You see this face Steve? This is how I feel about that “Tail” pun.

All the other lizard jokes he could have made, and that’s the one he went with? So disappointing.

Spring has come to the Mojave Desert! Annual plants are opening their flowers, birds are active and singing, and we’re leaving behind the cooler days of winter (well, relatively cooler, sorry Chicago). Expect pictures and stories about flowers to come soon, but I’m still trying to figure out what all of these new species are. So with this blog I’m going to talk about critters. Scaly ones.

Lizards are some of the most noticeable and most charismatic Mojave Desert fauna. During the warmer months, I could hardly walk 10 meters through the desert without coming across one of these little reptiles. I seldom picked them out as I approached their hiding spots, but when I got too close they would dart away, scampering wildly across the sand looking for refuge. The fleeing lizards were a welcome source of entertainment and movement on the otherwise oppressively still and hot summer days. Most of the lizards here remained active into October and November last fall, spent the cooler winter underground, and have started to reappear in the last few weeks. Allow me to introduce you to some of them.

A western side-blotched lizard. This guy either thinks that I can’t see him, or he’s trying to decide if he can take me on.

The most common lizard in my part of the Mojave is the western side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana elegans). This extremely abundant species is typically the one that I send scattering as I walk through the desert. These lizards are small, only growing up to 4-5 inches long. They can move with great agility and quickness as they run or hop through boulders and shrubs, which helps them to catch their preferred meals of small insects and spiders. One reason I find lizards entertaining is that they seem to have quite a bit of attitude. The males of several species, including side-blotched, can be territorial, and one of the ways they show-off their dominance is by climbing to the top of a boulder, standing up tall on their four legs, and rapidly doing push-ups. Even as I approach, these guys will sometimes stare me down and continue their push-up routine, showing off how tough they are, until finally I get too close for comfort and they run off. That’s pretty bold for a small animal. I think it’s great.

The western zebra-tailed lizard. Take a look at those great big hind feet with the long toes. Those things make this lizard very fast. A whole lot faster than me.

Western zebra-tailed lizards (Callisaurus draconoides rhodostictus) are another common desert species. Like side-blotched lizards, they are fairly small in size, but show a surprising amount of spunk and affinity for showing off their pectoral fitness. In the picture I’ve shared you can see the dark and light striping on the tail that gives this species its name. You may also be able to see just a little bit of bright color on the belly of this lizard. During the breeding season, their undersides are brilliantly blue, yellow, and orange. Zebra-tailed lizards are one of a couple species that could claim to be the fastest in the desert, and they have a habit of running with their striped tails curled up, adding to the list of behaviors that make lizards charming and comical.

Western zebra-tailed lizard. If you look at the edge of its belly, you can see just a little bit of the brilliant colors that this lizard has underneath.

Horned lizards are distinctive and widely recognizable, and the species I’ve come across here is the southern desert horned lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos calidiarum). Though not as fast or nimble as some other species, their wider bodies and spiny armor give them protection from many predators. And yes, they can squirt blood from the corners of their eyes as a defense mechanism. They don’t do it very often, but all the same, that is one wild behavior. However, their best defense against predators is their camouflage. The coloration of horned lizards will typically match that of their local habitat, mirroring the soil color in which they live. I have only seen three horned lizards during my time here, but I have surely walked past many more without knowing it. Ants are the preferred food for this species, and they have a sticky tongue that helps them to capture their prey.

This is a southern desert horned lizard. You’re going to get several photos of this species, because I think they are really beautiful.

When I try to take pictures of lizards, they usually make me look very slow and very foolish. But sometimes, if they think they’re hidden, they’ll sit nice and still for me. Like this one.

I think the color and pattern on their scales is gorgeous.

