Spindalis zena.......REINA MORA POR PRIMERA VEZ

Eso de ver, poder identificar un ave de tal hermosura por primera vez en el entorno urbano, pasados los sesenta de edad, ha sido realmente un viaje impresionante e imborrable.

Hay que agradecer a Juan M. Arias, un compatriota del Caribe que habita en Canada,
su constante interes en la flora/fauna, biodiversidad, ecologia de su entorno, que a diario comparte en FB.  Su influencia me obligo a comprar el libro que hizo possible identificar al ave mencionada arriba, una de las mas hermosas de la region y a observer mas cuidadosamente la biodiversidad flora/fauna en el contexto urbano concreto/asfalto predominante en Santurce.

La rareza de no haber avistado el Spindalis zena, nunca antes, se explica en su habitat: bosques de toda altura y montanhas, de acuerdo a Herbbert A. Raffaele, en Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Para terminar, he observado por los ultimos meses, que que tanto aves como insectos tienen sus preferencias, habitos de alimento, lugares para posar, descansar, hacer sus nidos.  Por el momento me limito a las aves. En adicion, que a los canticos de Ruisenhor...que ya no se escuchan....le han seguido los de Pitirre....que no tienen la hermosura de aquel, pero es major que nada.

Chrotophaga ani
Garrapatero

Thevetia peruviana

 

 

Margarops fuscatus
Zorzal

Ochna thomasiana
 

 

Chlrostilbom Maugaeaus
Zumbador

Hibiscus *

Calliandra haemathocephala**

Pseuderantemun reticulatum

 

Coereba flaveola
Reinitas

*

**

 

En el caso de las ultimas, han construido diez
nidos durante el tiempo que llevamos residiendo en la calle Bouret: 3 en el norte en la enredadera Cissus hipoglauca, los demas en el este, y oeste, en Bouganvilleas para un total de diez.

Otros que frecuentan, pero jamas de rama en rama
sino que se posan en el tendido electrico:

Mimus poliglotus
Ruisenhor

Tyrannus dominicensis
Pitirre

Quiscalus niger
Chango

Exhorto a los pajareros, los que observan religiosamente y a los fotografos que hagan el esfuerzo de documentar las aves del entorno urbano, una vez mas.

Aca un enlace con la relacion de vegetacion y aves que frecuentan, habitan o circundan el entorno.

http://noalpendejismopaisajista.blogspot.com/2016/08/sociedad-horticultural-bouret-pajaros.html

 

 

 

 

SOCIEDAD HORTICULTURAL BOURET: PAJAROS DEL ENTORNO URBANO

ESPERE durante una decada que aquellas personas cuyo interes en la avifauna consiste en fotografiar aves que el ciudadano/campesino promedio jamas llegara a ver, en los lejanos jurutungos insulares, montes, costas, playas, mares y oceanos se tomaran la molestia de sentarse en alguna plaza, patio, parque en el contexto urbano, fotografiando, identificando esas aves que son parte de la inmensa mayoria de la poblacion pero no pudo ser....predomina lo otro, las aves de jurutungo, etcetera.

Asi que aqui comparto el comienzo de este proyecto de identificar todo lo que habita o visita nuestro jardin, pero primero el enlace del inventario de la vegetacion en nuestro jardin, el mas documentado del Caribe. 

http://noalpendejismopaisajista.blogspot.com/2016/01/shb-families-botanical-inventory-2016.html



El tema de la avifauna, su estudio no es coconut skin, requiere disciplina, rigurosidad. En mi caso la importancia del jardin, es su relacion con el entorno que me rodea, el urbano.  Lo que colecciono, siembro, propago se decide respecto a la biodiversidad/ecologia/medioambiente, no por capricho.

INVENTARIO MINIMO DE AVIFAUNA EN LA SOCIEDAD HORTICULTURAL BOURET

Tyrannus dominicensis

Margarops fuscatus

 

Cordeiles sundalchii

 

Coereba flaveola puertorricensis *

Lonchura oryzona

 

Chlorostilbon Maugareus

 

Buteo jamaicensis

 

 

Crotophaga ani

 

Columba livia

 

 

Eylampis holosericeus

 

 

 

Orthophyngus cristatus

 

Mimus poliglotos

 

Quisqalus niger

 

Estas aves son las que con mayor frecuencia visitan, se dejan ver muy cerca o a lo lejos en la altura, se escuchan, en ramas de arboles, electrico alambrado o como la que aparece con asterisco. Esta especie ha decidido habitar en nuestro entorno con diez nidos en la ultima decada. La mayoria construidos en ramas de Bouganvillea (7)

(3) en Cissus hypoglauca.

 

Coereba flaveola puertorricensis, es una golosa para las flores, valiente, territorial y en el pasado fui testigo de esto cuando un Eylampis se acerco demasiado mientras un par  de estas disfrutaba del nectar de un arbol difunto.

 

REFERENCIA

 

 

Birds of Puerto Rico and

the Virgin Islands

 

Herbert A. Raffaele

Princeton University Press

1989

 



BOUGANVILLEA SURGERY IN THE NEW SOUTH

AFTER SOME  deliberation, multiple bumps on me head I decided to get rid of this branch for aesthetic, health reasons.  After I started I got a little anxious worried more than necessary about the task.

