Has anyone seen these balls of twigs hanging from the telephone wires in some of the towns?
What makes them? Birds? Rodents? Insects?
They look like a smaller version of our tumble weeds. I've never seen anything flying around these things.Bruce R Leech - 7-14-2006 at 09:54 AM
Birds make them.
they are in fact there nests where they live and raise there young.
[Edited on 7-14-2006 by Bruce R Leech]Natalie Ann - 7-14-2006 at 10:00 AM
I've seen those balls on the wires outside Ciudad Constitution. Didn't see any birds, though.Skipjack Joe - 7-14-2006 at 10:19 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by Bruce R Leech
Birds make them.
they are in fact there nests where they live and raise there young.
[Edited on 7-14-2006 by Bruce R Leech]
Which species for birds make them, Bruce?
Are you sure it isn't BALL MOSS?
vgabndo - 7-14-2006 at 10:27 AM
I've read that it grows on power lines in Texas. It is a rootless "epiphytic" plant, kind of like a bromiliad (sp). I think it needs a foggy place so
it can drink from the air.vandenberg - 7-14-2006 at 10:40 AM
They're around Constitution, only place I've ever seen them. Never seen birds around them. Being a plant that feeds out of the air, would explain the
location. Lots of fog in that area.
They're built under contract by...
Mexray - 7-14-2006 at 10:54 AM
...the local Pelicano population to help them avoid runinng into the wires as they wing their way home each evening at dusk!
Keeps the low-flying cropdusters from gettin' hung-up, too!Mike Humfreville - 7-14-2006 at 11:27 AM
I agree with Vgabndo - Norm Roberts shows and discusses Ball Moss on pages 96 and 97 of his Baja California Plant Field Guide, 1989 Edition. Ball
moss apparently attaches itself to cacti - I first noticed it on the road between the Bahia de Los Angeles and San Borja. While it appears to be
parasitic it is reportedly not. It receives its water, etc from the air.Paulina - 7-14-2006 at 01:03 PM
They make lovely Christmas ornaments when spray painted silver and hung from fishing line from your palapa.
My dad told me so.
P.<*)))><Sallysouth - 7-14-2006 at 01:15 PM
We Nomads had a thread on these little balls o stuff some time ago.They are a type of Bromeliad, thriving off the fog in the area that Constitution is
so famous for.NOT bird nests, sorry Bruce.
Grapes, artichokes and avacados
Sharksbaja - 7-14-2006 at 01:29 PM
love fog and sun . Do they grow any of these crops there commercially?Bruce R Leech - 7-14-2006 at 02:54 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Sallysouth
We Nomads had a thread on these little balls o stuff some time ago.They are a type of Bromeliad, thriving off the fog in the area that Constitution is
so famous for.NOT bird nests, sorry Bruce.
Sallysouth I new you guys would figure it out.Mexitron - 7-15-2006 at 12:35 AM
Sharks--maybe table grapes, I think its too hot, despite the fog, for growing the good wine grapes...soil's not right either. Artichokes probably
like cooler weather too. Avocados?Sallysouth - 7-16-2006 at 07:47 PM
Ya got me on that one Bruce.Frank - 7-16-2006 at 10:09 PM