Northern desert iguanas (Dipsosaurus dorsalis dorsalis) are a larger lizard, growing to 16 inches including the tail. This species is also in the running for the title of “Fastest Lizard in the Desert.” Even more impressively, desert iguanas may be able to tolerate higher temperatures than any other North American reptile. They can remain active even during the middle of 120° F summer days. Unlike the other lizards I’ve shown you so far, this species is primarily herbivorous. They eat a particularly large amount of flowers and leaves from creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), the super-abundant shrub that dominates the Mojave Desert.

Northern desert iguana. You know what it’s thinking? “Hey you, with the two legs. Why don’t you come down here and try to catch me? I dare you.”

The long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizenii) is another medium-sized species. They sometimes eat plant materials, but leopard lizards also live up to their name as a predator. They lie camouflaged and hidden in the shade of a shrub, and then pounce on their prey with a burst of speed. They eat insects and arachnids, but larger animals like rodents, snakes, and other lizards are also on the menu. Leopard lizards will cannibalize their own species, and will sometimes go after prey nearly as big as they are.

A long-nosed leopard lizard. The spots and its appetite for large prey make this lizard’s name an appropriate one.

I’ve come across a few more lizards, such as big-eyed, nocturnal geckos and the very large, leathery chuckwalla, but I’m afraid that’s all the photos I have to show you. Lizards aren’t always so good about sitting still to have their pictures taken. And there are two species in particular that I haven’t come across yet, but would love to. One is the Mojave fringe-toed lizard (Uma scoparia), a dune-dwelling species of special concern here in California. Hopefully I’ll get to see them as I visit sand dune habitats this spring. The other is the more well-known banded Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum). With a beautiful, bold, orange and black body, Gila monsters are the largest lizard in the United States, and are one of only a few venomous lizards in the world. They are seen in our field office from time to time, but are not common at all. Of course, I would LOVE to see one, but it’s a long shot. If I do, there will definitely be pictures posted to my blog.

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

-Steve

Needles Field Office, BLM

When I took this job, I knew it would be a lot of work and a strong learning curve. I’ve never developed a management plan or put in for BPS funding. I really don’t know how much things cost or how much my time is worth. Truthfully, I’m just happy to get outside (not to say that I don’t want to be paid 😉 ). With all this budgeting and NEPA experience, I have really developed an appreciation for how much work goes into planning on the ground conservation, and the intrinsic value of conservation. I wanted to be brief this month, but I’ll leave you with an article on how and why we approach conservation and why we value nature, and if this even valid in the first place.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-a-vucetich/should-we-conserve-nature_b_6722048.html

The past four weeks since my last post have gone by rather quickly. Typically February around these parts is long and grueling with lots of Netflix and scrabble. However, lack of snowy conditions has allowed me to do some fieldwork, fieldwork in the mountains nonetheless! The BLM is authorizing a timber sale in the southern part of our field office and I got to do cultural survey on the 4 or so miles of access road winding through the private surface. The area is a large mid elevation meadow wedged between Gardner Mountain and EK Mountain. A beautiful place where you can see the peaks of the Bighorns to the north and the Red Wall to the south. Unfortunately this is private land with large amounts of “landlocked” BLM lands that the public can never enjoy (unless you have a small helicopter). I really hoped this survey would turn up some interesting artifacts since the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains contain quite a few Paleo-indian (12,000-8,000 B.P) sites. However, not being allowed to stray more than 100ft. from the disturbed road I was surveying did not allow much chance for finding cultural resources. Pretty day, pretty place, too bad no one can enjoy it other than one rancher.

Another bit of fieldwork I did was to check out the condition of historic Bozeman trail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozeman_Trail)  signs. It’s always nice to take a drive through portions of the prairie that have had minimal energy development. Most of the signs were in good shape, other than the upgrades made by the local birds.

Except for this one.

