The Cutest Lizard of Them All...and April is Not the Cruelest Month

I happen to like lizards, at least the ones that inhabit our area. Komodos & Monitors they are not...but they do eat insects, which I don't mind, especially if they are of the pesky kind. The more common denizens are the Granite Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus orcutti), Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), and a yet-to-be identified species of Whiptail (Aspidoscelis spp.) They are all lively and full of personality, with some doing their rote pushups on the deck & retaining walls, while others spar in endlessly ritualistic paso dobles with encroachers & rivals. While I think that all lizards have an inherent beauty - their patterns & colors can be quite fetching - my all-time favorite has to be the Coast Horned Lizard, aka "Horny Toads." Although their roundish flat bodies may emote toad, these itty bitty guys, ranging from around 2 1/2" to 6", are all lizard and just so damned cute. They range in most of California west of the deserts and typically inhabit open areas with loose, sandy soil, from the lowlands all the up to 8,000 ft. Their diet consists mainly of harvester ants. In the summer of 2001, before the house was built, I saw my first horned lizard along a dirt road cutting through the chaparral stand on the property. Hadn't seen one since, until just a few weeks ago when I spied an adorable little tyke scuttling along the driveway. Here he is, all 3 inches of him, the cutest of them all:

4/10/11 Coast Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma coronatum).

After the rain & frost tapered off last month, it's been mostly mild & sunny. However, we had some really blustery Santa Ana winds this weekend, so I had to restake a few plants, including the El Dorado Gold Fremontia (Flannelbushes are easily uprooted by wind) and all the felled inflorescences of Showy Penstemon. Other than that, the plants in the garden are doing swimmingly. Here are some views of the (mostly) natives in bloom right now.

4/17/11 Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata var. ledebourii). This one is growing under a persimmon tree in the kitchen herb garden, a bit shaded and also kept watered during our summer heat.

4/17/11 Western Vervain (Verbena lasiostachys).

4/16/11 Prickly Phlox (Leptodactylon californicum) to the left, and Showy Penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis) to the right. 

4/16/11 "Powerline Pink" Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea), along the fenceline under a Mexican Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana).

4/16/11 Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum).

4/16/11 Calico Monkeyflower (Mimulus pictus).

4/16/11 Prickly Phlox (Leptodactylon californicum), with a few Showy Penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis) peeking through. This shrub is about 3 years old, and stunning in full bloom. After the first year, I stopped watering it altogether - very drought tolerant. After the spring bloom, prickly phlox will go somewhat dormant and become nondescript until the next rains green it up again.

4/16/11 "Mountain Haze" Ceanothus.

4/16/11 Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis).

4/16/11 'Sunset Strain' Lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon), growing in a terra cotta pot.

'San Diego Sunrise' Monkeyflower (Diplacus clevelandii x puniceus).

5/1/11 'Santa Ana Cardinal' Coral Bells (Heuchera hybrid).

5/1/11 Bigleaf Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus). Native to moist, boggy areas in N. California. I've seen these growing streamside along Soda Creek in the Sonora Pass (Eastern Sierras), but the flowers were a light purple, not pink like these. This one is planted in a bed dedicated to mountain meadow/riparian plants that like their feet wet, including Western Spiraea (Spiraea douglasii), Scarlet Monkeflower (Mimulus cardinalis), California Coneflower (Rudbeckia californica), Western Blue Flag (Iris missouriensis), Slender Cinquefoil (Potentilla gracilis), Sierra Penstemon (Penstemon heterodoxus), and Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium). Hope it survives our SoCal heat come summer...

5/1/11 Mexican Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana) with Desert Wild Grape (Vitis girdiana) growing along the fence. Gil did his ninja master arborist thing on the Elderberry this past winter and removed all the suckers & lower branches to keep it looking tidy with one main trunk & a nice open crown. 

5/1/11 Cow Parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) and Parish's Stream Lupine (Lupinus latifolius parishii) in a planter on the north side of the house. Regular water and a partly shady spot is a must for these guys here in SW Riverside County.

5/1/11 Bush Anemone (Carpinteria californica). This one's about 4' tall and finally flowering after 2 years. The blooms are lightly fragrant. 

5/1/11 Eaton's Penstemon (Penstemon eatonii).

