The Living Desert

During the early part of May 2008, my husband and I decided to visit The Living Desert, located in Palm Desert, California. We hadn't been there in many, many years and had been hearing some great things about it from our son and daughter-in-law. Their little boys love going there to see all the animals...and the model train display.

The Living Desert is a combination zoo/museum, a nonprofit organization. The animals living there are ones unable to be reintroduced into the wild. Pathways wander from exhibit to exhibit where you'll find aviaries, gardens, a plant nursery, a wildlife hospital and conservation center. A map and various other information at The Living Desert website.

We took a lot of pictures and you can check them out at this link. Photos of The Living Desert

If you're planning a visit, remember this is in the Palm Springs area and it does get very, very hot during the late spring and in the summer. Plan accordingly. We were there the first weekend of May. Temperatures were in the mid-90s. Water fountains and restrooms conveniently located throughout the area. There are also several places to grab a bite to eat.

If you're not up to walking, there's a tram you can ride. Tickets are $12.00 per person. The tram makes frequent stops and one ticket gets you a ride all day. We purchased tickets at the recommendation of our daughter-in-law, but didn't use them. We like to walk and wander. But by the end of the day (and it was all day) we were feeling it. If you have children...take the tram.

It wasn't crowded the day we went, although the parking lot was full. We have no idea where all the people were, but we felt The Living Desert was laid out in such a nice flow that it handled the crowd without it being a crowd.

Animals living there are: zebra, giraffe, bighorn sheep, gazelle, ostrich, cheetah, mountain lion...we never did see the leopard. Because it was a hot day most of the animals were snoozing. I felt the coyotes and wolves were grossly overweight. We'd been warned that the mountain lion was aggressive. However, it was sound asleep the day we were there. Wires and plexiglass provide a barrier between it and humans. In 99% of the exhibits I felt there was enough protection...except when we got to the cheetah. No cage. No wires. No plexiglass. Just a short wall and a moat. I'm not a cheetah expert and I'm sure the people working there know what they're doing, but I still wasn't comfortable.

As you look through the pictures you'll notice rather quickly what held our attention the longest. You'll need to look very carefully at the pictures of the bighorn sheep. They are very well camouflaged. There are two sheep in most of the photos--male and female. The female didn't budge. The male finally stretched to his feet and gave us the beautiful skyline photo. I think he felt sorry for us.

Though we all might know how big these wild animals are, sometimes that information doesn't sink in until we see the animal in person. And so it was with the giraffes. There were three--a couple with a baby. The baby decided to come check out all the people watching. I was thinking, "Wow, they really are big." Then the mother came over the hill. Yep...WOW!

The golden eagle held our attention, too. You'll notice in some of the pictures it's holding something in its talon. It's a squeak toy. This eagle had been raised in captivity and didn't have the ability to hunt for itself. It was a beauty. Several great pictures here, but we could never catch it when its wings were spread.

My number one favorite exhibit was the model train display. This thing is huge with waterfalls, rivers, bridges, mountains...even the Grand Canyon. The trains are constantly running and make their depot stops. Very detail oriented. It made me want to come home and build a display for myself.

We thought we'd seen all we wanted to see. We didn't. There's Gecko Gulch and a petting corral, hands on fun for kids. There's a wilderness trail system with short, medium, and long hikes. There's the wildlife hospital and conservation center that gives presentations. There's a nursery where you can buy some of the plants that are on display. Lots of stuff to go back and see.

The Living Desert continues to grow. There are plans to expand its East African Savanna exhibit. If you're in the Palm Springs area during the fall, winter, and early spring, I would definitely recommend this as a place to see. Just make sure you plan for a full day.

Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

Cool Gardens To Visit In California

Love flowers? Then here are some cool gardens to visit in California.

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
Lancaster, California

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
Claremont, California

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Santa Barbara, California

Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery Garden
Sunland, California

Arroyo Seco-South Pasedena Woodland and Wildlife Park
South Pasadena, California

Audubon Center at Debs Park
Los Angeles, California

El Alisal, The Charles F. Lummis Home
Highland Park, California

Fullerton Arboretum
Fullerton, California

The Water Conservation Garden
El Cajon, California

Enjoy the adventure!

Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

Wildlife Sightings - April 2008

My husband glanced out the kitchen window one day while I was away and saw an usual bird. He snagged his camera and tried to get a picture. The bird was a little nervous and shy and would fly off, only to return a few minutes later. Finally, my husband was able to get a shot. It's still not as close as he wanted, but it was good enough for me to make a pretty good identification. Here's the picture. The bird is on the right edge of the bird bath.

Using A Guide To Field Identification, Birds of North America, we determined this was a heron. Most probably an immature black-crowned night heron. While some people would think this is really an amazing discovery considering we live in the Southern California desert, our area is on a migratory bird path and we get a large number of birds fly through.

Shortly after the heron visited, a friend showed my husband a large raven's nest built in the garage of an abandoned house. The nest was huge and if you look carefully in the picture below, you'll see one chick. Look in the triangle formed by the three wood studs and you'll see the beak. The size of the nest is something I would equate with an eagle or hawk. The debris on the floor is fallout from the nest, or where the raven missed when building the nest.




If you are interested in identifying birds, the field guide I mentioned at the beginning of my post is a good start. It divides birds by category (i.e., waterfowl, raptors, song birds) and has colorful illustrations to assist with identification. I've used it for years and can generally identify a bird in under one minute. :) Yes, I am truly a nerd.

Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

California Wildflowers

Depending on the winter rainfall, each spring the deserts in Southern California explode with life and color with beautiful wildflower displays. It's surprising how little rain is needed for this to happen. This year the display is wonderful!

The Joshua Tree National Park is presently a canvas of nature's artwork. The blooms started in the lower elevations with yellow flowers and then slowly crawled into the higher elevations. Yellow, purple, white, red-orange. Absolutely breath-taking. Of course the cactus are involved as well, bursting with magenta, yellow, and purple flowers. The ocotillo, which normally look like spiny, towering sticks, develops dark green leaves and red-orange flowers that the hummingbirds love.

The wildflowers are presently so abundant, a visitor to the desert might think the flowers had been purposefully planted along the roadways. Not true. This is nature at her finest moment. Seeds collect beneath the sand and lie dormant until the rains come. If the rains are heavy and the road floods, these seeds collect at the roadside.

But the present season is nothing compared to the 2005 season. Heavy rainfall from summer 2004 through winter 2005 created one of the best wildflower seasons in 100 years, with flowers and plants blooming that had not been seen in a century...according to records. We visited Death Valley National Park in the spring of 2004 and decided to go back in spring 2005. The difference was amazing. Hillsides were covered with flowers. It looked more like pastureland than desert.

I've uploaded a good selection of photos here of Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Black Canyon in the Mojave Wildlife Preserve, and some miscellaneous shots: Wildflowers - Southern California Desert



The California Wildflower Hotline (818-768-3533) is updated every Thursday from March through May on more than 90 sites to visit, including the best locations to view wildflowers.

I'd also like to recommend some field guides to take with you when you go. These will help you identify what you are looking at:

Mojave Desert Wildflowers by Jon Mark Stewart
Mojave Desert Wildflowers by Pam MacKay
Mockel's Desert Flower Notebook by Henry R. Mockel and Beverly Mockel

If you are visiting a National Park, it's always a good idea to stop at the visitor center to see what books they might have for their area. And don't forget to take lots of pictures, too.

:) Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com