More Flowers...

These are all common flowers on the Anza Borrego; not much to say about them – just enjoy 'em!  As always, click to enlarge...

      

Black Brant...

As we emerged from the roughest part of Rodriguez Canyon Road into a flat, sandy-bottomed valley, we saw something most unexpected: a goose waddling down this desert road!  It's a Black Brant, a sub-species of the Brent Goose; commonly seen along our ocean shores but certainly not a desert denizen.  According to our San Diego Bird Atlas, the migration route for these geeze parallels S2, and it's not uncommon to see Brants resting along the way, as late as early May.  So our sighting fits the pattern, even though it was a big surprise to us – a goose in the middle of the desert!

Beavertail Cactus...

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris, a kind of prickly pear) is very common in the Anza Borrego.  We were a little late to catch it blooming on the desert floor, but in Rodriguez Canyon we saw dozens of plants in bloom (later because of the higher altitude).  This one also had a new pad just getting started...

 

Desert Globemallow...

One year, probably fifteen years ago, we caught the Desert Globemallow in bloom in the lower reaches of Rodriguez and Oriflamme Canyons, with hundreds of specimens within an easy walk of the road.  Ever since then, every time we travel these roads I keep searching for these beautiful flowers.  Debbie spotted one on Thursday – the only one we saw on the entire trip – no more than a foot from Rodriguez Canyon Road.  It was mostly done with blooming; just a few individual blossoms left of what must have been hundreds on this one plant.  Dang it!

Cactus...

I think this is a kind of prickly pear, but I'm not certain of that.  No doubt about the “prickly” part, though!

 

Rodriquez Canyon Greets Us...

Hoping to find some desert bloom remaining, we headed up the rough four-wheel drive road through Rodriguez Canyon.  This road climbs up from the desert floor through the rugged Rodriguez Canyon (still part of the Anza Borrego desert) on the eastern slopes of Cuyamaca Mountain.  As we turned on to the road, we found these flowers in abundance – almost as though placed there to greet us...

 

Lonely Little Lupine...

In one of our favorite little canyons to go wildflowering, there was almost nothing in bloom – a couple of chuparosa with a few blooms hanging on, and this one tiny little lupine poking up between some rocks on the dry stream bed...

Rosette...

Here's two photos of the rosette I posted earlier, with one closeup of the flower stalk.  We found this one just north of Agua Caliente airport, but their range is quite broad – we even have some of these in Lawson Valley (mainly on road cuts)...

 

Mystery Flower...

Here's a desert flower we're not familiar with, and I haven't identified it yet (anyone know?).  It's a late bloomer, in prime well after most of the desert flowers have gone to seed.  The color is striking enough, but what really stands out is the smell – sweet and vaguely reminiscent of coconut or suntan lotion.  We found a lot of these along S2 north of the Cabrizzo Badlands overlook...

 

Century Plant...

The century plant (Agave americana v. americana) is common in the southern Anza Borrego desert areas we visited.  We've never seen as many in bloom as we saw last Thursday, though...

 

Ocotillo...

An ocotillo in glorious bloom, from just north of the well-named town of Ocotillo, barely inside the Anza Borrego park border...

Ants...

Walking around the Anza Borrego desert, I found lots of ant nests – all for some large (roughly 1 cm) shiny black ants that were very busy gather seeds.  You can follow their trails for a hundred feet or more, right to the plant that is their current source of seeds.  At the next, you can see the workers carrying some food item into the nest, and the empty-handed workers scurrying back out for their next load...

 

Western Tanager...

I took about 30 photos of this male Western Tanager, but these are the best two (click to enlarge)...

 

Boycott Arizona-stan!

Mark Steyn at his finest, on the topic of immigration policy – don't miss it!

GM: Paid In Full?

Nick Gillespie of Reason does a great job explaining the craven spinning of GM's Whitacre when he claims that GM paid off their loan “in full and ahead of schedule”:

Uh Oh...

One of the few credible mainstream media sources remaining in the U.S. is making a remarkable claim: Obama had an affair with a campaign aide – and they have evidence to prove it.  The credible source I speak of is the National Enquirer, whose recent track record on political scandals (think John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer) is spotless, while the more traditional media (like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times) knew of the stories, but studiously ignored them.

Somehow I doubt that even if the story proves true it will “bring down” the Obama government.  It almost certainly would kill his chances in 2012, though...