5/1/11 I've dubbed this area along the fence line "Penstemon Patch" and "Sage Hill," respectively (all planted with Cal Natives). Starting from the bottom up: Showy Penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis), Eaton's Penstemon (Penstemon eatonii), and Scarlet Buglar (Penstemon centranthifolius); next,  'Figueroa,' 'Pt. Sal,' & 'Tilden Prostrate' Purple Sages (Salvia leucophylla), San Diego Sage (S. munzii), Brandegee's Sage (S. brandegeei), 'Winnifred Gilman' Sage (S. clevelandii), 'Alpine' Cleveland Sage (S. clevelandii), White Sage (S. apiana), and Salvia hybrids 'Celestial Blue,' 'Pozo Blue,' & 'Gracias.' At the very top is a large stand of Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum), which are native to the site. A couple winters ago, I transplanted about a dozen of these from the adjacent chaparral, and they are now well-established & reseeding like crazy. Their bright yellow flowers contrast very nicely with the purple blooms of the sages. 

5/1/11 Pink Fairyduster (Calliandria eriophylla). This desert native struggled for about 3 years (hates our cold, wettish, foggy winters here on the Plateau), but seems to be perking up finally. 

5/1/11 Next to Desert Purple Sage (Salvia dorrii), Rose Sage or Mountain Desert Sage (S. pachyphylla) is one of my fav sages. This selection is called 'Blue Flame' and comes from High Country Gardens nursery in New Mexico. The flowers bracts are huge and an electric blue-purple!

5/1/11 Elegant Clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) in full bloom in the native wildflower bed.

5/1/11 Assorted Rockroses (Cistus) with Penstemon 'Margarita BOP' in the backdrop.

5/1/11 Another shot of the driveway, with clumps of Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens) between the newly leafing Sycamores. 'Pink Butterflies' Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri) provide some colorful contrast on the right. 

5/1/11 Natives mingling with drought-tolerant non-natives along the driveway: Wandflower (Gaura lindheimeri), 'Arizona Sun' Blanketflower (Gaillardia), 'De La Mina' Cedros Island Verbena,  'Dark Star' Ceanothus, and "Allen Chickering' Sage (S. clevelandii). There are also  4 young 'Morning Cloud' Chitalpas (a cross between Catalpa and our native Desert Willow Chilopsis linearis), which I hope will grow into nice floriferous shade trees in a few years. 

5/1/11 Wallace's Pitcher Sage (Lepechinia fragrans). Love, love, love the smell of this plant when you brush against it (if you're crazy about chaparral, you'll understand).

5/1/11 Southern California Snowberry (Symphoricarpos mollis). A plant of SoCal's higher elevations, this one appears to be doing fine down here at 2,000 ft.

And I know I've posted a gazillion pictures of these sparrows before, but they are real posers:

4/17/11 White Crowned Sparrow (Z0notrichia leucophrys).

4/16/11 Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus).

A Requiem for Baby Bunnies (RIP!!)

Ok. Hana's a dog and, therefore, inclined to do doggie things, such as eyeing small mammals and birds like one of her hapless squeaky toys. Not quite as harmless as it sounds, especially if you know what she actually does to her squeaky toys. I am reluctantly squeamish to admit that in her lifetime, she's killed one squirrel, two gophers, and two house finches. The squirrel-gophercide episodes I can live with, but the house finch thing still befuddles me. Hana's prowess in bird hunting is formidably scary - more feline than canine, so thank goodness that her interest in birdies has waned considerably since the last "incident."


