The Daily Bucket - Desert Trip Report

The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group.  It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers.  All are worthy additions to the bucket.  Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment.  Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.

"Desert Trip Report" is something of a misnomer, but not entirely. Most years we go to the desert and most such trips include some of the same locales and general activities. For many years now, our return has been largely via the coast. We had some hopes for a better than usual bloom this year, even though we were late related to the celebrated Death Valley Super-Bloom, but, frankly, we've seen better, more than once. There were only places where this year even started to approach spectacular. At this point, a bit of digression is warranted.

The "Ecology" of a Desert Bloom Deserts are areas with generally less than 10 inches of precipitation. Many watercourses are seasonal, and more water is lost to evapotranspiration than is received in the form of rain, fog and the like. Semi-deserts receive between 10 and 20 inches of precipitation. They are arid, often with sparse vegetation, or even none, and can occur at any altitude. They are often windy and have extreme ranges between daytime high temperatures and night time lows. In some cases they may receive more that 10 (or 20) inches of precipitation, but still qualify as deserts because the evapotranspiration rates are such that the precipitation is insufficient to support other than a desert ecosystem. Evapotranspiration is simply surface evaporation + water uptake and losses due to plants.

Desert communities, may be loosely seen as a particular combination of plants and animals that occur together in a particular desert locale. They are many. It seems to me, in my years of wanderings, that they are multitudinous and change across very short distances. Factors that obviously will have an influence beside frequency and duration of access to water are available shade, shelter from wind, type of substrate and altitude. Plants that may or may not be scientific "indicators" are nonetheless personal indicators to me. I do not expect to find Yucca and Beavertail in the same immediate locale, for example.  You will be travelling along and will know from various indicators that you will soon cross into the yucca zone, for example.

Many desert plants do not bloom every year, and often bloom only sparsely. Some remain buried, as seeds for many years between blooms. Sufficient water will cause seeds to germinate and sprout and other plants to begin to put forth buds, but that is generally insufficient for much of a bloom. The wet must be followed by a period of significant heat and sunlight within a moderately short period of time for various levels of flowering (any - significant - substantial) to occur. Those in a given community don't all necessarily bloom at the same time either. The result is that as you wander around, in one area you might have chuparosa blooming but not cacti, and a nearby or adjacent area where it is just the opposite.

California and its deserts got a lot of rain this year, but, as of when we went, not a lot of subsequent sun and heat, and we were still having late rains. 

The Trip Itself

On March 23 we took off from Castro Valley and went out to an RV park just east of Bakersfield. We essentially took I-580 east, which merged with I-5, eventually crossed to Hwy 99 shortly above its junction with Hwy 58 and transitioned to 58.There was a relatively large amount of greenery, and a lot of roadside mustard blooming. At our stop there were orange trees bearing fruit and blossome and sometimes both. There was perhaps a little bit of lupine blooming here and there.

The next day we took Hwy 58 up over Tehachipi pass, and across the desert flats to Barstow.  There were lupine and goldfields blooming on the western slope and some brittlebush and Joshua Tree at the crest and down the astern slope. There were a moderate number of plants and plant species blooming in different areas down in the flats east of the mountains, goldfields, brittlebush, several yellow and white daisy like-plants, white puffballs and small white flowers. There were also a few red flowers.

At "Kramer Junction" (aka "4 corners", where Hwy 395 crosses Hwy 58) there was a large solar installation to the Northwest of the interesection. It had multiple seeming cooling towers venting what appeared to be large columns of steam. If it really was steam, it seems that they should be trying to capture and recirculate it. As much as we need power, we need water that much or more.There were also a few red flowers. At Barstow we took Hwy 247 south where there were all of the above, desert mallow and Yucca in bloom. At Yucca Valley we picked up Hwy 62 and continued through Morongo Valley down to I-10. Here we encountered a small mini-mega bloom. One drops down rapidly from Morongo toward Palm Desert in the shelter of a mountain range. In the flat there was a great profusion of fully blooming Brittlebush, such that it looked like a continuous carpet of brilliant yellow, punctuated by a couple of large Palo Verde trees in magnificent full bloom like beacons. Unfortunately, events conspired to keep us from taking pictures, and we continued on into Indio for a couple of days.

