Santa Rosa Plateau Flowers

We're a bit behind on our posting due to a trip to Mammoth and subsequently coming down with energy-draining colds. Because I'm sure everyone is deeply disappointed, expect us to attempt to assuage your grief through poorly written prose and badly composed digital images in the upcoming days.

A week ago Saturday, the 22nd of March, we took a family outing to the Santa Rosa Plateau with my family. My Dad's brother Jim and his new fiancee Terri visited Grandma and Grandpa Rowley for Easter and Grandma's birthday. So, it was a big party that headed out to the hills to look at flowers.

We had a fun time. There were loads of people there, but there were also good numbers of flowers in bloom. A nice to way to celebrate Easter time, isn't it? Here's the Flickr album from the occasion: Santa Rosa Plateau Pictures.

Chocolate Lilies blooming at the Plateau
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/2369544957/in/set-72157604295813652/

Jim and Terri are very knowledgeable about plants, so it was good to be there with them. The Chocolate Lilies, above, are a big draw at the plateau. We were able to find them pretty easily, as everybody seemed to know where they were. There were actually quite a lot, but some of them were fairly far into the preserve.

We also stopped by the Vernal Pools, where the shrimp and tadpoles were happily swimming, while being predated on lots of Garter Snakes. The snakes were swimming or slithering around the pools in Plague-like amounts. Loads of fun, since they're hardly poisonous. Funny story about poisonous snakes: we were birding Peter's Canyon yesterday. I was standing on the edge of the trail listening to some birds calling, when I heard a funny raspy rattling noise. "What sort of bird makes that noise?" I thought to myself. The sound came again, and I thought, "That's a mechanical sort of noise - something's shaking something." That's when I backed slowly away from the trail's edge as it rattled a third time. We didn't see the snake, but we didn't really want to make an effort.

Garter Snake checking me out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/2370383502/in/set-72157604295813652/

Mammoth pictures are already up on Flickr, and we'll post about it in a bit.

Happy Spring!

Today's the first day of Spring! Yesterday I took a walk around Biola and La Mirada Park. I got a chance to greet some of the spring birds and flowers. I put up an album of the pictures I took on Flickr. Here's a Hooded Oriole from La Mirada Park (my FOS):

Hooded Oriole at La Mirada Park
http://flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/2347113912/

It's also Maundy Thursday. Today the western church, in various denominations, will commemorate the Last Supper. "Maundy" comes from Maundatum - Latin for commandment. Today we remember that Christ gave us a new commandment, to love one another.

This comes from John 13. After Jesus had washed his disciple's feet, and had sent Judas out, he said to his disciples:

"Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

This is the very mission of the Church. Tonight we'll have a service where we commemorate the Last Supper's institution, washing of feet (a symbol of the kind of love Jesus requires of us), and when the service is over we'll take our place waiting with him for Good Friday. All night, volunteers will take turns praying in the church. With our sleeplessness, we will strive to fulfill Jesus' wish where the disciples failed.

Failure is such a huge element of human life. Writing this I was thinking about how badly the church (and me!) are in fulfilling its mission. But two things encourage me. First, the very next passages in John 13 after the new commandment is given are Peter's promise to never betray Jesus. We are not alone in our failure, but Peter went on to do great things for God. Secondly, Jesus' death on the cross is the very and only cure for our failure, and on Friday we'll do well to remember that.

Isn't it amazing that the same Lord through whom a beautiful bird like a Hooded Oriole was created died on a dirty cross in Palestine? The return of a beautiful bird like a Hooded Oriole can be as powerful a symbol of the Resurrection as the first blooming lilies of spring - just keep your eyes open!

Chino Hills Stroll

This last weekend Libby and I took a bit of a stroll at Chino Hills State Park. Libby got a book of 101 Hikes in Southern California for her half-birthday from work, so we thought it would be fun to try out one of the closest hikes on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, I mistook the wrong road for the trail head, and we didn't get to try out the hike described by the book, but we still had a good time wandering around through little trails on the exceptionally green hillsides.

