February 6, 2021 Blalock Wildlife Sanctuary

I thought I’d check out this area early in the year to see what kind of plant and animal life might be around in our so called winter. Last year I went to this place for the first time and over a couple of visits I found a lot of cool insects. Like the other “wildlife sanctuaries” in the Antelope Valley, it is basically an open desert landscape with no physical boundaries apparent. Nothing has been done to preserve wildlife but the fact that it’s closed to development is always good. I’ve also never seen another person here though there is definitely evidence of human activity including a minimal amount of trash and cans that have been shot up. However, overall the habitat is quite good.

What surprised me today was how healthy it seemed. The ground was quite moist and the plants looked in good shape...better than our local Santa Monica mountains. My feet even sunk into the ground in a couple of places...so unlike the crunch I hear when I’m in our local mountains. Perhaps that’s because this area is at a bit higher elevation. The habitat includes some anemic looking Joshua trees...really only a couple but also quite a few juniper trees. So it is definitely closer to a desert montane environment.

A testament to how moist everything felt is that there is a fair amount of lichen present on the rocks as well as some moss growing in a couple of places...quite surprising as I don’t picture moss in the desert. It was very quiet in terms of animal life...but I was able to find a few insects. The most interesting one was this cool round hairy beetle which it turns out is relatively common in the desert and tends to be out early in the year. It’s scientific name is edrotes ventricosus. I was also quite surprised to see a dragonfly out and about. I’ve also included a photo of one of the most interesting lichens I saw.

Overall it was a rewarding visit. The value in visiting a place over a period of time is great as it shows how the habitat and animal and plant communities change with the seasons.

Posted on February 7, 2021 04:17 AM by