On Saturday, our research site in Deep Canyon was visited by a flotilla of golf carts. The golf carts, about 20 in all, carried almost 40 visitors from the neighboring Reserve. The Reserve is a gated community, complete with golf course, and is home to some of my favorite people in the Coachella Valley.
What I love most about The Reserve, which we drive through every time we enter or exit our field station, is that it is landscaped with native vegetation. I think of it as “Sonoran on Steroids”, because it is filled with desert plants, but they are closely packed and watered. It is hummingbird heaven - loaded with flowering chuparosa and brittlebush, hummingbird feeders and misters at many homes. There is a Costa’s Hummingbird at about every fourth tree as you drive from our field station to the gated entrance.
Dr. Muth, describing the geology of a nearby mountain ridge
Al Muth, the field station director, asked the students in my lab to give a brief talk about their research to our visitors. This stretched into thirty minutes of lively questions and discussion about hummingbirds, black-throated sparrows, and desert ecology. I was impressed with the questions; they were clearly based on thoughtful observation of and appreciation for the natural world.
Uyen Tran, preparing to play Costa's Hummingbird song
Cory Castro, showing her new research species, the Black-Throated Sparrow
I was also impressed with Cory and Uyen (with Will, Ben and Sergio providing backup). We had been running around the desert catching birds for hours and were dirty and tired when our visitors showed up at 4:00 pm. But they still managed to be articulate and enthusiastic. I just wish the rest of the lab could have been there to “wow” our neighbors. Maybe next year, during the third annual golf cart flotilla.
