Diamond Desert

I stayed late after the IBCM conference to go out and see springtime in the desert. I got to spend a delightful day hiking and insect watching out by Desert Hot Springs.


The weather was mostly sunny but cool, and there was even rain and snow in the nearby mountains. It made for marginal insect viewing. On the other hand, I got to see a really nice rainbow.


The spring flowers were beautiful. I was drawn to the above hillside, which was covered with desert dandelion and desert chickory.


The desert dandelion flowers were being visited by a beautiful little moth in the genus Heliolonche. The air temperature was cool enough that they were readily approachable for photography. I must have seen about a dozen.


There's something about hiking alone out in the desert that I find very restorative. The day after this hike, I met up with my friend Dr. Steve from Los Angeles, and we hiked together in the palm canyons. I'll try to get photos from that day up soon.

IBCM V - Lake Skinner and the Quino Checkerspot

Wednesday was the final day of the IBCM California workshop. The weather forecast had been marginal, however we woke to a gloriously sunny day as we headed out for the Lake Skinner unit of the Southwest Riverside County Multi-species Reserve. The reserve is home to numerous endangered species and we would learn about, and perhaps see, the Quino Checkerspot butterfly. The preserve is perhaps the most beautiful place that we visited on this particular workshop. There had been snow at the high elevations, so the views of the nearby San Bernadino Mountains were particularly impressive.


The meeting room at the reserve is in a charming old one-room schoolhouse. A pair of Great Horned Owls were nesting in a large eucalyptus tree right outside. Unfortunately, my photo of the cute, fuzzy owlet did not turn out well, however one of the adults posed nicely on the building. One of the talks was given by Ken Osborn, who also spoke to us on the first day of the workshop. Ken presented a fascinating account of how local geology affected the soil chemistry, which in turn affected the growth habit of the checkerspot's host plant. It turns out that the caterpillars feed on the type of leaves that the plant produces on one soil type but not the other, so geology combines with host plant presence to determine the distribution of the species.


The meeting room at the reserve is in a charming old one-room schoolhouse. Nearby, a pair of Great Horned Owls was nesting in a tall eucalyptus tree. Photos of the cute, fuzzy owlet did not turn out well, however one of the adults posed nicely on the building. Ken Osborn, who also spoke to us on the first morning of the conference, gave a fascinating talk about how the local geology influences the distribution of the Quino Checkerspot.




As interesting as Ken's talk was, it was such a beautiful day that we were all eager to venture outside, both to see the preserve and to try to find the butterfly. This part of California is quite charming in late March. I really enjoyed walking in the softly green landscape and looking at the spring wildflowers.




It wasn't long before we started finding Quino Checkerspots. There was some concern that our visit was too late and that the butterflies would already be done flying for the year. Not so- we saw dozens of them and there were lots of opportunities for photography.

Quino Checkerspots are endangered because so much of their habitat has been converted to the ever-growing urban and suburban sprawl of southern California. It has been the subject of extensive conservation efforts and a lot of research. I hope that these efforts pay off in the long run. It's a very beautiful species.

IBCM V - Irvine Ranch

Day 2 of the California IBCM workshop included a visit to the Irvine Ranch preserve. It's a huge parcel- over 50,000 acres of coastal sage scrub, chaparral, oak savanna and riparian habitats. As someone who has done land management for many years at Bluff Spring Fen, I was very impressed at the stewardship of a site roughly 500 times the size of the Fen. Although there no endangered butterfly species currently occupy the site, it does represent a spot with the potential for restoration of on or more species.

California Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia california)

Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)

Sara Orangetip (anthocharis sara)

Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)

Although we did not see endangered butterflies on this site, the weather was near-perfect, sunny and in the 70s. We saw lots of other butterfly species, and I even managed to photograph a few. The ringlet, orangetip, and blue are all species that I associate with springtime in coastal southern California. I wish I had been able to get a better shot of the orangetip. That species is very uncooperative as a photo subject.

The U-shaped structure is the entrance to a trapdoor spider burrow
We tried bating with a tiny katydid to entice the spider to show, but had no luck

Jerusalem Cricket (Stenopelmatus sp.)

Hide Beetle (Family Trogidae)

We saw a bunch of other arthropods, as well. I wish that we had been able to entice the trapdoor spider to pop out of it's burrow. I suspect that there were just too many of us, and it could sense the vibrations that we were producing as we milled about the area. At one point, I saw what I thought was an ironclad beetle (Family Zopheridae). When I posed it on my hand for a photo, someone pointed out that it was actually a hide beetle (Family Trogidae). I wish I had known that before I put it on my hand- the Trogidae feed on carrion. I wonder where it had been before I grabbed it.

The entire hike was about 4 miles. I spent that part of the day in warm sunshine surrounded by beautiful scenery and valued colleagues. What more can one ask for in a day's work?