With the onset of summer, the climate of the chaparral biome can be characterized as hot and dry, with temperatures reaching 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Blue Sky’s organisms must adjust to these and other challenges to thrive and survive.
Rattlesnakes
Being ectothermic, rattlesnakes cannot regulate their body temperature. If the environmental temperature reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it is too hot for them to be out in the open and can, in fact, prove lethal. To prevent overheating, rattlesnakes must hide during the hottest and driest time of the day in carefully selected retreats, such as rock crevices, burrows, or thick brush, and are usually only active between dusk and dawn.
CHALK DUDLEYA
This beautiful rosette-shaped succulent, with its white, waxy, powdered covered leaves, has a unique adaptation for the hot and dry conditions of summer. During the rainy season, it grows new leaves at its base which store water. When summer arrives and rainwater is unavailable, it draws water from these leaves. This causes them to shrivel up and become paper-like.
Acorn Woodpecker
This iconic bird of Blue Sky faces a different summer challenge - not heat but food. Storing acorns in tree trunks during fall provides food for the winter but in summer the woodpeckers must switch to capturing flying insects as a favored food source. They will also eat fruit, sap, and oak catkins and visit backyards to feed on flowers, suet and nectar from hummingbird feeders.
Summer Flowering Plants
Some of Blue Sky’s plants also face a different challenge - not heat or lack of food, but competition. When we think of flowers blooming, we usually think of spring (March, April, and May) but some plants wait until summer to bloom. Why? The answer is pollinators. There are only so many bees, butterflies, wasps, and hummingbirds to go around! If all the plants in Blue Sky produced flowers at the same time, animals that help them reproduce can’t get to them all. Those plants will therefore not produce seeds, and without seeds, the species will die out.
By blooming in summer (June, July, and August) pollinators can visit them which allows the plant to reproduce. There are advantages to being a “late bloomer”!