On the 26th, we went out to the Coachella Preserve. Sand Verbena was blooming both there and on the way. Mesquite and Ocotillo were blooming near the headquarters, as well as Brittlebush. There were lizards, but not the famous fringe-toed lizard for which the preserve is known, Gambels Quail and Verdin. There are some stands of California's native palm - the Washington Fan Palm ( Washingtonia filifera) around some pools. The native pupfish had been moved to other habitat because some jackass had planted non-native Louisiana Crayfish in the pools. (The area from Palm Desert/Palm Springs through Indio, Indian Wells, Coachella and vicinity has underground water and, now and then, natural springs.)

Some Coachella Pics:

Sand Verbena Indigo Bush Mesquite Lizard on section of palm trunk Smoke tree Young palm Pond with palms Ocotillo Palms surrounding pond shown above Creosote bush in front of indigo bush Brittlebush

On the 27th we continued on to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, taking Hwy 86 along the west side of the Salton Sea to Hwy 78 and west to a campground near the Junction of Hwy 78 and Yaqui Pass Road. West of the "town" of Ocotillo Wells there were large expanses where the Ocotillo were blooming so profusely, widely and completely that it looked like a red fog hanging above these large swaths of the desert floor. We saw UI hummers, Lesser Goldfinches and Housefinches. The wind began to get serious so we took a short walk near camp and saw the above plus Ravens, an Orange Crowned Warbler, Phainopepla and flowers including Fremont Pincushions as well as mystery minuscule purple ones. The wind kept increasing so we stayed in camp, saw Costa's hummingbird, White Winged Dove, Purple Finch, a Western Kingbird, and all of those previously mentioned. Some rain fell and the winds, we later learned, got up to 70 mph.

? Desert Aster ? Palo Verde ? Fremont Pincushion ? Cholla

Yaqui Well

Ocotillo Ocotillo blossom Cholla Brittlebush Hedgehog cactus Hedgehog close up Fishhook cactus ? Beavertail or claret cup ? Crown of barrel Barrel flower up close Barrel with red needles (ready to bloom) Century plants Phainopepla droppings = desertmistletoe seeds Desert mistletoe with berries Barrel, over 6 feet tall ? buckwheat ? Bladder pod Butterfly Chuparosa Bladder pod Mesquite

On the 30th we went to Agua Caliente County Park where we saw a Balck Throated Grey Warbler. Returning toward our camp, we noted that there would appear to be cell-phone service near the old Butterflied Stage Station. Cell phone service is scarce out there. 

Quail Mallow, I think Desert Mistletoe Mystery 1 of 3 Mystery 2 of 3 Mystery 3 of 3 Holy crap, cell reception !!! (Old Butterfield Stage Station, make note)

Palm Cyn --

Phacelia, I think.

Road to Palm Cyn

Century plants  Above plants closer up And yet closer up

OK, what is missing is two things. With the exceptions of a couple of fields of Ocotillo and one of Brittlebush, there wee no areas with more than a low percentage of plants in bloom. Also, there were very few micro-blooms, flowers ranging from pinhead to unpopped popcorn kernel size. In a really good year they litter the open spaces, especially sandy washes, to an extent that you cannot step anywhere without stepping on several. They would be all around the plants in the first 4 pictures, for example, yet we saw relatively few.

******* "Spotlight on Green News & Views" will be posted every Saturday at noon Pacific Time and every Wednesday at 3:30 Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page.  Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary. *******

Now It's Your Turn

  What have you noted happening in your area or travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.    

Thank you.  

Edit — 6:47 Fix myriad typos

Content crossposted from caucus 99%