This one is just funny. It is beside Crazy Woman Creek south of Buffalo. Almost every business in NE Wyoming is named Crazy Woman…liquors…water….taxidermy..funeral..accountant…drilling…reality..ect. If you can’t read the sign it says “Two legends give rise to the name of Crazy Woman Creek. Both are based on tragic events. In one, a young woman is left alone after an attach on her village. She lived in a squalid wickiup and on moonlit nights could be seen leaping from rock to rock in the creek. The crow Indians felt that she brought good luck and therefore left her alone. The second legend told of a trader who unwisely sold whiskey or “Firewater” to gain favor with the Indians. When it was gone, the Indians demanded more, which he could not supply. After he was killed, his young wife made her escape, only to wander up and down the creek demented. Because of the loss of her sanity, she was safe from further harm by the Indians. It is said JEREMIAH JOHNSON cared for her thereafter.

In case you’re not laughing, there was never a real Jeremiah Johnson. None of the archaeologists still working at the BLM had anything to do with this sign, but it is too bad members of the public (albeit few go here) may read and believe this.

Other than my fieldwork I have been doing some report writing and map making.

– Nathan BLM BFO

Hello, world!

Continuing from the last post, let’s look at Prosopis glandulosa shrubland and some associated plant communities from the ground and from the air. Once you’ve seen enough of it in both contexts, you can start interpreting soil types and associated species from aerial imagery. This has important land management implications. In the Las Cruces District, we have a rare plant (Pediomelum pentaphyllum) that occurs primarily in a subset of Prosopis glandulosa shrubland (a subset which is, luckily, identifiable from the air!). Also, the diversity of associated species and abundance of perennial grasses–both important indicators of the likelihood of success in herbicide treatments intended to restore grassland after grazing has led to an increase in shrubs and loss of grass–can also be predicted from aerial imagery. Double-checking in the field is still critical. However, you can’t be everywhere so, ideally, you check on the ground as much as you can, take photos and notes, and correlate that with aerial imagery to extrapolate to the rest.

So, here’s what Prosopis glandulosa shrubland looks like in its purest form–which usually occurs with little associated plant diversity, very low abundance of perennial grasses, and a relatively firm clay-loam (or loamy clay, or perhaps just clay; I’m not a dirtologist) surface soil.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

And another example (which you may recognize from my last post), on the ground:

Same site from the air:

One thing you may notice from both of those photographs is that there is obvious evidence of rills caused by water erosion. This is a good indicator that there is little or no surface sand. In the second example, the exposed petrocalcic horizon along the small road is more evidence of this. The lack of surface sand is a good indication that there is probably little plant diversity at these sites and, especially, few perennial grasses. Sometimes–although not as often–very low-diversity Prosopis glandulosa shrubland occurs at sites that do have surface sand, as seen in the following example. The loose surface sand is very obvious in the field, but also identifiable in aerial imagery by the lack of any rills or gullies caused by water erosion.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

In the first and third examples shown so far, we are looking at Prosopis glandulosa coppice dunes. In this plant community, each Prosopis glandulosa has raised soil around it. It is not clear (to me, at least) to what extent the raised soil of each coppice dune is the result of deposition (soil deposited around each shrub, mostly or entirely by soil particles in wind) and to what extent it is the result of erosion (from both wind and water) in the spaces between the dunes. I suspect that, in most cases, we have a little of each. Most Prosopis glandulosa shrublands in the Las Cruces District have at least some coppice dune tendencies, but you will find Prosopis glandulosa shrubland on fairly level ground without any notable accumulation of soil around the shrub bases. The second example above is intermediate between these two extremes. The following is at the duneless extreme.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

That form of Prosopis glandulosa shrubland tends to have higher associated plant diversity and more perennial grasses than coppice dunes that lack surface sand, as seen by the big, healthy Muhlenbergia porteri at that site. Prosopis glandulosa also tends to be smaller and more upright in this context. Of course, Prosopis glandulosa shrubland does not always occur in a fairly pure form. Often there are other shrubs or perennial grasses in the interspaces. At the following site, Gutierrezia sarothrae is fairly abundant in the spaces between Prosopis glandulosa, and is visible in the aerial imagery as much smaller dark blobs.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Usually, smaller blobs mixed in with the big, obvious Prosopis glandulosa are a good indication that you’re dealing with something more interesting and diverse than just Prosopis glandulosa shrubland. This is not always the case, as in the following example.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

