November 22 -- The "Community" Of Portal, And IDing Trees From Leaves

I'm "caretaking" the house of friends here.  They're full-on birders who, like me, used to live in the South Bay of southern California, then retired to Portal where they bought a house.  We'd bumped into each other when we were chasing rare birds in So Cal -- one was the Gyrfalcon, a bird of the northern tundra, that spent a week at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area near Lake Perris in Riverside County (alas, never got to see it). But we never really became friends until we all moved out here. Now we're pretty much "best buds", having gone together to the Halloween party, the "John Wayne" and "Patsy Cline" doings at the Rodeo Tavern, dinners at each other's house (prepared dinners from Green Chef and Blue Apron -- check 'em out on the Web) , and an upcoming trip to Texas' High Island for spring migration. But that's the way things are here; nearly everyone has the same interests, and that all starts with it being our choice to live here, minor inconveniences be damned. There was someone of Facebook who questioned my calling Portal a "community". I'm not sure whether he questioned it because I put the word in quotation marks, but I assumed he wanted to know why that and not a town, village or other place where a group of people live. I checked Wikipedia just to be sure, then told him that Portal is too small to be called a town, village or hamlet might be more appropriate, but fits the definition of a community -- "a social unit of any size that shares common values". We all choose to be here because we love the Chiricahuas, for its abundant, varied wildlife and spectacular, unique scenery. We could live somewhere else, but made the decision to live here. Thus, we share common values and interests -- and are a community, this time without using the quotes.

Back to my friends.. As I mentioned, I'm taking care of their house. It mostly requires keeping the feeders and such in their back yard filled. And though their back yard is walled in keep the bigger critters out, they still attract quite a variety of wildlife, especially birds. Northern Cardinal, Pyrrhuloxia, Ladderback Woodpecker, Green-tailed Towhee, Blue-throated, Broad-billed,Anna's, and Black-chinned hummingbirds -- and rarities such as Plain-capped Starthroat and White-throated Sparrow. Even a Worm-eating Warbler, found only in the eastern US, hit a window and they took a video of it in Mark's hands before it recovered from its daze and flew off. So as I'm taking care of their place, I thought it would be nice to give you an idea of what their yard looked like; its views are quite impressive -- almost as impressive as mine (if you read this, amigo and amiga, I'm just kidding, of course)--

Looking to the west and Cave Creek Canyon

The trees and shrubs they have in their yard are pretty much all there to attract the birds. And they have a deck reached by stairs which gives them views over the area -- 

And here you thought Faranuf was the bees knees -- or the kipper's knickers (same meaning as bees knees; I just got that one off Wikipedia). I'm taking care of their place because they're in the Rio Grande Valley chasing butterflies and birds..

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm a member of the group Friends of Cave Creek Canyon, which is devoted to informing the people "out there" about the Chiricahuas, and Cave Creek Canyon in particular. We deal with everything to be found here -- wildlife, scenery, weather, local history, geology -- and flora;  trees, plants, bushes and such. Now I have to admit that I'm "botanically challenged"; in all the backpacking and hiking I've done over the years, I've always wanted to know more about what I see, but never found the time being a full-time working slug. But now that I'm retired, I don't have much of, if any, excuse not to increase my knowledge of flora. And this place, with its 4 habitat zones within a range of less than 20 miles, has an incredible variety of botanical species that you could probably spend a lifetime studying them -- and some people out here do -- and still not cover them all. So I'm doing my discovery in steps; a) wonder ("gosh! with my mouth hanging open), b) knowledge (looking up on Wikipedia, other Internet sites, or asking the experts here) then c) dissemination (spreading that knowledge to others). Another friend of mine here says "knowledge is power" -- and I'm determined to become one powerful guy... Helen, my great and good friend (lots of friends here, as you can tell) knows of my botanical interest. Especially now in fall when the trees are covered in spectacular colors. During one of my drives through Cave Creek Canyon, there was one tree that was more spectacular than most -- 

I did a very quick look on the computer and in a book guide to trees and made a snap judgment that it was a type of Poplar, and ID'd it as such on a Facebook post. Well, I was wrong of course. An FB friend chimed in, saying it was a cottonwood -- "populous fremontii", or "Alamo" cottonwood, to be precise. But, as it was off the road, I didn't pick up any of its leaves to make a definitive ID (and to be honest, I never thought about doing so; I will from now on). My friend Helen asked where the tree was located along the road, and suggested I get one of its leaves the next time I was there. (I'll be passing by there today, Monday; I'll be doing a hike up South Fork, and this is on the way there.) As an aid, she collected some leaves she had around her house, scanned them, and made a simple poster with captions -- 

Simple (I'm just beginning in my leaf IDs so I need simple) , easy to understand. I'll be taking it with me on my future hikes as a guide to what I might see, then expand slowly on that knowledge. Helen said the tree identified as a cottonwood might not be; I aim to find out by getting one of its leaves -- if I can get to it. And disseminate that knowledge to the wider public, i.e., here and on Facebook. Yes, retirement gives you the time you never had before to increase your knowledge...

The day's sunset, with its wild clouds, was memorable at the start, but the colors didn't pan out -- 

And what was I doing a year ago to the very day? Why, it was another hike up South Fork; this was the state of the "road" there that had been mauled by Hurricane Odile -- 

It looks better a year later...