Gilbert Riparian Preserve

I've been meaning to visit the Gilbert Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, AZ for a while now, especially since it's only about 10 miles from my house and many migratory birds can be found there at this time of year.  The Preserve is situated on 110 acres and consists of one fishing lake and 7 ponds that are filled on a rotating basis with treated effluent which is then allowed to percolate back into the groundwater supply.  That much water attracts a lot of waterfowl, shorebirds and other birds that take advantage of the riparian surroundings, not to mention a lot of birders.  I met local birders, as well as folks from Kansas, Tucson and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  There were numerous birds that I see on a regular basis at my feeders, and others that were new to me.  Anna Hummingbirds were everywhere, and I may have seen a Costa's Hummingbird, but without being able to see the telltale flash of purple on its' throat, I couldn't be sure. Abert's Towhees, which are occasional visitors to my backyard were in amazing abundance and I must have seen 2-3 dozen of them, though usually only in pairs.  There were also some nice native plants and in some areas they were so thick you couldn't see the pond they were lining, although the staff at the preserve have done a nice job of creating clearings for viewing waterfowl and even have some blinds set up just for that purpose.  I took quite a few photos, which I'll share with you now, starting with the plants, many of which were in bloom.  In fact, standing beneath a large cottonwood tree, the buzzing of bees was so loud, I thought there must be a hive or swarm in the tree. After looking for it for several minutes, I realized that there were bees visiting nearly every flower cluster on the tree and the tree was over 40' tall, with a 30' canopy, so there were hundreds of bees. Speaking of bees, in addition to honey bees I saw a carpenter bee and a bumblebee, both actively gathering pollen.

The mostly spent flowers of Baccharis sarothroides, Desert Broom

I'm not sure what this plant's name is, but it was a large specimen.

Another plant I couldn't identify, but the blooms are gorgeous.

Flowers of Populus fremontii subsp. fremontii, Fremont Cottonwood

Sphaeralcea ambigua, Desert Globemallow

Unidentified yucca; it was over 6' x 6', with numerous pups.

Another bee magnet, Lycium andersonii, Desert Wolfberry

There was quite a large variety of birds, some of which absolutely refused to pose for a photo and others who were more than happy to oblige, and here are photos of the latter, starting with the non-water birds, then the shore and wading birds, and finally, the waterfowl.

Male Agelaius phoeniceus, Red-winged Blackbird

A pair of Columbina inca, Inca doves on their nest.

Melozone aberti, Abert's Towhee

Mimus polyglottos, Northern Mockingbird

Toxostoma curvirostre, Curve-billed Thrasher

Zonotrichia leucophrys, White-crowned sparrow 

Auriparus flaviceps, Verdin

Megaceryle alcyon, Belted Kingfisher

Ardea herodias, Great Blue Heron

Egretta thula, Snowy Egret

Gallinago delicata, Wilson's Snipe

Himantopus mexicanus, Black-necked Stilt

Anas acuta, Northern Pintail

Anas crecca, Green-winged Teal

Anas platyrhynchos, Mallard

Branta canadensis, Canada Goose

Bucephala albeola, Bufflehead, Female

Fulica americana, American Coot

Oxyura jamaicensis, Ruddy Duck, Male

Oxyura jamaicensis, Ruddy Duck,Female

Phalacrocorax auritus, Double-crested Cormorant

Lastly, here's a couple of photos of four-legged critters that were seen around the ponds.

Sylvilagus audubonii, Western Cottontail

Trachemys scripta elegans, Red-eared Slider

I spent 2.5 hours at the Preserve and only got to see Ponds 1-3 and one side of Pond 4, so there will be plenty of new area to cover on my next visit, which just may be tomorrow.

More Signs of Spring

After a week of average temps for this time of year, the next 10 day forecast is for upper 70's to upper 80's, so we're back to above normal temps again, but I'm not complaining when so much of the rest of the country is buried under a blanket of snow.  It would be nice if we'd get some rain, as we haven't had measurable rainfall in nearly 50 days and this is supposed to be one of our rainy seasons.  Despite the lack of rain, I'm enjoying the weather immensely, especially when I look back at last year when it we were having below average temps and freeze warnings.  And I'm not the only one enjoying this beautiful weather, as I found a couple of "critters" out and about yesterday.

This moth blends into the background so well.

The fruit trees are enjoying it as well, with the lemon in full bloom and loaded with dozens of fruits from pea-sized to lime-sized, as well as a few from last year that haven't ripened yet.  The Anna apple has it's first blossoms and the peach has a bud about to open.

Clusters of fruit like this are all over the Eureka Lemon Tree

The first Anna apple blossoms of the season

A Babcock peach bud about to burst open.