A few of the smaller blobs in the aerial image are Atriplex canescens or Gutierrezia sarothrae, but most are Prosopis glandulosa–just younger and smaller individuals. So instead of plant community diversity, they indicate demographic diversity in a single dominant species. More often, smaller blobs are other species. So, here’s an example of mixed Prosopis glandulosa and Larrea tridentata, with a few sprinkles of Gutierrezia sarothrae.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Prosopis glandulosa is also often found with Pleuraphis mutica, usually in fine-textured soils without any surface sand, as in the following.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Or, one might find Prosopis glandulosa mixed with Pleuraphis mutica and Gutierrezia sarothrae, as follows.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

In cases like the two above, I would assume that we are looking at places that were formerly Pleuraphis mutica grassland with few or not Prosopis glandulosa. In the Las Cruces District, Gutierrezia sarothrae and Gutierrezia microcephala are probably the most reliable indicators of recent grazing pressure. However, although they can expand dramatically after relatively high grazing pressure, these Gutierrezia species are not particularly long-lived. Prosopis glandulosa, on the other hand, is usually a very long-lived indicator of grazing pressure. Pleuraphis mutica rarely occurs in areas with much surface sand and is relatively easy to identify from aerial imagery, so its presence is a good indicator of fine-textured, relatively sandless soil. I would also guess that these sites have relatively stable soils; Prosopis glandulosa associated with Pleuraphis mutica rarely has well-developed coppice dunes and usually has relatively few of the rills and gullies typical of pure Prosopis glandulosa shrubland on fine-textured soils.

OK, let’s move on to Prosopis glandulosa in areas that have loose surface sand. These are usually higher-diversity sites with more perennial grass. The grass at these sites in the past was probably Bouteloua eriopoda; now it is more likely to be Sporobolus flexuosus. Below is an example of Prosopis glandulosa shrubland with relatively sparse Sporobolus flexuosus.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Other shrubs usually associated with Prosopis glandulosa on these sandier sites are Artemisia filifolia, Atriplex canescens, Psorothamnus scoparius, Yucca elata (not exactly a shrub, but we don’t have another good word for it) and, less often, Lycium pallidum or Sapindus saponaria. Below is an example of Prosopis glandulosa with both Atriplex canescens and Sporobolus flexuosus.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

And the following is Prosopis glandulosa with Psorothamnus scoparius. Most of the smaller blobs in the aerial imagery are Psorothamnus scoparius, but a few are just younger, smaller Prosopis glandulosa. The two have very similar morphology as seen in aerial imagery, with Psorothamnus scoparius looking an awful lot like typical Prosopis glandulosa coppice dunes, but much smaller.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Occasionally, you can also find almost Psorothamnus scoparius shrubland with few or no Prosopis glandulosa, as seen in the following example.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

At the high-shrub-diversity end, you might see Prosopis glandulosa, Artemisia filifolia, Atriplex canescens, and Yucca elata all at the same site, as follows.</p.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Occasionally, you will even see Prosopis glandulosa mixed with Bouteloua eriopoda grassland–the plant community it has probably replaced at most of these sandy sites.

On the ground:

Same site from the air:

Once you get the hang of some of this, I think you can often get a pretty good guess of the composition, surface soil characteristics, and history of a site with Prosopis glandulosa from aerial imagery. However, everything related to the landscape (and especially, in my opinion, the New Mexico landscape) is incredibly complicated. There are exceptions to everything and thousands of rabbit-holes to go down, both literally and figuratively, in understanding the land. Ideally, this post would go on for at least another 50 pages… but I think neither I nor any readers have the patience for that.