You can see how green it was behind Libby in this picture.
http://flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/2342290746/

All of the plants were incredibly alive there, and there were lots and lots of flowers blooming among the grasses. A further pleasure was watching the wind blow through the grass and up over the hills. The wind would push through the grass, tossing it like wind tosses waves in the ocean. Unfortunately, it began blowing up a gale while we were there, and we found it prudent to head for safe harbor after only about an hour and a half or so. We'll have to go check it out some time when its not quite so squally.

I put up some pictures in a set on our Flickr page: flickr.com/photos/rowleypics. I sprung for a Flickr Pro account so that I could load pictures without any size restrictions. I've added quite a few lately, so if you're interested, feel free to peruse our entire photostream.

A Lark Sparrow perched on a rail checks out his own shadow.
http://flickr.com/photos/rowleypics/2341464813/

Despite the blustery conditions, we did see some interesting wildlife - ground squirrels squeaked from the hillsides, lizards on the trail, an awesome looking Jerusalem Cricket that Libby found, and some birds. It wasn't really a birding trip, though we need to scour Chino Hills for Rufous-crowned Sparrow (an Aimophila sparrow we've never seen, even though they're practically in our backyard) and maybe even for Black-chinned Sparrow when they've arrived (there's a very small population of these birds in the hills). Of course, even when we're not birding, we can't help but notice birds. So, the few we saw during our hour amidst the billowing gales follows in annotated list format:

1. Turkey Vulture (these guys really get tossed around by the wind)
2. Red-tailed Hawks (a few of these, highlight being a beautiful dark-phase juvenile that passed overhead)
3. American Kestrel
4. Anna's Hummingbird
5. Song Sparrow (the only birds we heard singing despite the wind)
6. California Towhee
7. Lark Sparrow (A particular favorite, strikingly beautiful for a sparrow)
8. Tree Swallow
9. Violet-green Swallow (FOS - yet again we saw Swallows migrating in a windstorm)

Albi (The Racist Dragon)

Flight of the Conchords are New Zealand's 4th most popular digi-folk parodists. Jonathan and I really get a kick out of them (probably because White people like singing comedians). We especially like this song. Though Business Time is pretty hilarious too.

Three Strikes Birding

This weekend we took a day trip to Anza Borrego State Park to look for three birds. Of our three targets, we found zero. Worst birding trip, ever. Here's a photo album, though.

female Phainopepla

Our three targets were Le Conte's Thrasher, Crissal Thrasher, and Long-eared Owl. Le Conte's was my most-wanted species, so we spent a lot of time wandering around Clark Dry Lake and the Borrow Pit area of Anza Borrego, but we had no luck. We swung at Crissal's Thrasher in the Borrego Sink - the only place where a tiny population of Crissal's Thrashers are hanging on in San Diego County. That was miserable. The sink is a low area that historically had a large and healthy population of mesquite tapping into the water. But now the city of Borrego Springs has used so much water that the water table has receded and all the mesquite is dead. It's depressing to wander around these shriveled and sun-blackened skeletons hoping to glimpse a population of birds that's undoubtedly doomed. We won't be going back. Crissal Thrashers are more easily found near the Colorado River, so we'll probably look for them there or in Arizona. Long-eared Owls are supposed to spend the winter and spring hanging out at Tamarisk Grove campground. We checked in with a ranger, and he said that his year they never showed up; victims of last year's drought. With no seeds to eat, the small animal population suffered, and consequently large predators have had to move on.

We did see a lot of neat wildflowers. There's a nice little bloom going on in a few places of the park. Here's an album of just flower pictures that we took.

Birdcage Evening Primrose

And we also did see a few birds. Best bird was a Prairie Falcon that came careening in a few feet above us and plunged into some creosote after some prey (probably Le Conte's Thrasher, heh). He came up empty, but it was very impressive.

Black-throated Sparrow

We also witnessed a large push of swallows migrating north in the twilight. The wind was blowing hard by this time, from the north, but they were plunging on inexorably. They flew low , passing within feet of us as they gave every bit of effort to make progress in flights of 10 - 20. Every few minutes a new flock would come up and pass us. Migration is such a force of nature. These birds were giving everything they had for every yard of progress, but they kept going.