Hana is pretty much under constant supervision except when she's out in the dog run doing her duty, etc., etc. So what could go wrong in an enclosed dog run? Well, enter the scene a stupendously stupid mother rabbit. Not being judgmental here, but what kind of wild leporid would build her freaking nest in a DOG RUN of all places. You'd think that the tell-tale scent of doggie poop & urine would have been a major deterrent.  Last Friday night, around 9:30pm, we noticed that Hana was MIA and so I went down to the dog run to see if she was hanging out there. Let me tell you, but then maybe I shouldn't: I found Hana behind a clump of geraniums along the wall looking super alert, tail wagging, and "guilty" at the same time when she saw me at the door - that's code for "Mom, I know I did something bad, but I couldn't help myself and, and I don't know why, but I'm totally beside myself with inexplicable excitement." Foregoing the unnecessary details, the final body count of baby rabbits in the dog run was eight. She found the nest under the geraniums and I'm just surprised that she hadn't noticed them earlier. The "happy" ending to this otherwise morbid and morose story is that we found two babies who had escaped their siblings' fate. Needless to say, Hana was banned from her own dog run until we could figure out how to save these little guys. After some cursory research on the web, I felt oddly relieved to find that there were tons of blogs, websites, and chats galore along the lines of  "HELP! MY DOG/CAT ATTACKED A NEST OF BABY BUNNIES." Apparently, rabbits are not the brightest bulbs in the pantheon of wild critters. So, Hana is somewhat vindicated. Somewhat, being the operative word. 


We rebuilt the nest with some barley hay and put the one baby we caught back into it, hoping that mom would return to nurse them. The second baby had initially disappeared under the shrubbage, but found its way back to the nest by the next morning. We wanted so badly to name them. But, they were never ours to keep, just to rescue. 


A few interesting factoids about wild bunnies: 
1) Mother rabbit only comes to the nest 2-3 times a day (usually early morning and dusk) to nurse her babies for 5-10 minutes (rabbit's milk is extremely rich & loaded with nutrients). They don't sit on the nest like birds would, to avoid attracting predators. OBVIOUSLY, that concept doesn't work too well if you build your nest in a dog run, for God's sake... 


2)Unless mother rabbit is dead, always, always, put the babies back into the nest. Even if you handle the babies, mom won't be detracted by the human scent.  


3)In about 4 weeks, when they reach 4-5", eyes are open, ears away from the head, and the little white stripe on their foreheads diminished, baby bunnies are ready to leave the nest. Thank the deuces that these babies looked on the verge of fledging, so to speak. By this morning, both babies were gone. We're happy and sad. Anyhoo, we just started letting Hana back into the dog run, but only with one of us there to watch her. We'll keep this up for the next few days until we're absolutely sure the babies are not coming back. Sniff. May they live long and prosper. As long as they don't eat anything growing in my garden. 


Some informative websites about rescuing baby bunnies:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html 
http://www.mybunny.org/info/newborn.htm 
http://www.indianahrs.org/rabbit-care/wild-rabbits.aspx 

4/16/11

Back in the reconstructed nest.

Speechless Saturday: SNOW in SoCal? In April?

It's not unusual to get a bout of cold weather in Southern California in April, but in the 5 years we've lived in La Cresta, last night's dusting of snow was a first. Initially, I thought we had some accumulation of hail and/or heavy frost, but on closer examination of all the fluffy white powder on the plants, the grounds, etc., I had to conclude we got snowed on. At least I hope so. Frost happens up here, but it tends to look more icy than "powdery" and it's usually only on the ground (this stuff was on the plants, the fence posts, landscape lighting, etc.).  So bwahahahahaaaaa!!!....was all I could emote as Gil & I reverted to kindergarten mode in our giddy exhilaration over this meteorological anomaly. By the time I took these pictures around 8:00am this morning, a lot of the snow had begun to melt off already...too bad we weren't up to see it coming down late last night.

4/9/11 Fence posts.

Veggie bed.

Back patio.

Deck on back patio.

Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea).

Logs next to the pond.

My poor tomatoes! Just transplanted them last weekend. 

Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis).

Scallions & cilantro, basking in the frost.

California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa).

St. Francis with a patch of snow on his head. Hope that frock is keeping him warm...

Herb garden.

Frozen pot of Stone Crop (Sedum sempervirens).

Frozen pot of 'Sunset Strain' Bitter Root (Lewisia cotyledon).

Now for a comical interlude. As I was surveying the whitish landscape this morning, I noticed a little drama unfolding with some California Quail and a wannabe cholo bunny. So here's the wabbit staring down a couple of reposing quail.

Wabbit tries the "I'm in your face mo fo" kind of thing, but to no avail.

Then, for effect, he lunges at the meditative girl quail.

Alas, disgusted with the quail's blase response, Wabbit bounds off, a sore loser in this one-sided piss-off match. 

All in all, a fun day.