Russian POWs during WW1.

This is not an effect of multiple colored lights on the cave structures, but are multi-colored columns of stalactites and stalagmites that have fused together over centuries as mineral-laden water seeped through the porous limestone.

Pale white formations are pure calcium carbonate, and darker stained formations have manganese in them.

I thought this collection of stalagmites looked like little people.

A pure white column (called “the Brilliant”) stands right next to a chocolate brown column with thin rods that have gradually fused together. It’s fascinating to think about how the water must have dripped through here to create these shapes.

The Postojna cave system is notable because of all the animal life found there. Over 100 species have managed to survive in the dark, cold (45-50 F), mineral-rich water, including a cave beetle species, a jelly fish relative, crustaceans, pseudo scorpions, and a cave spider species. But the largest and most remarkable cave dweller in Postojna cave is the “baby dragon” or cave salamander or Olm (Proteus anguinus).

The Olm reaches 8-12 inches in length, with a worm-like body, feeble forelegs, and a short tail. It has bright pink, frilly external gills, and basically resembles the aquatic, larval stage of salamanders even when sexually mature (a condition called neoteny). They are completely blind (eyes covered by skin) but have sound and vibration detectors in their elongate head, as well as smell and taste receptors in their nose that help them find prey. (Photo from CNN travel, Dec 2021)

There was some excitement among the cave biologists several years ago when one of the large Olms began to lay eggs. It took quite a while but she eventually laid more than 50 eggs, about 20 of which hatched in about 5 months. The youngsters had normal eyes, but they regressed in size and skin eventually grew over them. When presented with small worms, Olms immediately go on the attack, hoovering them up (like a vacuum cleaner) with their elongate snout.

Photos of a few of other inhabitants of Postojna cave, from CNN travel, Dec, 2021.

In the “backyard” of the Panama Canal

After 10 days of ship travel, at last we reached the entrance to the Panama Canal and our passage to the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean. It took almost 12 hours to transit the 50 miles of the canal, through three sets of locks on the Pacific side, into huge Lake Gatun, and then through three sets of locks on the Atlantic side.

We began our journey through the Canal at 6 a.m., just as the sun was coming up.

A couple of female Frigate birds flew over to check us out. These are soaring specialists that cruise the oceans looking for fish and squid, and often steal a meal from other birds (like Boobies). They may follow large ships (i.e., frigates) which often scare up fish in their wake.

The Bridge of the Americas (which goes into Panama City) looms over the entry to the Canal. This is the main entry to both the new Panamax (super large ship canal) and the two older, original canals.

I was particularly interested in getting a look at the islands in Lake Gatun, which was formed by damming the Chagras River at a narrow point near its mouth on the Atlantic side (see map below near Gatun locks) back in 1913. When dammed, the river then flooded a once wide valley forming a large lake with just the mountain tops projecting up forming a series of small and large islands in the lake.

One of the largest islands, Barro Colorado (circled in black on the map), was set aside as a nature reserve in 1923 and has been administered by the Smithsonian since then. With almost 100 years of climate and biological data, it is one of the most studied tropical forest systems in the world.

Small lakes on the sides of the main part of the canal serve as reservoirs for circulating water through the locks.

Drainage systems collect rainwater from the surrounding hills to channel it into the main waterway. Vegetation along the banks of the canal is sparse to allow water runoff, while the hills behind are more mature rainforest.

Larger islands in Lake Gatun have undisturbed tropical rainforest with an amazing biodiversity of plants and animals. The first census in 1982 recorded over 300 tree species in a 100 acre plot on Barro Colorado Island!

This area of Panama receives about 100 inches (i.e., 8 feet!) of rain annually, but almost all comes during the rainy season. During the dry season between December and April, less than 3 inches of rain falls and many of the island streams dry up. The soil becomes so dry, large cracks develop in it. Flowers and insects disappear, trees stop producing fruit, and animals on the island become food limited.

As a result of changes in the forest structure with limited island land surface and the size of the islands themselves, species diversity of animals, and especially birds, is markedly lower than that of intact rainforest on the hillsides of the canal — as you would expect. Researchers have found smaller numbers of under-story bird and mammal species, and there are no large mammalian carnivores to control the herbivore populations. But food is a limiting factor here.

Islands (really hilltops) in Lake Gatun dot the lake surface. It spans 164 square miles in all, and makes up about 20 miles of the length of the waterway from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Black Vultures soared over the hilltops of some of the islands in the far distance.

Plants growing on top of plants all the way down to the water’s edge — that’s tropical diversity! Imagine trying to hack your way through this forest from one end of an island to the other…

National Geographic produced an interesting video featuring some of the work that has been done on Barro Colorado Island in 2007: Panama Wild — Rainforest of Life. If you like nature videos and want to know more about this area of the world — click on the video below.

Looking back at 2021

Another year of Covid prohibitions on activities, but not such a bad year for seeing new places and new species. The highlights month by month look like this:

January: a trip to Sax-Zim bog in north central Minnesota, and an exciting afternoon shooting Great Gray Owls diving for mice in the snow.

Great Gray Owls blend in so well with the tree stumps they are sitting on, you might drive right by them on the forest roads in north central MN.

February: Yes, the most memorable highlight of February was winning the vaccine lottery and getting my first vaccine shot — after waiting in line for almost 2 hours with 1000 other anxious people.

March: hiking with adventurous grandkids at frozen (well, mostly frozen) Minnehaha Falls in downtown Minneapolis. Caves behind the falls are fun to explore when you’re steady on your feet.

