BRN 9-2 (uncompressed) - Flipbook - Page 64
To help us identify those images the camera has worked so
hard to capture, the folks at Sky Island Alliance have
produced a great .pdf, Identifying Mammals on Wildlife
Cameras.
In 1960, researchers with the Rocky Mountain Forest and
Range Experiment station near Flagstaff found that
ponderosa pine trees twenty-eight to forty inches in
diameter produced ten to twenty times more cones than
did trees that were smaller in diameter. We can deduce a
problem when we note that smaller trees now comprise 97
percent of the ponderosa pine forests in the Flagstaff area
and that the larger yellow-bark pines are relatively few and
far between. Of course, I am not saying turkeys need Òold
growthÓ. They just need big, old, live ponderosa pine trees.
Is that too much to ask?
Desert Stalked Puffball, Battarrea
phalloides
The Battarrea phalloides ([Dicks.] Pers., 1801) shown on this
and the following page was photographed in Hillsboro on
07 September 2025. The species was Þrst mentioned in
1784 in an article by Thomas Woodward, noting a new
species found by Humphreys - in Norwich, England. James
Dickson Þrst ofÞcially described the species in 1785, as
Lycoperdon phalloides. In 1801, Christian Persoon
transferred the species to the genus Battarrea. This species
has a wide distribution; it has been found in Africa, Eurasia,
Australia, and in the Americas. It is found in dry sandy
habitats.
I will close with a note of support for two of my colleagues
who do a lot of counting. Brian Wakeling and Tim Rogers
intensely studied the winter habitat relationships of
MerriamÕs wild turkeys along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona
from 1990 to 1994. They found that turkeys did not search
for pine seed but sought out Gambel oak acorns and
juniper berries when the latter kinds of mast were available
and pine seed was in short supply. During their study,
Wakeling and Rogers found a pound of pine seed or less
per acre where turkeys fed.
This species is known by a number of common names
including Scaley-stalked Puffball, Sandy Stiltball, and the
common name generally used here, Desert Stalked Puffball.
By contrast, turkeys in old-growth ponderosa pine might
Þnd up to twenty-Þve pounds of pine seed per acre in good
years. The data indicate that good years of pine seed
production are generally good years for turkeys, for turkey
poult population, and for increases in turkey populations. I
think we can count on those probabilities and, if not, at
least we will have fun counting.
The above-ground height of this species averages about
16Ó, but a specimen found in Mexico was 27.6Ó tall. The
specimen shown to the right is about 10Ó tall, and the one
shown below was 12Ó tall.
The spores are ochre in
color and are dispersed by
the wind.
Identifying Mammals on Wildlife
Cameras
As shown here, the
covering over the spore
case has split and sits on
top of the case.
In the photograph directly
below, the cover has come
Whether they are involved in casual Òsee what is out thereÓ
or more structured surveys, many observers use motion
activated cameras (trail cameras) as non-intrusive
assessment tools.
off and lies at the left side of the image (see also the
photograph second from the bottom right on the following
page). Spores have dispersed and their ochre color is
clearly visible.
Camera observations can be a challenge sometimes (and I
am not talking about a camera knocked upside down and
recording a Black Bear apparently walking across the top of
the video, completely unconcerned that several laws of
Newtonian physics predicted that it would fall to the
ground at the bottom of the video).
The photograph at the top right on the following page
shows the spore case with a detail below that. Additional
photographs at this link.
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