For posterity's sake, I'll include a pitiful little bird list. Phainopepla were common around the small oases we checked out. This doesn't include birds seen on the road in the mountains above. We had a fair sampling of the year-round residents, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Black-throated Sparrow and Verdin are common desert-only species that we don't often get to see.

1) Common Raven
2) American Kestrel
3) Prairie Falcon
4) Black-throated Sparrow
5) White-crowned Sparrow
6) Verdin
7) Horned Lark
8) Phainopepla
9) Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
10) House Finch
11) Lesser Goldfinch
12) Northern Mockingbird
13) Ruby-crowned Kinglet
14) Swallow sp. (N. Rough-winged or Tree, I think)
14) Costa's Hummingbird: two males and a female on a nest in a Tamarisk
15) Loggerhead Shrike - these were very common around Clark Dry Lake.

We saw Roadrunner tracks, but we didn't see any.

Dusky-capped Flycatcher

Well, I submitted my Dusky-capped Flycatcher (Myiarchus tuberculifer) find to the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC). Initial feedback is that it's a convincing record. I don't imagine it will have any trouble being accepted. If it isn't, though, I'll still likely learn something valuable about identifying birds.

So what is a Myiarchus tuberculifer and why is it exciting (to me, anyway)? This is it:


It's a small bird in the family Tyrannidae. Tyrannidae is a uniquely new world family: it's only found in the Western Hemisphere. Nonetheless, it's considered the largest bird family on earth. That's probably subject to change as avian taxonomy is in constant flux. The members of this family generally specialize in eating insects, but some will eat berries, also.

The Dusky-capped Flycatcher is a mostly tropical species (like the vast majority of its family). You will find it in woodlands from southern Arizona south to northern Argentina. You usually will not find it in California, but it is apparently the most expected wintering Myiarchus flycatcher on the coastal slope of southern California (according to an e-mail from Kimball Garrett - someone who should know).

Some birds make a mistake when they head south for the winter and end up going in the wrong direction. This bird traveled northwest instead of south. It's probably been frequenting this Eucalyptus grove most of the winter. Who knows how many unusual birds were spending this winter in out of the way places? Finding these hidden treasures is one of the many pleasures of bird-watching.


So, how do you know if you've seen a Dusky-capped Flycatcher?

Dusky-capped Flycatchers are best distinguished from their nearest congeners by voice. Its typical call is a descending peeeur with a strongly mournful quality. But it definitely has other vocalizations, one of which I heard the first time I saw it. That was frustrating at the time, but I appreciate it, now, as I feel I have a little better experience with the species.

Dusky-capped Flycatchers are also the smallest of the Myiarchus flycatchers north of the Mexican border. It looks a little rounder rather than the more lanky appearance of its close relatives. Otherwise, the yellow on the belly is brighter, and the dusky cap contrasts strongly with its gray throat. This really stands out from quite a distance. One thing that many birders will look for on a Myiarchus flycatcher is the under-tail pattern - vaguely visible in the photos above. Many of the birds have fairly distinctive patterns (though there's actually considerable variation). Dusky-capped Flycatchers lack the strong rufous coloring that's obvious on the other species, and the paler inner feathers contrast with the outer feathers from the base of the tail to its tip. The Ash-throated Flycatcher is especially distinctive in that it shows a darker bar across the base of the tail - this is generally absent in the other three species found in the U.S.

Oh, and the scientific name of Dusky-capped Flycatcher strikes me as pretty trippy: Myiarchus tuberculifer. What's it mean? It means "lord of the flies" "carrying a fleshy protuberance." This is from the Dictionary of Birds of the United States (a book I wouldn't mind having, actually). Tuberculosis is derived from that same root.

More information on Dusky-capped Flycatchers:

Wikipedia: Dusky-capped Flycatcher page.

USGS Patuxtent wild bird research site: Dusky-capped Flycatcher.

What Bird?: Dusky-capped Flycatcher page (field guide format includes vocalization and range map)

Internet Bird Collection: Dusky-capped Flycatcher video. This vocalizing bird's call is a little quicker than the ones I've heard (in La Mirada and Arizona). Since it's videoed in South America one wonders if that's reflective of a taxonomical difference. Of course, you can't tell from one video. There are four other videos of this species from South America, but I can't figure out how to link to the page that displays those options.