Went out last night to look at some stars. Unfortunately, there was a very bright moon and the stars were veiled. Extra points if you recognise that reference. For those of you living in a major city - be reassured, the stars are still up there. Driving through the desert at night reveals how much life there is. The park is open to vehicles all night and the roads are paved with cotton-tail and jack rabbits - some of them still alive. Pale yellow desert kangaroo rats scuttle across the road, like large frogs. The headlights pick out moths and bugs. A large owl flies up from the road, grey and ghostly. The datura unfurls its white trumpets. It is utterly silent.
This morning I drove back around the west side of the desert and up the Canyon to visit the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve in Yucca City. Back in Chincoteague, I had bought a secondhand copy of a guide to western bird-watching sites, which fortunately I rediscovered a couple of days ago, as this area and Joshua Tree are included in it. The Reserve is an oasis formed around a natural spring which supports growth of cottonwood, a type of poplar, and desert willow and attracts a wide diversity of plant and bird species, both resident and on migration.
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| Cottonwoods and willows |
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| Desert willow |
Cottonwoods are named for the fibres in which the seed capsules are held and distributed, which look like cotton wool.
It also has lizards. If identifying flowers is hard, try these. They move - fast. One had a distinctive blue throat, visible in the first photo, which suggests a Western Fence Lizard. The other was fatter and larger. I think it may be a species of sagebrush lizard.
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| Western Fence Lizard notable from its blue throat patch |
The Preserve is notable for the number of species of birds that pass through on migration or settle to breed during the summer. I added ladder-backed woodpecker, brown-crested flycatcher, desert or possibly Gambel's quail, phainopepla (no common name), and Wilson's warbler to my life-list. This photo is taken from a long way away on maximum zoom. On the left is a partridge in a dead tree (look closely and you will see the little quiff on its head) and a phainopepla, which has a small crest.
There are also numerous plant species.
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| Spiny cucumber Cucumis anguria. Edible. |
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| Indian tobacco Nicotiana quadrivalvis. Smokable. |
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| Unidentified |
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| Phacelia parryi |
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| Distant phacelia Phacelia distans |
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| Honey mesquite, which has a strong, sweet fragrance. |
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| Silver or golden cholla - Cylindropuntia echinocarpa |
View of the mountains in the Coachella valley, south of the Preserve.
Leaving the Preserve, I headed north into the Joshua Tree NM towards sunset.
By the time I reached the southern end of the NM, it was dark. There were more stars visible, but the moon was very bright and it was partly cloudy. I drove slowly as the rabbits were again flinging themselves under the car. The headlights lit up a stick across the road. Quite a long stick. But, as there are no trees in the park... I stopped the car. Lying in the road was a three-foot long rattlesnake. It appeared uninjured, but at the speed other drivers were going, it was unlikely to survive. I grabbed the longest and thickest thing I had - a copy of the Rand McNally road atlas - and gingerly poked it.
It immediately went into a defensive posture, but made no attempt to get away, so I had time to take the photograph. That morning, I had heard the park ranger describing what to do if you find a rattlesnake. The first thing was not to do what I had just done. The second was that they can strike at a distance of half their length - about eighteen inches for this one. Holding the atlas in front of me, I whooshed it towards the snake, which immediately slithered backwards. Three or four whooshes and it was off the road and into the scrub. Job done.
Joshua Tree NM lies at about 3000 feet. To return to Palm Desert you descend to sea-level on I10 over the Cottonwood Mountains. From the blackness of the mountain, the Coachella Valley is a blanket of twinkling lights spreading to the horizon as the communities of Indio, Palm Springs, Coachella and Palm Desert merge into the suburbs of Los Angeles, just over 100 miles away.
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