Since the birds have been so thoughtful in seeding sunflowers all over the yard, I decided to see if I could transplant some to a more desirable location.  I haven't had any success in transplanting sunflowers in the past, so this time I decided to try something different; instead of immediately replanting them, I put them in a jar of water for a week.  This gave them some time to recover from the shock of being moved and allowed me to see if they would survive.  A couple of days ago, I replanted them, putting them in the sunflower bed I made recently.  A couple of the smaller ones look like they didn't make it, but the majority of them look like they'll be okay.

Black oil sunflower transplants.

In the "promising future" category we have Stock, which looks like it will be providing a lot of seeds in a few weeks, plus Stapelia asterias and Stapelia kwebensis, which both have developed flower buds. Time will tell as to whether they bloom or not, as I've had other Stapeliads that developed buds that failed to bloom.

Dozens of Stock seed pods waiting to ripen.

Stapelia asterias flower bud.

One of several flower buds on Stapelia kwebensis.

File this one under the "helpful hints" category: I recently saw an employee of a juice bar getting ready to throw out a tray of wheat grass and asked if I could have it, to which he not only agreed, but told me I was welcome to them any time, as they throw 2-3 away each day.  I took the tray home, cut out all the wheat grass and was left with a great plastic tray with a mesh bottom.  Since it was rather flimsy, I made a quick frame out of 2" x 2" and screwed the tray to it.  Now I have a great tray for holding succulent cuttings that allows me to water them without worrying about them getting wet feet and makes it easy to move the whole lot into the sun during the day, and under the porch at night for protection from the cold.  As an added bonus, all the wheat grass went into the compost pile, so nothing was wasted.  I know I'll be checking in with them whenever I'm in the area to get more of those trays.

Completed tray; note the cross bars for support in the middle.

Signs of Spring and How Far I've Gotten Sucked Into Succulents

Even though the temps this month so far have been cooler than last month, there are still signs of Spring popping up all over.  The roses and succulents are blooming and veggies and flowers are coming up all over the gardens.

Climbing Don Juan is now over 6' tall

The hollyhocks are over 2' tall and look fuller that last year.

The Eureka Lemon keeps putting out new growth and more flower buds.

Radishes are coming up in the ladder planter

Right below them are Uba Tuba peppers

I don't remember planting this snapdragon, but I'm not complaining.

Euphorbia obesa in bloom; I'm trying to hand-pollinate them.

Another Euphorbia sending up inflorescences

The Gasteria liliputana are sending up inflos as well.

And speaking of succulents, ten years ago I received Stapelia gigantea as a gift from a friend and was content to keep it as my only succulent until 2012, when I rescued an old wheelbarrow my neighbor was going to pitch.  I wound up creating a succulent garden in that wheelbarrow and for a while, I was content.  Then at the 2013 Spring Swap, I got 3 more succulents, two of which I killed, making me realize there was more to taking care of succulents than I thought.  I didn't add any more that year, but last year, my mild attraction became a full-blown obsession and I added many more plants to my collection, continuing this year until I now find myself with 23 stapeliads, 28 other succulents and one cactus.  This week I added four more stapeliads, all of which came from the same nursery and all of which were unmarked.  I bought one when I was out looking for a trailing type succulent for this great little vintage wall planter I found.  I was hoping to find Burro Tail sedum, but wound up settling for Sedum album chloroticum 'Baby Tears'.  As I was talking to the nurseryman, I asked if they ever bought stuff from locals, and he said yes, and they also did trades.  I kept running the idea of a trade around in my mind and the next day I went back with some of my rooted cuttings and a "surplus" Stapelia asterias hoping to trade it for some of the other stapeliads they had.  I wound up with 3 unmarked staepeliads in one gallon pots, which I promptly took home and repotted; when all was said and done, I had enough plants for my personal collection and lots more for future trading or sales.

A vintage 1950's wall planter

Mounted on the front porch wall and planted with Sedum album chloroticum 'Baby Tears'

The stapeliad I bought

Trade booty

The 1st one potted up for my collection, plus extras

The 2nd one potted up for my collection, plus extras

The 3rd one potted up for my collection, plus lots of extras

In 2012, I built a tipsy planter and have struggled ever since to keep flowers alive in it, so today I replanted it with succulents, figuring they'd be better suited to the conditions. working from the bottom up, I planted some cuttings of 3rd stapeliad shown above, then Cotyledon 'White Sprite', Aloe 'Walmsley's Blue', Donkey Tail Sedum 'Burrito' and finally Kalanchoe beharensis 'Felt Plant' 'Fang'.

The replanted tipsy pots

Unknown stapeliad

Cotyledon 'White Sprite'

Aloe 'Walmsley's Blue'

Donkey Tail Sedum 'Burrito'

Kalanchoe beharensis 'Felt Plant' 'Fang'