Today’s photos come from reader Teresa Vuoso, who sent a batch of pictures from Arizona. Teresa’s captions and narrative are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

In late February, my father, brother, and I met in southeastern Arizona to visit the Chiricahua National Monument and Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area.  The weather was unusually cold, and a light snow actually closed the road the road to the top of Chiricahuan. Still, beauty was in abundance.  My brother, Mark McMillen, took some of these pictures and they are included with his consent.  I have no background in photography, biology or any other “ology”.  I am just a fan of Dr. Coyne since hearing him speak about Darwin on a cruise to Antarctica and who wants to help keep the readers’ wildlife photos coming.

JAC:  Yes, please follow Teresa’s lead and send in those photos!

Big Balanced Rock at Chiricahua National Monument.  It is 22′ in diameter, 25′ tall, and weighs about 1,000 tons.  Mark and I hiked almost 8 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of 1396′.  We got to Big Balanced Rock just in time to watch a storm roll in complete with sleet, wind, and rain. Got drenched walking back down, but would do it again:

Our first sighting of Big BalancedRock:

We hiked a trail along huge rock formations such as these:

A portion of the trail:

On the way to Faraway Ranch (a dude ranch established in 1917), we saw these cute raccoon-like critters, Coatimundi/Coati (Nasua narica).  They are native to South America, Mexico, and the southwest US.

Curious Coati trotted along with their bushy tails held high and then would stop to assess us:

Coatimundi:

We visited Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area on two occasions.  The first was terribly cold and windy.  While there we saw thousands of Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, American Coots, and Mallards.

Whitewater Draw is a very scenic, marshy area surrounded by mountains.

Whitewater Draw is the winter home of thousands of birds including flocks of Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) .  They form flocks of more than 10,000 as they fly down from northern Canada every year at altitudes averaging 6,000-7,000 feet (Photo by Mark McMillen):

Here you can see the red skin on the crown of adults (Photo credit Mark McMillen):

We were fortunate enough to watch several flocks descend, circling from very high altitudes before landing. (Photo by Mark McMillen):

These birds fly out in the morning to forage in other fields and marshes before returning in the afternoon.  (Photo credit Mark McMillen):

American Coot (Fulica americana):

Snow Geese (Anser caerulescens):

It’s a small world. Two groups of birdwatchers from Jamaica Bay, NYC (a favorite spot of mine) happened upon each other by sheer coincidence.  I mentioned I was from New York also, whereupon I heard someone, whom I presume was not a New Yorker, say, “You can’t swing a dead bird without hitting a New Yorker.”  🙂:

I’m including this because I found it unique.  A couple traveling from Switzerland brought their own camper.

Today’s photos come from Rodney Graetz in Australia. His captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

A Wetlands story.

Australia is the driest of all occupied continents; the central latitude of Australia is the same as that of the Sahara Desert.  Accordingly, the majority of Australians live close to permanent water, choosing either the ocean, or the inland rivers and wetlands.  Because we are an urbanised nation, and seven of our eight capital cities are coastal, oceans and their beaches are our first choice.

A beach environment is always vibrant, but the repetition of waves and tides does not easily generate any long-lasting appreciation.  Because it is daily renewed, a memory of yesterday can be as fleeting as your footprints.

In contrast, my preference is the tranquillity of freshwater bodies, the rivers, and lakes – the wetlands.  Here the most important cycle is the slow and noiseless day-night cycle, and much of the surroundings suggest timelessness, such as these centuries-old trees.

And, even with an approaching death, it can be interesting and informative.

With tranquillity, beauty comes easily.  Such as the visual delight of the mirroring by water, as here on a small scale.

And likewise, on a larger scale:

Calm waters can soften the visual impact of a gathering of dead trees.

And duplicate the sky colours as Earth rotates away from the Sun.

In southern Australia, the boundary between land and water is usually sharp, static, and hugged by trees (Eucalyptus species) whose dense wood makes for long-lived, bleached remains.

In northern Australia, in the many extensive tropical wetlands, the land-water boundary is neither sharp nor static, and the bordering trees are varied and mostly short-lived.  One of their compelling attractions is the (edible) aquatic plants, the ‘water lilies’, which decorate their surfaces (Nymphaea species?).

All wetlands are nutrient-rich islands of fertility, and thus productivity, typified by this gathering of waterbirds – mostly (sleeping) Plumed Whistling Ducks .

Regrettably, people have initiated serious, lasting problems for wetlands, particularly in northern Australia.  The churned, dried mud these Burdekin Ducks are resting on was pushed up by feral pigs rooting for plant or animal material.  Non-aboriginal Australians introduced domestic pigs which have now joined a lengthy list of serious invasive pests.

The yellow light of a setting sun contrasts the dark clouds of a coming storm.  A beautiful, unspoiled floodplain?  No.  The little palm tree-like plants in the foreground, and patchily across the floodplain, are an introduced plant (Mimosa pigra) that is now a very serious weed invading large areas of floodplains and wetlands.  How to eradicate it is not yet determined but one of its spreading agents can be minimized.

This is the principal weed spreading agent, the Asian Water Buffalo (Bubalis bubalis).  Deliberately introduced into tropical Australia for tropical meat and milk production, which with abandonment in the 1850s, have quickly grown into huge feral populations.  Scroll down for their Australian history in this link here.

The buffalo’s preferred habitat is the floodplains and wetlands.  Strongly social animals, their collective wallowing – to avoid the high midday temperatures and mosquitos – generate swimming pool sized eroded pits.

The combined effects of buffalo grazing and wallowing is deeply destructive of both wetland vegetation and soils.  The totality of their destruction is shown by this fence line contrast between no buffalo (LHS) and buffalo (RHS).

The current estimated feral buffalo population in northern Australia is 200,000 animals.  Mustering for sale (back to Asia) and culling by shooting (from helicopters) continues to be the only large scale management options.  On the much smaller scale is trophy hunting with clients from Europe, and the USA.  I use this borrowed image to illustrate just how massive the buffalos can become, and why they can be lethal animals.  From the hunter’s hats and suntans, can you pick which of the two men is an American?

Finally, a personal note.  About 35 years ago, I was surveying buffalo damage (on foot) in northern Australian wetlands where buffalos were thick on the ground.  To survive a buffalo charge I was ordered to carry a weapon at all times, so my colleagues provided this massive 44 calibre handgun.  Their user advice was simple: (1) wait until the charging buffalo is about 3 metres (10 feet) away, then try a double-handed, head shot; (2) if unsuccessful, then drop the handgun and quickly climb a tree.  Workplace conditions were really interesting back then.  I borrowed 3 (black-edged) photos to complete this story.