Also in March — Great Horned Owlets are growing up fast and almost ready to leave their nest hole to perch on tree branches.

April: the great Road Trip of April and May netted us over 160 species (many new and never seen before), after visiting over 40 parks and driving over 6800 miles). Some of my favorites were the ever-amazing hummingbirds, like this composite of a Broad-billed Hummer coming into a feeder in southeastern Arizona.

We visited many beautiful places on our long April-May adventure, but we keep coming back to this place deep in the Chiricahua mountains of southeastern Arizona — Cave Creek ranch, where exotic birds and gorgeous scenery captivate.

May: On the way back to Minnesota in May, we stopped at Antelope Island in Salt Lake City, where grazing bison and antelope are abundant and the mountain landscapes behind the city are spectacular.

June: another Road Trip — this time with the grandkids camping across the western U.S. on our way to the mountain cabin near Lake Tahoe.

My favorite bird highlight from June was this Western Tanager male in all his bright breeding finery — the jewel of the Sierra.

July: with almost all the grandkids and missing one son-in-law (who had to work), the rest of us gathered for the 4th of July at the cabin near Lake Tahoe.

August: surreal landscapes in the back country of Desolation Valley in the CA Sierras on our backpacking trip, as the Caldor Fire literally burst upon us one morning.

September: fall migration began with the arrival of a dozen or more warbler species, along with assorted vireos, flycatchers, finches, blackbirds, etc. Mr. Magnolia Warbler was not quite as beautiful as he was in the Spring, but nevertheless, is a handsome bird.

October: a trip to Alabama to see the birds of Mobile Bay and Dauphin Island and its pristine white quartz sand.

Fall color was unusually bright and long-lasting in October this year. A pleasant surprise after a somewhat hot, dry summer.

November: foxes and turkeys passed through the backyard frequently, but there was little snowfall this month. Very unusual.

December: at last it looks like winter, but a warm-ish spell right before Christmas melted all this lovely stuff.

Reflections

It is snowing this morning, and the yucky weather here in southern Minnesota means the wildlife has deserted the backyard (temporarily, I hope). Even the chickadees are absent from the feeders this morning!

So, it’s a good time to reflect back on the adventures of the summer — to warmer times and prettier views. I found a lot of photos from Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge north of San Jose CA that I had never posted. That’s a good excuse to go back a couple of months to October and revisit the marshy pools in southern San Francisco bay

Shorebirds are abundant here in spring, fall, and winter. Even late summer is a good time to catch migrants moving through these shallow pools, which apparently provide enough sustenance to attract a great diversity and abundance of birds.

The reflections of these Dowitchers (type to be determined in later images) were mirrored perfectly in the still water.

Dowitchers are medium-sized chunky shorebirds that use their very long bills to probe deep into the mud of shallow pools to find insect and crustacean larvae and small molluscs, as well as seeds and even vegetation that is buried there. Extremely sensitive tactile receptors in the tips of those long bills help them discriminate what is animal, vegetable, and mineral. Their continuous up-and-down motion as they probe the mud has been likened to the action of a sewing machine needle moving through cloth.

Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers are common (often seen) to abundant (very numerous) in these pools during spring, fall, and winter. But how to tell which species this is? I am always confused by these birds and wanted to find some characteristic I could use to more easily identify them.

Unfortunately, despite their names, bill length is not a definitive characteristic! Long-billed Dowitchers are mostly found in fresh water, and the Short-billed species is mostly found in salt water, but the pools here are full of a mix of salt and fresh water depending on the tides in the bay. And in their drab, non-breeding plumage, all their distinctive coloration is missing, so one must rely on their different calls to determine the species. However, I have no memory of what they sounded like, so what else can I use to tell them apart?

Fortunately, “how to tell long-billed from short-billed dowitchers” is a frequently asked question on Google. And one website clued me in to differences in the black and white barring pattern in the tail feathers, which can be seen on the bird on the left. Long-billed Dowitchers have more black than white in their tail barring — that’s the answer. These are Long-billed Dowitchers.

Not all of the shorebirds are so difficult to identify. Two species of long-legged wading shorebirds stand out: avocets and stilts.

Avocets are easily recognized by their long, up-turned bills. It wasn’t particularly cool on this morning, but the birds seem to be conserving heat by standing on one long leg at a time. The long bill of this bird is used as a sieve rather than a deep probe. The birds swish their bill side-to-side in shallow water to filter out small prey suspended in the water.

Black-necked Stilts really are on stilts. They have the second longest legs in proportion to their body size — Flamingos having the longest stilts. As they wade through the muck, with water levels sometimes reaching up to their breast, they peck at and seize small crustaceans, amphibian larvae, snails, or even tiny fish swimming in the shallow water.

Such attractive birds with their stark black and white plumage, long pink legs, red eyes, and rounded forehead.

Prime time

This past week has been prime time for Fall color in the Twin Cities area. Frosty overnight temps coupled with sunny, warmish days have really brought out the brilliant red and gold colors of the oak trees, in particular. For a more in-depth explanation of how these changes take place in plants at this time of year, please click here.

Quiet, still mornings created the best reflections of leaf color in the local lakes and ponds.

I wonder if the birds enjoy this colorful time of year as much as humans do…

The oak trees at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge an hour north of the Twin Cities were spectacular this weekend, displaying every possible hue of yellow, orange, and red. Aspens in the background were vivid gold as well.

Two lone White Pelicans swam in a small pond at the refuge, surrounded by gold and red colors of the fall leaves.