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Posts from the ‘McDowell Sonoran Preserve’ Category

Feb 17

Scouting for Pollen

The Conservancy’s Field Institute is in full swing again with the ongoing surveys. I’m involved with several of them including Ground Dwelling Insects, Birds and Flora. Most surveys involve quite a bit of hiking to get to the locations designated to survey. Yesterday I went on a long and difficult hike that took us down (and then up!) the most difficult trail in the Preserve “East End”. The goal was to collect specimens of Owls Clover but I also took a little time to photograph the large patches of poppies in the area. I took my trusty Canon compact which served me well! (please also follow me on Google Plus: http://plus.google.com/u/0/100490891827279157919/posts)

Feb 11

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Two Mountain Loop

Yesterday morning, I hiked around Cone Mountain and Browns Mountain….an 8 mile loop. It was a spectacular day! I’m posting mostly to Google Plus these days so please visit to see more of my images. CLICK HERE to go to my albums and then click “view all of Marianne’s albums”. I plan to get back in the habit of posting here soon. I have lots of MSC field institute images to share.

Feb 5

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Early Wildflowers

I went on an amazing 8 mile hike in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve this morning (Sunday) and saw lots of Wildflowers including several fields of Poppies! This collage shows most of what we saw but not all. Unfortunately for the flowers, there doesn’t seem to be any rain in sight so this might be all the wildflowers we get 🙁

Jan 28

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Hummingbird Saved by Textures

Two friends and I hiked to a spring high up in the McDowell Mountains this past week and as we approached, we were delighted to observe a hummingbird gathering fluff from cattails for her nest. I instantly raised my camera but in my excitement, forgot to double check the settings. The image was greatly underexposed. I waited for about 30 minutes but she never came back. I almost deleted this image but then remembered that texture blending can do wonders with underexposed images and they did! At least it is good enough for a small print and a wonderful memory 🙂

Jan 21

Poppies on Toms Thumb Trail!

Lesley F, Kellie E. and I hiked up the Tom’s Thumb Trail yesterday and found Poppies!!! We had been noticing hundreds of Poppy and Lupine sprouts on the way up but didn’t notice this open flower and one other until the return trip to the Gateway. Very exciting! Barring a hard frost, this might be a fantastic year for Wildflowers. I’m so excited 🙂

Dec 12

Anna’s Hummingbird

I assisted on a Bird Walk for the MSC yesterday and when I assist, I typically only carry a compact camera since an SLR with a long lens would be too distracting. Only two people showed up, though, so had I known, I would have brought my “big” camera. But we had a great time and I ended up with an in focus shot of an Anna’s Hummingbird so I was happy 🙂

Anna’s Hummingbird Textured

Dec 10

Small Mammal Survey

As part of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy‘s Field Institute, we set 40 small mammal traps and 5 medium traps last night and then went back to see what we got this morning. Not even one rodent but we were very excited to find a Gray Fox! They are quite common in the Preserve. Only visual documentation was made and then we let him go. All in all, a very exciting morning!

Nov 19

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Citizen Scientist

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been part of the Flora and Reptile Surveys going on in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Well…now the Bird survey and the Small Mammal Survey have started and soon a Large Mammal (involves setting up cameras) and Insect Survey will start. I want to help with them all!!! which is why I’ve been a little lapse in posting here. Today I’m posting a photo from our first Small Mammal Survey which resulted in catching a few species of mice. The one posted here is a Desert Pocket Mouse. They were so darned cute 🙂
CLICK HERE for more photos.

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