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'Waucoba GJVews Sponsored by The Bishop Museum & His to r i ca l Society, Bishop, Ca. 93514 Vol. , VIFounded an d Edited by Enid A. Larson, Box 265, Big Pine, Ca. 93513 Summer 1982Subscription: Four 9" long stamped sel f -addressed envelopes 4 :i,ssues per year

or a membership ($5.00) in Bishop Museum

SKETCHby

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GRACKLES GRACKLESeverywhere

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BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE: A female was reported by Vince Yoder on May 25, 1982 a t DiazLake, So . Owens Valley. David Gaines, Mono County, o rn i th o lo g i s t repor ted 6

seen on May 8 near Lone Pine . See next page fo r d e t a i l s .

ALL ABOUT CHIA

J . T. Howell~ , - - " - - - '

Has i t ever occurred to you t ha t the botanica l name fo r the widespread annual mint ,Sa lv ia Columbariae, i s unusual? Fo r years I have been subconsciously puzzled by thesp ec i f i c ep i th e t but I never did anything about i t . Recent ly, when reviewing the genusSalv ia for the Sier ra , I decided to look in to the matter an d what I found was i n t e r e s t -ing an d surpr i s ing .

When George Bentham, the English b o tan i s t , was describing David Douglas' Cal i forn iaspecimen as a new species , the habi t of the p lant reminded him of a European wild f lower,Scabiosa Columbar ia , hence Bentham's Columbaria 's sage.

Ihave not been

ableto

t r ace theul t imate o r ig in of the word columbaria , except t ha t i t was used by he rba l i s t s . I t i s r e -l a ted to the Lat in name fo r the order of doves an d pigeons, Columbae. One of the commonEnglish names for the Scabiosa i s "pigeon 's scabious". The same word-root comes to us inthe word columbarium, which was the c lass ic term for a dovecote o r piqeon house, fromwhich i s derived the name of a s t ruc ture of funeral v au l t s .

But l e t ' s get back to Botany: th e common name of A q u i l ~ i a ,columbine, a l so comesfrom the Lat in word fo r pigeon. The r e l a t i o n sh ip of pigeon and t h i s flower i s obscurean d I d o n ' t have time fo r fu r ther search. However in some Old World species o f columbinethe spurred p e ta l s bear a fancied resemblance to f ive pigeons clus tered together!

Our common name fo r Salv ia Columbariae, chia, i s also in te res t ing and of ancientor ig in . I t i S ' a name applied to severa l Lat in American s p e ~ i e sof Salv ia th e seeds o fwhich are used fo r human food. According to Dr. Dennis Breedlove the word, chia , has

come to us through Spanish usage from Nahuatl , the language of the Aztecs.(Aren ' t words in te r s t ing ! )

Mortonia u tahens i s , an in te res t ing shrub, was col lec ted by D. Gui l ian i on a l imestone subs t r a t e in Skeleton Hi l l s , e l . 2800 f t . , south of Lathrop Wells, Nev., May 1 , 1982.Thanks to Margaret Will iams, No. Nev. Native Plant Soc. , fo r i t s i den t i f i ca t ion an dfo r f i l i n g the specimen a t the U. of Nev. herbarium. I t i s known in Cal i forn ia fromthe Nopah Range (Mary DeDecker) an d from th e New York Mts. This i s a southern speciest h a t has moved into Nevada from Arizona.

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BIRD NOTES

OSPREYS bred successful ly a t Tinnemaha Reservoi r in 1982. In each of the years from1972-1978 a s ing le pa i r of these bi rdsbu i l t i t s nest but was unsuccessful in i t sattempts to breed a t t h i s reservoi r. Wemade no observations 1979-81. On August 4,1982 we saw two adults with a fledged juven i l e there. Tom & Jo Heindel (on vacationin Big Pine in early August, from SaudiArabia)

THE GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE - Quisca lus mexicanus(formerly known as th e Boat-Tailed Grackle)was f i r s t reported in California near Yumaon June 6, 1964, when one female wascollected. Since then , t h i s spec ies hasspuladaad r-apidly increased. In DeathValley, one p a i r was reported in 1977; in1979, 30 of these bi rds were seen. In 1980one p a i r was observed feeding young a tOlancha. This species colonizes agr icu lt u r a l areas and dese r t oases . David Gaines,orn i tho logis t a t Mono Lake, and Vince

Yoder a t Lone Pine each repor ted s igh t ingt h i s bird near Lone Pine in May 1982. Noevidence of t he i r nest ing a t Diaz Lake.Two were seen a t Lee Vining t h i s summer.How fa r north t h i s species w i l l expandi t s range needs to be documented. Orig inally, i t was a res ident l imi ted to no r thern Mexico and Texas. I t i s thought t h a tlow winter temperatures may eventuallycheck i t s invasions northward and l imi t i t sexpansion here in Owens Valley. (Datapubl. in Dunn & Garre t t by L.A. AudubonSociety) Thanks to David Gaines, ChairmanMono Lake Committee, Lee Vining, Cal i f .

BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS (Bombycilla carrulus) abouta dozen, were together with a f lock ofCedar Waxwings feeding on re d berr ies inLone Pine on Feb. 13, 1982. "This tougherwinter must be forcing bi rds f a r th e r south"said Vince Yoder who made th i s s igh t ing .

WARBLERS: Near Big Pine a t junct ion of Hiway395 and Westgard (168), Earl Gann and anAudubon group in l a t e May, 1982 s ighted aParula Warbler (Parula Americana) and a

Palm Warbler (Dendroica Palmerum). Bothof these warblers a re rare fo r t h i s areabut have been previously recorded in OwensValley and a t Deep Springs College.

BAND-TAILED PIGEON: A lone bi rd (Columbiafasc ia ta ) , reported by Enid Pol la r ino ,came repeatedly to a feeding s t a t i on a t herhome in west Big Pine, mid-winter 1982.

WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE: (Anser a lb i f rons) One wassighted by Paul Neal and Paul Johnson a tMono Lake Park 21 Feb. 1982. This i s acommon migrant but i s seldom reported t h i s

fa r inland.~ J S E - B R E A S T E DGROSBEAK was seen near Honeymoon

F l a t s ~ - ~ ~Rridgeport , in the ToiyabeNat ' l Fores t in Mono County May 26-29, 1982Reported by J.M. Sweeney, J r . , Vis ta , Ca.(Pheucticus ludovicianus)

RARE DISCOVERY in

The White Mountains

An important LIZARD record

On May 28, 1982, Ron Kuhr, Bi g Pine res ident ,tu rned over a l a rge brown rock (Pol e taFormation) in the pinyon fo res t a t about8200 f t . e l , in th e White Mountains. Beneath t h i s rock he picked up a b lu e - t a i l edskink. He brought t h i s l izard to me fo r

i d en t i f i ca t io n . I t s ch arac te r i s t i c s werethose of the Western Skink, Eumecessk i l ton ianus . This species never beforehad been recorded from the White Mount a i n s . Dr . Robert C. Stebbins, judgedthe i d en t i f i ca t io n to be t h i s specieswhen I sen t the l i v e specimen to him a tth e Universi ty of C a l i f . , Museum ofVertebrate Zoology, Berkely. He sa idi t was a "very important f ind" .

This species i s not known to occur in Cal i forn ia on the eas tern s ide of the Sier raNevada, south of Tahoe. This ind iv idua lcollected in th e White Mountains may bea western extension of those in theGreat Basin in Nevada or perhaps i t hasextended i t s range southward from theTahoe region.

Further deta i led study of t h i s i so la ted popula t ion i s now needed to determine thecorr idors of access and the l imi ts ofi t s range in eas te rn Cal i forn ia .

This f ind i s another ins tance in the InyoMono area t h a t we l i ve in a t ru ly grea tbio logica l paradise for sc i en t i f i c i n -ves t iga t ion and fo r oppor tun i t i e s fornew discover ies among p lan t and animall i f e . This i s par t ly due to i so l a t i on ,par t ly to the presence of re la t ive lyundisturbed areas and par t ly to the presence of r e l i c t populations. Recordsfrom t h i s area f i l l in gaps in man'sknowledge of ancient movements of plan tsand animals in the Great Basin, of tensince Miocene t imes, 16 mil l ion years ago.

Thanks to Ron Kuhr who recognized somethingunusual when he saw i t and for h iscur ios i ty in t ry ing to f ind ou t what i t

was. --Enid A. LarsonMAMMAL NOTES

James Wilson, Bishop, climbed Mt. Lamarck(13,417 f t . ) in Sept. 1981. Within 50v e r t i c a l fee t of the summit he observedwhat he iden t i f ied as a pine squ i r r e l(Tamiasciurus); No pines t r ees werec loser than 2 plus miles a t Darwin Lake.

Ed. Note: This would be outs ide of t h i ss q u i r r e l ' s usua l h ab i t a t . Additionalobservation wi l l be welcomed.

SIERRA MARMOT in Big Pine Cyn, th i s year i sagain present a t 7800 feet e l . a f t e r anabsence of 3 consecutive years . Youngappeared the f i r s t week in Ju ly ; 2 youngof- the-season are s t i l l foraging onSisymbrium on Aug. 20 , 1982. No adultsa re s t i l l ac t ive there .

--Enid A. Larson