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Weekly Observations
Jul 31 - Aug 6, 2005

Another fine week in Chapala and vicinity. The palm trees that produce clusters of yellow fruit (just one of several species of palm that grow here) are fruiting. The fruit clusters grow just under the crown, so on mature trees they are very high up, such as those on the grounds of the Cazadores Restaurant in downtown Chapala. If you can gather them, I'm told they make very good jam. I've tasted the sweet pulp from them in the past and think they could be put to many of the same uses as figs, though I suppose dates might be a more appropriate comparison.

There is a very pretty parasitic plant flowering now. It seems to prefer Guamuchil trees, and has spidery orange flowers. Probably some sort of Mistletoe (Psittacanthus spp.) though it doesn't much resemble the English sort used at Christmas. I'll have to watch to see if it develops berries. The photo is from a specimen seen in a guamuchil tree in Mirosol, there are others throughout the north-shore Lake Chapala area.

The ground squirrels that inhabit our neighbors yard have been growing fat on the avacados that they feed on there. I have also seen them eating flowers, and climbing into a small tree, though mostly they stay on the ground near their hidey-hole to which they repair when they see or hear anything. Very skittish creatures. About the size of common grey squirrels from up north, they are dark grey on the back with lighter fur underneath. Although they look just like our northern squirrels, they behave very differently, rarely climbing and living in holes underground. There is a colony of these critters living at the base of the breakwater along Milagro Park in Chapala.