33.55809384747576, -111.58155677274682
When I was a young lad, sheep herders would guide up to 2,000 sheep at a time up into the hills near Punkin Center on the lower Tonto Creek for the summer and back to the valley for winter forage in the alfalfa fields in Gilbert. You would NOT dare let a cow feed in an alfalfa field because it would gorge itself and alfalfa has highly digestible leaves that release soluble proteins and sugars that feed microbes in the cow's stomach and the microbes produce a slimy foam that traps gases like methane and CO2 in the cow's stomach that prevents normal belching. The cow eventually dies of suffocation.
The bridge was eventually removed around 1975. Edith, Spencer and Easton went with me on this bird hunting expedition and we found a few posts that were probably part of the fencing they used to control the sheep.
There were a lot of interesting geologic formations. This is one that seemed to be the remains of hot flowing lava. (birders always have binoculars in their hand)
This is such a beautiful area. I don't know why I never took the family hiking and camping in this area the decades we were raising kids.
My ears were a little stuffed on the day we went, 6 January 2026 so I couldn't hear the birds that singing around us. But Spencer, Easton and Edith are natural birders! With their help and little investigative work we identified two more birds for my list.
I'm not real sure I had a legitimate find for the "Rock Wren", but I will count it because I may not be this way again and Spencer and Easton tended to agree this was the bird.
The last bird we identified was a Black-chinned Hummingbird.This was truly an amazing sighting that would not have happened without Spencer and Easton's help. The little bird didn't cooperate. It flitted from bush to tree and back again never stopping for a good look----until it couldn't resist the nectar from a Chapurosa Bush and it's bright pink/red bell-shaped flowers. We got one good look at him while he had his long beak inserted into a little Chapurosa Bush flower.
However, it was such a flitting look we had to do some more research. Merlin suggested several different humming birds that were possibilities, but the fact it was feeding on the Chapurosa Bush was a clue. (I added the Chuparosa Bush to my list of found plant species)
Science claims the Black-chinned Hummingbird and the Chuparosa Bush co-evolved together each depending on the other. The bird for food adapted a long narrow beak and the plant for pollination adapted a bell-shaped flower just perfect for the little Black-Chinned Hummingbird.
I had a great day with Edith, Spencer and Easton on a beautiful Arizona desert trail!
No comments:
Post a Comment