See nictitating membranes in action!

There’s a great nature event happening right now. Biologists have set up video cameras to watch a growing bald eagle family in the US National Arboretum in Washington DC, and anyone with an internet connection can watch them at any time.

You can visit the DC EagleCam, 24 hours a day, at  http://dceaglecam.eagles.org

Even though this is the east coast, bald eagles also winter in the desert, usually in the high country. But the relevant  feature right now is that sometimes you can get a glimpse of the eagle’s nictitating membranes at work.

Here’s how. It’s best to watch in the day time. Click on one of the two cameras so you can more easily see the adult eagle’s eye, and enlarge the image, by clicking the bracket-box at the lower right corner of the video.

You will most often just see the eagle blinking–but every so often, you get to see the “third eyelid” swipe part way or all the way across the eye, starting from the corner nearest the beak. Wow!

And if you get so busy watching the adults and chicks and their activities you forget the third eyelid, that’s OK too!

…..Image taken April 6 2016 from dceaglecam.eagles.org © 2016 American Eagle Foundation, EAGLES.ORG

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Ocotillos and visitors

So, the original idea here was to talk about how Ocotillo plants (Fouquieria splendens) in bloom seem to host bird or pollinator visitors at almost any time of day.

It seemed like a good idea to do at least one random sample of observation before declaring this.

And sure enough, during a 3 minute segment one spring afternoon, a few days into full bloom for the ocotillo, there were two bird visitors and several pollinator insects. Now this was just one casual observation, but it indicates how often you see creatures near or on these plants.

As noted in an earlier post, Verdins, (Auriparus flaviceps) the very small birds with yellow heads, are frequent visitors, apparently looking for insects. Finches are also common. And hummingbirds can be seen throughout the year.

It is amazing that any birds can find a firm foothold on the thorny stems. Clever feet.

Remember that the ocotillo is not a cactus, although it may look like one during some parts of the year. It’s in a completely different group. In fact, for most of the year, it looks like a bundle of dead sticks, and if you first saw one for sale in a garden center, you might wonder what they were trying to sell.

Herds of Callipepla gambelii

For a long time through the summer, when you saw Gambel’s Quail, Callipepla gambelii, in the Sonoran desert, you’d usually see just one or two individuals.

Then in late summer, there were groups of 4 or 5.

As the weather cooled (well, cooled relatively speaking—this is a southern desert) and autumn officially started, suddenly there are huge herds of up to 20 quail. Yes, I know, covey, more accurately, coveys of quail.

In the new year, they will pair off, the big groups will disperse, then new family herds of mom, dad, and sometimes more than a dozen little peepers, who are amazingly fast soon after hatching, will appear on the scene.