An hour and 20 minutes later, I was happily done with it. Besides the clean view from either perspective east/west, there is going to be less shade for the plants that have been recently relocated to this corner in the new south.

that is that

A DECADE SHARING A CRITICAL FOCUS IN THE DESERT/OCEAN

I HAVE  taken some photos of the east, north, west side gardens for fun and the kind of feedback one can not get from eyes only at one moment or time. Light makes a powerful difference in any photo of any garden, for example at
9/12/5 PM depending on which cardinal point you are standing, not to get into photograph equipment, something irrelevant to me.  The garden is remarkable or not, period. In me eyes or one or two beyond the enclosure.

I committed the same sins of the average joe/jane six pack in gardening then. Took care of lawns, polluting with noise, fumes, gases, oil/gasoline without thinking of the extreme foolishness of having a garden or working for pay, making life for other flora/fauna and neighbors, miserable or impossible.

However, with constant investigation, research, collecting, planting, propagating and monitoring, I made amends. I decided not to buy plants from silly nurseries selling the exact same crap most gardeners in USA, from Florida and else think is a tropical garden and the owner retards sell in Puerto Rico.

To do that rigorously, consistently, it was necessary to maintain a botanical inventory to know what I have, to share with one or two people so far that have a similar perspective.  

It has been a decade of reading, following blogs, gardening sites in FB, in England, Spain, USA, Australia, India, Mexico and the worst, the isle where I live, Isla Estrella.

In every one of those places the most ignorant people think of a garden as a bunch of flowers in the soil, tomatoes/lettuce, or a pot, a planter.  Much worse is the lack of information on climatic change on one hand, the other is the infantile infatuation with lawns/palm trees.

There is no concept of composition, aesthetics, the flora/fauna in their context urban concrete/asphalt or merely boondocks in the middle of nowhere. Always the same crap from the equally crappy nurseries, no matter latitude/longitude,
geography.

Besides this, there are the edible, medicinal, bromeliads, orchids, roses and you name it freak collectors, forgetting the most simple principle in agriculture...when you have only one species planted in any context without biodiversity, then you have the perfect environment for disease, insect pests.

With 31 botanical families and 60 species there is not such a problem in our garden,http://noalpendejismopaisajista.blogspot.com/2016/01/shb-families-botanical-inventory-2016.html but people have great difficulty to look at the big picture, the environment, the flora/fauna in a biocentric context, not the silly anthropocentric dominating.

Last but not least, I have noticed that no matter the stupid garden or flowers someone his/hers is, the wolf pack will jump to say/write how 'beautiful', 'pretty' the awful photo is...beyond criteria or credentials.  Now I better go...I am worn out.

NEW DK ARRIVALS TO SHB COLLECTION

Usually I do not share photos of creatures in the collection without the botanical name. Let this time be the first.

The yellow flower is a bush/tree that spent almost a decade in a porch without receiving any straight light. It was a present/adoption.

The white flower seems to be some Japanese jasmine, but I will have to research, not sure. Some stems collected during me walks.

The last one is a present from me wife's pedicurist from China, the 'flowers' are cherry red with seeds inside, hard petals, one of the strangest I have seen.

CIUDADELA DESTROYS WHAT SHOULD THEY PAY?

THE 36 Murraya paniculata, planted by some wise, intelligent unknown person in Calle del Parque, Santurce are priceless.

Of the total, 5 in the sidewalk in front of Ciudadela's new 25 stories tower have been damaged by construction workers and scaffold.

Murraya paniculata is one in the top five species  for tropical urban contexts. Their size, shape, flowers, fragrance, beauty, lacking any need for maintenance and above all their age, over 40 years. 

Here is the formula to be used to determine how much Ciudadela should pay for destroying these priceless trees, until you find a better way....

Reference 

 Pirrone's Tree Maintenance

Oxford University Press/2000

Pages 8-11

 

 

Tree Size

 

Tree size is expressed as the number  of square inches calculated for the area of the trunk cross section at 4.5 feet above ground. A price based on cost per unit of trunk area can be determined by calculating the cost per square inch of a transplantable tree. For example, if the cost of a 3-inch diameter tree (cross sectional area of 7 square inches) from the nursery is $300, then

the cost per square inch is about $42.50.  The size based value of a large, 16 inch diameter tree

 (trunk cross section area of 4.5 feet above ground is 201 inches) can be determined by multiplying $42.50 times 201, which computes to $8,545. When trees reach a certain size, additional trunk diameter does not add appreciably to the value, so adjustments need to be made in these calculations.  Also, trees with multiple trunks or low branching require special consideration. These issues are addressed in the guide. The tree value one obtains will need to be adjusted for species condition, and location to make the final appraisal.

 

I am not going to get into,  Tree species, Tree condition and Calculating the Value,  since  Isla Estrella de estatura galactica, Puerto Rico lo hace major, all the above information is irrelevant, meaningless, but for yours truly is an exercise of discipline,  critical, pragmatic, biocentric horticultural practice.

 

Get the book in amazon if you will, you will never regret it..



 

 

 

THE SOUTH SIDE

THE SOUTH SIDE, is narrower than the west and north side gardens, making it one with much more depth with the vegetation in both sides framing it perfectly.

A couple of trees were eliminated for different reasons but  no one can tell the difference...